Interview by Wout de Natris
© WoNo Magazine 2013
Recently Atlantic Attraction made the pages of this blog with a post on the new EP release party, followed by a review of 'Home' itself. We decided to follow this up with an interview. Here's what the band has to say to our questions.
As not all readers may be familiar with Atlantic Attraction, how would you like to introduce yourself?
We (Kevin,
Arend, Joris & Sibren) are a guitar-rock band from Leiden, Holland. We started
the band around three years back and have played over 150 live show. We just
release our debut EP in April and are currently preparing for the upcoming
festival summer.
There is a story behind the band name, I
understand and what made you want to identify yourself with this brand?
Well, the
name is derived from the album ‘Plans’ by Death Cab For Cutie. This album was
released by record label ‘Atlantic Records’ and we wanted a connection between
our band name and this specific album. Mostly because listening to this album
was the main reason for us to play the music that we play now.
The band is together for a few years now. How
did you meet?
Originally
we were all in different bands before we started Atlantic Attraction. The four
of us were close friends from back in high school and most of the former bands fell
apart right before we decided that we had to join forces and start this band
together.
The songs on ‘Home’ all have intricate
arrangements between the guitar parts, bass and drums. How is a typical
Atlantic Attraction song arranged and who is responsible for what?
Most of the
times Kevin come to the rehearsal room with a general idea. If we all like it, we
start to make it into an Atlantic Attraction song. Sometimes the song is
written in one or two days, but ‘Another One Saved’ took almost 30 rehearsal
sessions before we all agreed on the song.
What comes first the music or the lyrics?
Always
music. We start with the lyrics when the music part of the songs is finished.
We find it important that the lyrics have the same feel as the music. The music
might still change after the lyrics are made, but for some reason we all stick
to this way of working.
In my review of ‘Home’ I mentioned several
possible influences, but who are your favorite artists and in which ways do
they find themselves into your music?
The
inspiration sources changed over the years. When we started our biggest
inspiration sources were Death Cab For Cutie and Two Door Cinema Club. They
changed over the years to bands like The Boxer Rebellion, Editors and The
National. We do not like copying others'
music, but we do let others influence out music. So we normally start of by
saying, Lets write a … Song this time, or can be have a feel as they have in a …
song.
If each of you were allowed to play one cover
during a show, what would the song be?
Kevin: Pamela, by Toto
Joris: The Gospel of Goro Andachi, by The Boxer
Rebellion
Arend: Purple Rain, by Prince
Sibren: Two Weeks, by Grizzly Bear
I read somewhere that you entered a Kensington competition.
What is your motivation to do so?
We had the
chance of playing as the supporting band in Kensington’s show at Tivoli. As we
know the guys, we thought it would be a fun competition to enter.
In the title song you sing “this is your house,
this is not our home”, a lyric about alienation and blaming others, or in other
words, and this is my interpretation, not taking one’s life in one’s own hands.
What is the message in ‘Home’?
Joris wrote
the lyrics to this song. He was quiet frustrated at the time. He was living in
an apartment in The Hague. When his college friends moved out, he asked his
girlfriend to move in with him. She started changing all his favorite things
about his house and after a while he had the feeling it was not his house
anymore, but somebody else’s.
The chorus of ‘Pigs might fly’ touches on
achieving the unachievable. Does Atlantic Attraction try to aim for the highest
achievable?
Most
definitely! We always aim high and we believe that this is the reason that we
accomplished what we currently have.
What influences you most while writing lyrics?
This sounds
a bit cliché, but it’s the situations that we come across during our daily
lives, movies we see and stories we hear.
The artwork on stage and the album are
eye-catchers. What can you tell us about the artist?
The artist
is Jonat Deelstra. He is a very talented artist form Amsterdam. We especially
like him because of all his drawings tell stories by themselves.
In general a lot of attention is given to
presentation around the music. How important is this to the band?
We like to
believe that a show is a full package. Of course music is number one, but
people that come to our shows want to see and experience more than what they
can hear on a CD.
The band released a new EP, ‘Home’, recently,
is asked to play at Werfpop this summer. Where do you want to be say two years
from now?
In two
years we would really love to play at Lowlands Festival. Also we would like to
play more outside of the Netherlands and be able to play music as a fulltime
job.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
We are
currently working on material for our debut album, so currently we won’t be
playing as much live shows as before. But after the summer we’ll be touring
again in All of The Netherlands and hopefully outside as well.
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