Atolls.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Psychy Surfy.

When I first heard Atolls via the wonderful wide world web, I fell instantly in love with the ‘fuzzy-wuzzy-layered-surfy-psych played through some sort of old speakers that have broken in a beautiful way’ sound. Of course I already knew that this band was going to be great, the side project of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Bassist Lucas Skinner takes you on a mumbley journey through your own mind and spits you out on the other side feeling warm and fuzzy.

Xave: All right, should we talk about Atolls?

All: Sure!

Xave: Sam, Lucas and Oli. Where did this all come from, this whole Atolls thing?

Sam: It’s all Lucas

Lucas: Its all me

Xave: All Lucas, did it start with Mumble?

Lucas: Yeah I’ve always like recorded songs by myself and it was just time to start a band with those songs. I’ve always been the bassist in bands and I've played lots of solo stuff but never really pursued it much, and it just felt like it was the right time to get together a band and start working on that. I’ve never had something that I'm writing all the songs for, so this is my little project

Xave: Seems to be going pretty well, you’ve been getting a fair bit of buzz on the Internet with interviews and stuff. Do you think that the popularity of King Gizz has contributed to that?

Lucas: A little bit, I put in brackets that I’m in King Gizz so people can make that connection. And I think its cool, I like to check out what people are in other bands but we’re not trying to ride the coattails or anything like that but definitely a good thing to identify with.

Sam: It’ll be something that’s phased out eventually

Xave: Something you wanna eventually move away from?

Lucas: Well not completely there’s plenty of Melbourne bands that share members like that Al Moorfoot guy who plays in Dick Diver and Total Control

Xave: I’ve noticed that happens with Geelong bands a lot, like everyone is in one band or the other

Lucas: Yeah man and people know this too and identify it and get an idea of the sounds that move between two bands. Definitely some of the sounds of Gizzard have influenced me a bit in this.

Xave: Speaking of the sound, from what I've listened too with mumble/water that its really similar to Dinosaur Jr.

Lucas: A lot of people have been saying that.

Oli: It wasn’t intentional

Lucas: Haha, yeah I've listened to like 2 dinosaur Jr. songs

Sam: Yeah I downloaded a bunch of it..After people said we sound like it

Xave: Definitely not a bad thing to be attributed too

Lucas: Yeah I just haven’t gotten around to listening to it, there’s so much music out there these days

Sam: It’s a chore

Xave: Yeah its like homework or study

Lucas: Yeah

Xave: So you put out the single mumble/water, are there any rustlings of an album or something like coming up?

Lucas: We've got an Ep like 5-6 songs that we wanna do next year. Probably just gonna do home recordings again.

Sam: We’ll probably just record everything we've got and then choose from that

Xave: They sounded really great to me.

Lucas: Yeah was really surprised with how well they turned out.

Sam: I kinda prefer the sound of home recording, like the quality of it.

Lucas: Yeah I think those tracks have clarity, its not like lo-fi you can still hear everything. We wanted Stu (king Gizzard) to help out with the recording and one of the two days we did it he was just hungover sleeping on the couch. So I just tried to do it myself, just pluggin’ shit in and stuff

Oli: Yeah when you were out he was just lying on the ground

Xave: Have many people been buying them? With the compilation tapes and stuff

Lucas: Yeah we have a couple of pre-orders for the compilation tapes and digital downloads.

Xave: I bought one of those digi ones

Lucas: Yeah I saw that haha!

Xave: I don’t have a tape player so…yeah

Lucas: Tapes are sick, I’ve a tape player in my car and the sound is so good.

Xave: Tapes are like, the ultimate alternative listening medium, you needa get one of those little tape walkmans.

Oli: I used to have one those, but it kept eating tapes.

Xave: That sucks

Lucas: Yeah, the compilation tape has like, the singles and then some songs that I’ve recorded and one that Oli’s done that are kind of like backups to give an idea of where Atolls are coming from.

Oli: Haha my song was kinda just a loop that I did with an Iphone, or maybe it was a microphone.

Xave: Iphones seem to be relevant recording device these days

Lucas: Yeah they’re sweet, the new ones have really good compressors. We always do it when write a song, just chuck it in the middle of the room, just to help remember the song.

Xave: Iphone 5, plug

Lucas: Buy them now!

Xave: Does one of you guys have an iphone 5?

Lucas: Sam does

Sam: Yeah…I'm one of those guys

Lucas: I’ve just got an old Nokia, with a torch

Sam: Does it have snake?

Lucas: Soccer league, cricket cup, Nature Park. That’s it

Xave: That’s shit

Xave: So you’re playing at the Old Bar in Melbourne (already happened) and maybe The Nash. But it looks like that wont happen (now happening at the Barwon Club on the 26th) the entire front is closed off and only the backroom is open.

Sam: We’ll have to launch the single somewhere

Oli: We’ll launch it into space!

Xave: What about the chicken shop

Lucas: Haha chicken shop was rad

Xave: That was where I saw my first Lucas Skinner show, with Sambrose Automobile. About 4 years ago haha

Lucas: Chicken shop nights were great

Oli: How was the Chicken

Lucas: The chicken was actually so good

Xave: You guys got any chicken shop or Nash stories?

Lucas: Chicken shops stories!? Haha!

Xave: Maybe just Nash stories? Seeing as its getting closed down

Lucas: I’ve been playing there since I was 16, it think it was kinda just a competitive nature to see who could have a good night there with their band or something.

Sam: Everyone knows everyone

Lucas: It was just a great place, no one got get judged and it was real chilled

Xave: There was so many different types of people there

Lucas: And so many people would go there and be like scared and shit cos there was metal heads there or something. But that’s just he Nash

Xave: What about that Old Guy who’s always there? I like to call him ‘Dad’

Lucas: Yeah, there’s some regulars who definitely are losing a significant place in their life. Probably go to Spewies. Its really sad, but at the same time it’s the end of an era and we’re spoilt for venues in Melbourne so everything is gonna be okay.

Xave: Anything else happening with the band?

Lucas: Ahh we’ve got a few gigs coming up which are:

Nov 1st @ Yah Yahs with Quivers and Citradels

Nov 10th - The Tote (Eagle and the Worm EP Tour)
Nov 30th - The Gasometer (Heavy Beach 10" Launch)

Xave: You guys are doin' alright for a band that hasn’t actually played any gigs yet

Sam: Yeah we haven’t actually played a gig yet

Xave: I remember for a while I was talking to people about you guys being all like ‘aww yeah this band Atolls that are coming out I haven’t actually heard anything of theirs but they sound like they’re gonna be sick’

Lucas: Haha! It took a while so we’re pretty keen to get this Ep out at some point and then probably go to Sydney, I look forward to touring with this band, because touring with gizzard is so hard with 7 dudes and with this band we’ll all be able to fit in the same car. So Sydney will be good, little trip for the boys. We should get hats

Xave: You guys have t-shirts don’t you?

Sam: Yeah, Lucas fucked up like all of them.

Lucas: Most of them. We just made a stencil and sprayed bleach onto them haha

Oli: Just ruining t-shirts for people to buy

Xave: Unless people don’t, then it’s a waste of money

Lucas: Wastin' mah hard earned money

Xave: Have you guys put a bit of your own money into this?

Sam: Mostly Lucas’

Xave: Dippin’ into the King gizzard funds?

Oli: Haha, just skimming off the top

Lucas: Yeah we’ve all put our own money into, like when I hand over money I don’t feel annoyed or anything and hopefully it’ll come back one day.

Xave: It’s a cutthroat industry you’re into here

Lucas: We’re not in it for the money though

Oli: I am.

Lucas: You’re not getting any

Xave: Haha! All right guys, I think that’s good, thanks

All: No worries

http://www.facebook.com/atollsband

http://soundcloud.com/atolls

Pat Wilson.

Shitty Country Folk Songs.

This young upstart is the kind of guy you want your daughters to marry. This handsome and friendly lad writes country/ folk. And not only does he write it, he also plays it. Did I mention that this country folk that he both writes and plays is also very good? Well I have now.  Now I’m not the kind of person who listens to a lot of country, folk or a combination of the two. But when I flung Pat’s Ep into the CD player of my car I knew I was in for a treat. With a serenading voice akin to Jesus and mad skills on the acoustic guitar and/or harmonica this guy is good. You should all buy his music. 

Now.

Xave: Hello Pat

Pat: Hello Xave

Xave: how are you today?

Pat: I’m fine, how are you

Xave: I’m doin' pretty good

Xave: So I heard you’ve been writing some songs

Pat: Yeah I have been, writing and recording some stuff

Xave: What kind of songs are we talking here?

Pat: Umm its bit country a bit folk

Xave: A bit…good?

Pat: Nah not really, haha

Xave: Right on, so you’ve been writing shitty country, folk songs.

Pat: Yeah i'm basically trying to appeal to no one

Xave: That’s the way to go about it I've heard. What kind of musician's are inspiring you in this musical endeavour?

Pat: I’ve been listening to a lot of Neil Young and Simon and Garfunkel, lots of toe tappin' rhythms and harmonica, that kind of thing

Xave: Oh you play a bit of harmonica too? Got one of those neck things, so you can play guitar at the same time?

Pat: Haha yeah I've got one of those

Xave: And playing live gigs too?

Pat: Yeah I’ve been doin' Jack n Jill’s annnnd... that’s about it.

Xave: Didn’t you play at Beav's once?

Pat: Oh yeah I played there once about a month ago

Xave: Getting any money out of this to help you take it further? Cos you put an Ep out recently didn’t you?

Pat: Yeah I did that and that’s been good for some cash flowwwww, and once I sell all the copies I have of that I'm gonna come out with a new single.

Xave: Hit new single! Top 40’s stuff

Pat: Nah, cos its shit.

Xave: Of course, how do you go about writing these songs?

Pat: I'm not much of a storyteller so I write songs about shit that happens to me, and a lot of them are really bad, but some are not so bad.

Xave: What would be your favourite song you’ve written?

Pat: Umm, tough one but probably Ryan the Moth. It’s about a moth, and his name Ryan.

Xave: Something to do with our good friend Ryan Clover?

Pat: Yeah he helped me write it, and its loosely based on him.

Xave: How so?

Pat: Well it’s just his name.

Xave: Oh, so very loosely based.

Pat: Yeah other than the name there’s not really any other connection. But yeah it’s about a moth that likes lights and has a friend who’s a bumblebee. The bumblebee doesn’t really get that much of a mention though

Xave: Just a really low, sub-character in the song?

Pat: Yeah that’s it

*Some completely off track conversation that is of no benefit to anyone ensued after this*

Xave: okay we got a bit off track there, what other musical stuff have you done? Didn’t you used to play drums in a punk band?

Pat: Aha! Yeah Hole in the Shoe, and I don’t play drums anymore because I can’t be bothered setting up my kit.

Xave: And everyone knows you can’t score if you play drums.

Pat: Yeah man cos you’re up the back and no one can see you haha

Xave: Did you score when you played at Jack n Jill’s last?

Pat: For the purpose of this interview, yes. Yes I did.

Xave: Ladies! Check him out! He plays guitar.

*We proceeded to get distracted by a dog pooping on the beach*

Xave: I’m glad we did the interview here

Pat: Yeah its good, that’s guy’s kite boarding. Kite boarding is lame. That’s like standing on a skateboard holding a kite.

Xave: More questions! What are most of your songs about?

Pat: Generally they’re about girls because I have no imagination.

Xave: Oh are they heartbreak songs?

Pat: Yeah man

Xave: Bitches.

Pat: Yeah, bitches.

*Again we get distracted, this time by the kite boarders*

Kite boarding is so lame man, they should just surf.

Xave: Do you surf?

Pat: I used too but now I don’t.

Xave: Its cos you don’t have blonde hair isn’t it?

Pat: Yeah I actually can’t believe that I live in Torquay and used to surf but I don’t have blonde hair.

Xave: Yeah did you have an accident or something?

Pat: Probably

Xave: Okay I've run out of questions, anything else we should add? Are you playing anywhere anytime soon?

Pat: Umm, I don’t think so. But ill let you know. But I've been recording and I've just finished the A-side of that and it’s goin' really good.

Xave: Oh you’re one of those vinyl guys. Right on!

Pat: Yeah I thought it would be cool to do.

Xave: It’s a very cool thing to do. Vinyl is good.

Pat: Thanks man

Xave: Thank you, we’re done here. Bye Pat

Pat: Bye Xave.

http://www.facebook.com/pathamiltonwilson

http://soundcloud.com/pat-wilson