Interview met Atlantic Attraction for WoNo Magazine’s blog post

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.