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James: “How are you enjoying your time in Britain?”
Kris: “It’s been really great. All the shows have been sold out, fucking great crowds, and we’ve met a lot of really cool people. We’re stoked to be over here. The show in London last night was exceptionally great, we really had a good time there, at the Astoria.”
“You have a song about blowing Britain ‘off the map’, what’s all that about?”
K: “It was in good humour, poking fun at Oasis and Bush because those are two bands that I extremely hate. It was just aimed at the pretentious bands like Morrisey that come from England, it’s nothing about the kids from Britain or anything, I mean, we love all the people that we’ve met over here.”
“Is your new record typical Ataris?”
K: “It kind of picks up where Blue Skies left off. It’s a little bit more dynamic and the songs are a little bit more intricate, there’s even some piano and cello on there. It’s still punk and it’s still fast but it’s just more technical and better written.”
“How would you describe your sound?”
K: “I guess we’re emotionally charged power-pop with a punk attitude, or some gay shit like that, I dunno!”
“What about the live experience?”
K: “It’s a full audience participation vibe, y’know? We like to have it where the crowd sings along, gets up onstage and becomes part of the show because if it wasn’t for all of our fans and everyone in the crowd, we would be nothing. We’d just like everyone to know that we’re just the most down to earth band. We like to come out and talk to everybody and hang out, there’s no rock star bullshit in our band whatsoever.”
“Do you agree with Fat Mike’s attitude of not talking to anybody?!?”
K: “No, I’m the complete opposite. I know Fat Mike personally and he’s a great fucking guy so I don’t want to say anything against him. I just know that he doesn’t like doing a lot of interviews just because, like he wrote in ‘Pump Up the Valuum’, he’s had a lot of people try to slag shit about NOFX and honestly, NOFX are one of the most punk rock bands with the most punk rock ethics that I have ever seen. They do everything they can to make sure that they do everything completely 115% punk rock. If he doesn’t like talking to people then that’s fine, but I’m a social bastard, I just love talking to everyone!”
“So what’s influenced the Ataris?”
K: “We’re big fans of the Get Up Kids, the Descendants, All, Jawbreaker as always, Built to Spill, Armchair Martian and MxPx. I could go on and on, there’s so many fucking bands. We like a lot of everything, not just punk stuff.”
“You have a lot of songs about women, are they all really people?”
K: “Yeah, pretty much everything I write is from personal experience. Most of the songs are about one or two different girls that I’ve dated over the last five years and then there’s some that are about people that I liked that just didn’t like me and I was just trying to win their affection by writing a song. Like the girl Whitney in San Diemas (High School Football Rules) was this girl I liked. I had a good time hanging out with her and I wanted her to be my girlfriend, but she had this boyfriend who was just a stupid fucking jerk! But y’know, we never dated and we never ended up going out…”
“So what’s been the best gig you’ve ever played?”
K: “My favourite show that we’ve ever played was probably London last night. I mean, all of our shows are great! I don’t want to brag or anything but luckily all of our shows are great! There’s an occasional show where something’s fucked up but usually now the crowds are just fucking great because they know what an Ataris show is all about. It’s all about getting into the show, becoming part of the show, getting onstage and just going fucking crazy!”
“What are the best parts and worst parts of being in the Ataris?”
K: “The best parts are getting to see the world, meeting our fans and talking to everybody. The worst part is being away from home all the time. They kind of contradict each other because you love being gone but you miss everything you had at home. You just kind of get used to being away but you don’t really have a home, your home is on the road. That’s what the song ‘My Hotel Year’ is all about, just living in hotels, that’s all you ever do.”
“So is Warren (Fitzgerald) from the Vandals as strange backstage as he is onstage?”
K: “Ah no, they’re all completely fucking…normal! They’re just the most down to earth, mellow band we’ve ever toured with. I mean, we’ve toured with MxPx and those guys are rowdier than the Vandals! You wouldn’t believe that but they are!
“Have you ever got into any fights with any of the bands you’ve toured with?”
K: “Our band gets in fights sometimes but we all love each other and we get along good. But other bands, no. There’ve been bands that have talked shit about us but we try to stay away from that, we like every band we’ve ever toured with and we don’t dislike anyone. We hate it when we hear people say ‘Oh fuck the Ataris’. We’ve had bands that we’ve toured with do that and it really bums us out. It’s such a small world, if people talk shit then you’ve just gotta try and ignore it and don’t let it get the best of you. It’s kindda like a song on our new record called ‘Song 13’, it’s like the last song on our upcoming record and it’s about that whole philosophy. You’ve got to turn the other cheek if someone talks shit about you.”
“How did you get involved with Douglas?”
K: “We played with them in New Jersey and we just thought they were a really good band. We were happy that they were playing a show with us over here.”
“And you’re releasing a 7” with them?”
K: “Yeah, we’re doing a split 7” with them. It’s just some songs we’ve already put out but we just wanted to show people that they’re good guys.”
“How did you get involved with Kung Fu Records?”
K: “I gave a tape to the Vandals about four years ago and I was looking for a drummer and asked if they could hook me up with one. They wrote me a letter and said they really liked it and wanted to put it out so I was like ‘Woah, that’s really weird because it was just me and a drum machine and I played everything!’ I called them and talked to them, I was really blown away and I just said ‘Yeah, we don’t have a drummer, it’s just me playing bass and another guy playing guitar.’ So they gave our tapes to some drummers and Lagwagon’s old drummer, Derek called us. He came up to Indiana where I lived at the time and we started the band out there. I moved to California and did the band out there for six months with me, Derek and this guy called Marco who was our old bass player, as a three piece. The band broke up after we’d done a couple of small tours and then I reformed the band with this current line up and we’ve been together for three years.”
“Have you got any plans to move to a bigger label?”
K: “This is our last record on Kung Fu and we’ve got a lot of offers from other indies. We’ve even got offers from majors but we think majors are pretty fucked so we’re trying to stay away from that whole deal. We’re just happy for once to have a lot of options and I’m sure what we do will be good for us. We want to keep the direction the band’s been going in with a completely do it yourself punk rock ethic and at the same time we want to reach wider audiences. You’ve got to continue to grow but we want to do it on our own terms.”
“What do you think about bands like Green Day and Blink 182 who have made it into the mainstream?”
K: “I think all those bands, like Bad Religion and Less than Jake as well, have stayed totally true to themselves. They just did what they would have done on an indie, on a major. For those bands more power to them. If they can do it and they can stay 100% what they were and stay true to what they believe then fuck it! They’re just using a major to reach a wider audience. For bands that get there and then kindda lose sight of things then maybe they need to take a look at what they’re doing and see if they’re really in it for the right reasons. There’s too many bands out there that deserve to reach a wider audience that don’t, and there’s too many shitty bands on the radio and on major labels that so many people are into that I think should just be fucking killed! Like, I dunno there’s so many, Sugar Ray, fucking Limp Bizkit, fucking Smash Mouth, all these fucking shitty bands! That’s why we wrote ‘The Radio Still Sucks’, because of bands like that, and all the crappy songs on the radio.”
“What was it like to work with Joey Cape (Singer with Lagwagon/Guitarist with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.) on your last album?”
K: “It was great, he totally understands what our band wants to sound like. He’s a great friend of ours and we love working with him.”
