An interview with The Ataris...
I’m not gonna lie because I’m not ashamed. I’m ready to come out of the closet to each and every one of my 4 faithful readers. I like The Ataris. No, I’m fucking serious, I like The Ataris. I read a lot of zines, so I can say with a certain degree of certainty that I may be the one zinester in the country to admit to liking them. Oh well, like a good punk rocker, I really don’t give a fuck.
So anyway, when The Ataris released “...Anywhere But Here” some 6 or 7 years ago, it seemed revolutionary. Not in a political way, but in a way that I had never heard before. I’m not gonna say that no one had explored this genre before, but in the years since, there are literally 100's of bands making records that I would describe as “Atari-style-pop-punk”.
Now, I’ve been working on doing an interview with them for a few years now. It’s been set up several times, but never panned out, and it’s almost always been my fault. Then they signed on with a major and I thought that my relationship with them was done, not so. Zero blowoffs, zero attitude. Their first tour through Florida after “So Long Astoria” came out, I got an e-mail inviting me out to check them out and finally do that interview.
So, I went. Dug the show, kinda dug the new disc and was psyched for an interview. I watched the show, took pictures, endured the clubs nazi security, blah, blah, blah.
After their standard concert ending rendition of “San Dimas High School Football Rules” we all headed “backstage”. Kris took off to find us some beverages and I found a comfy spot amongst the handful of other zinesters, photographers, local band dudes and wannabe-bimbo-groupies. No sooner than I asked the first of the many compelling questions I had for the quartet from California, the clubs security came flying in yelling, “Hey, nobody is allowed back here unless they are in the headline band!”. The Ataris thought this was bullshit, and we all agreed. We decided to take the interview to the back parking lot. This seemed like a good idea until we opened the door to find a sea of about 500 teenage fans waiting for the band. I waited patiently with John the guitar player, who noone seemed to recognize. Kris signed autograph after autograph. CDS, tickets, faces, posters, tits, whatever. He posed for pictures, left messages on peoples’ cell phones. I mean, this guy is a fucking saint, there is no way I could deal with more than 10 minutes of this shit and he does it every night in every town. Anyway, long story short, Kris apologized for all this, but didn’t want to be a dick to his fans and blow them off to do an interview. He asked if I could wait till he was done, I didn’t really feel like it cuz I had work the next morning, so I hit the road after he promised to sit down with me at the upcoming Warped Tour.
Anyway, I was pretty ready for this to be an epic interview. I had all the tough questions. Shit like “You’ve always said that your label never changed a thing about your music or anything, is that still true and with your contract, how can you react if they ever do?”. Biting journalism, huh? Here’s another. “There are so many bands out there mimicking your sound, who were you trying to rip off when you started out?”. Yep...One more. “Do you get more out of touch not selling your own tee-shirts and merch?”. Now, I know that being “Teen Idols” they can’t, but I still wanted to ask. I had more, I was gonna touch on Vegetarianism, Richard Hell, The Replacements, Kurt Cobain, why they start every show with “Your Boyfriend Sucks”, Columbia, parenthood, fame, everything. Anyway, there’s a reason why I don’t have responses to any of these questions. I never asked ‘em. Once again, my Ataris interview didn’t really happen. I headed to Warped Tour with a full bag of camera gear, plenty of film, like 10 extra micro cassettes, but NO FUCKING TAPE RECORDER!!!! Plus no one there would let me borrow one. Anyway, when I was younger, my mom worked as a legal secretary. She taught me shorthand, it really fascinated me, and I thought I would remember it forever. I didn’t.
So after years of planning, I finally did an interview with the Ataris. Except, it was with Mike, the Ataris bassist, who wasn’t even in the band when first I heard them. In my well thought out plan, I was talking to Kris, the Ataris vocalist and founder. Since I wasn’t prepared, I didn’t complain. I was gonna do this no matter what and I’d do my best with what they give me. Still, I didn’t plan on wasting my mega-poignant questions on him. For one, I plan on interviewing the whole band with a recording device real soon. Two, I really didn’t want to risk the chance of him giving me super philosophical responses, and me not getting them down. I tried to keep things to yes and no, and barely kept up with that.
Anyway, here goes, an interview with Mike, veteran bass player for California’s Ataris.
SHZ-I’m really sorry, but I forgot my tape recorder. I guess we could still have a little chat, but don’t expect a full on interview.
Mike-Hey, whatever. I’m hear to chat, on tape or not.
SHZ-Good, just talk slow...How is the Warped Tour doing this time around?
Mike-It’s great. The best show ever, every day. Seriously, we did a little of the tour last year, the whole thing two years ago. We’re like old pros at this now, it’s fun, relaxing, great. Two years ago it was us, AFI, Rancid, Less Than Jake and we’re all back this year, so it’s familiar. We’re having fun.
SHZ-So who are you taking under your wing and who are fucking with?
Mike-Well, they’re off the tour now, but we definitely took Damone under our wing and really helped them out. Who are we fucking with-The Starting Line for sure!
SHZ-What, when, why and how?
Mike-The Starting Line has had a really quick rise to fame. They’ve had a bit of an easier time than most bands here, less dues to pay. Basically, they deserve to be fucked with and we just elected ourselves to do it.
SHZ-Is that hateful or playful?
Mike-There’s no hate, their bass player lived with me and Kris in California for a while so we’re friends, but we still fuck with them.
SHZ-Examples...
Mike-Well, we can’t flush on our bus, so we have to shit in a bag. Let’s just say that our bags of shit end up around their bus a lot...
SHZ-So, do you know where you are today? I saw John earlier this morning and he was in a semi-stupor-he had no idea where we were...
Mike-St.Pete, Florida! I know exactly where we are, but it’s 4 in the afternoon now-I should know by now.
SHZ-Other than St. Pete, Florida, of course, where are your favorite places to play?
Mike-I just love to play live, anywhere, but my favorites are definitely Australia-Melbourne has been great to us, and of course at home in Santa Barbara, we never get to play there enough.
SHZ-All right, enough about all this band crap, I really just want to know about your record store. We are planning on opening one real soon, and I want to pick your brain about that a little. It’s kind of interesting to me, so many people in bands start labels, but not so many open stores.
Mike-Yeah sure, our store is called “Down On Haley”. The name basically comes from the fact that is located down on (East) Haley Street in Santa Barbara.
SHZ-Was it always a plan of yours to open the store?
Mike-I think it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s funny how it happened. We had lost our practice space and Kris and I were looking for a new one. We found this spot that had a storefront and an apartment. It was perfect for us and we looked at each other and said “Lets open a record store!”. It took us about 8 months to clean the place up and all that in order to open. In the beginning, it was basically an over glorified Ataris merch table. We did the whole thing with like $25,000.00 which is like nothing when you think of a normal business opening up. That was right after the “End Is Forever” LP came out and before we signed to Columbia. We were pretty broke, we had to hit up like 50 people to come up with that much.
SHZ-Was it worth it?
Mike-Hell yeah. I love it! I miss the store when we’re on tour. I call over there every day, or every other day at least just to see how things are going. My buddy, (whoops, can’t read his name in my notes) runs the store when we’re out.
SHZ-Any advice for someone like me with dreams of opening a store?
Mike-Do it because you love it, but don’t expect to make money. We lost money with the store for like 2-1/2 years. Only since “So Long” has come out have we started to come close to breaking even. We still have yet to make a buck. It’s a passion of ours, really, we’ve toured, made some money and then put it all right into the store. I wish more people would get into this, opening a store. To me, it’s the biggest fucking shame that so many of the old stores have died off. That they’ve been put out of business by the corporate record stores. They’re as bad as commercial corporate radio. These chain stores basically tell people what to buy and what to listen to based on what they chose to sell, what they get in bulk. It’s really awful to see all those great old indie stores die off, it’s really awful to think of all the kids who grow up without a good indie store to shop at and learn about new music, like what we had when we were kids. I do love our store, I love indie stores, when we’re on the road- it’s really a lost art.
SHZ-So what sells best?
Mike-Well us, but thats basically because thats all we had to sell when we first started. We have a pop punk type clientele. The Fat bands sell well. Less Than Jake, NOFX, Mad Caddies... Rancids’s another big seller. I don’t think thats unique to us, they sell a lot of records.
SHZ-Do a lot of people come in to the store just cuz they’re Ataris fans? Mike-Yeah, that used to be the only reason anyone came in. Our die-hard fans were our only customers.
SHZ-Damn, my hand hurts trying to keep up... Let’s switch gears a little. You guys are on TV like freaking crazy. People I work with know who you are and these people are real out of touch. What has been your best experience on the tube?
Mike-Conan O’Brien without a doubt! He’s a bro to us, a really great guy. We were all big fans of his, we were psyched to be on the show and he treated us real great.
SHZ- So does he get up there and check it out when you’re playing?
Mike-Yeah! He stood behind a curtain right out of the camera’s view. He stood there with his arms folded, rocking out, watching every second, it was great.
SHZ-Thats cool, we love Conan and try to mention him in every issue. I’d send a shout out telling every band that they should do his show, but I don’t think it’s that easy...
SHZ-Well, I don’t want to be accused of wasting a rock star’s time, so we’ll end this thing. We need to close this according to a formula. How about you give me 5 words to live by?
Mike-Stay true to yourself.
SHZ-I think yourself is one word.
Mike-It’s gonna be two words today... Thanks for the interview, I hope you enjoy the show and we’ll hook up again some day.
Well, the interview nearly caused us to miss Rancid, that wouldn’t have been cool. It didn’t, but please forgive me if I missed a word here and there. There may have been a little paraphrasing going on. Anyway, as far as enjoying the show...John, their friendly and not often recognized guitar player snuck me, Marlene, Darvey, Richard and Dan all up on stage for the show. No surprises, they started with “Your Boyfriend Sucks”, they ended with “San Dimas High School Football Rules” and in between they covered Don Henley. The crowd dug it, there was a pop-punk wave of perhaps 2000 people out there. The haters were present, too. After the 1st song, a bottle barely missed Kris’ face. “You missed, you fuckin pussy” he laughed as they started the next tune. Meanwhile, Hoss(?), Kris’ brother(?)the blonde haired roadie is freaking out. Apparently, the Warped Tour had some kind of ludicrous ban on swearing and he was a little worried. “Fuck you!” Kris screamed, unconcerned. My thoughts exactly. I like The Ataris. You think that makes me an idiot, an asshole? FUCK YOU!!!!
The Ataris are web savvy and have a little site-www.ataris.com
They claim they still actually respond to their snail mail, try them on that
@The Ataris~P.O. Box 23509~Santa Barbara, CA 93121.
You could also visit their retail store, Down On Haley @ 414 East Haley Street in Satan Barbara.
I do realize this interview will take away what little indie-cred I may have had. Oh well. This really wasn’t meant as an endorsement or an attempt at supporting a major label, I just wanted to interview a fascinating band. I had never interviewed, (in 15 years of writing zines), a major label band, but I’d probably do it again, so go ahead and boycott me know. Anyway, I would encourage you to check out their back catalogue, but don’t give Columbia your money. If you interested in their new music, find a zinester like me with a promo copy of “So Long Astoria” and I’ll be pleased to burn you one. Take that Metallica!!!
Oh, one more post note, this a message to fellow zinesters: Be prepared and be professional when interviewing indie punk rawk bands. Bring extra batteries and have questions ready. These guys and gals have lives that they’re putting on hold to talk to you. On the other hand, if you choose to interview a major label band-by all means, forget your equipment, forget how to speak, wet your pants, drool uncontrollably-on yourself and on them, forget who they are, insist that they are in fact MC Hammer no matter what they say, ask for a loan, ask for a beer, ask for a job, whatever...They deserve it.
By the way, The Ataris are: Kris Roe on guitars and vocals. John on guitar and backing vox, Mike on bass and backing vox and Chris on drums.
For more info on the band, check their website, Ataris dot com or their old label, Kung Fu Records.
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