Introducing…Atlantic Aftermath
Hey Josh. So you guys are still in high school, right?
Yeah, I go to Horizon, Mike [Hayes, voclas] goes to Saguaro and Eli [Fabrega, bass] and Jake [Fried, drums] go to Chaparral.
Why did you decide to start a band?
We started the band a little less than a year ago with the intention of making original music. We all love music and wanted to do something bigger than what we previously have done. It became more of a serious project as it progressed.
What's your sound like?
We’re a pop punk band with some hardcore influences. We have incorporated the catchy pop punk vocals and bright feel and combined it with breakdowns and a couple of heavier elements.
What bands have influenced you?
I would have to say A Day to Remember, New Found Glory and The Wonder Years. It changes all of the time though cos we all listen to so many different genres.
What made you choose the name Atlantic Aftermath?
To be honest, I don’t know. Somehow the name was brought up and it just stuck. However, we frequently make up stories for what it could possibly mean in case we are ever asked. They range from stories about the end of the world to stories related to after math class. Clearly, it gets out of hand!
You've got 6,000 fans on Facebook. How did that happen?
Myspace was our main promotional site for a long time and at one point it started becoming useless. Let’s face it, MySpace is dead. Seeing as Facebook was responsible for the decline in teenagers’ grades, we thought this would be a good place to promote. We made it our goal to get 1000 fans. We were suggesting the page to friends and bugging other people to do the same. It grew faster than we expected and we are really thankful for that.
What was your first live show like?
Our first live show was interesting. It was at a place called Chaser’s that was in a part of town I’d never been to. It looks like a stereotypical, sketchy biker bar straight out of a movie. We played with some really sick bands though. In retrospect, I’m not sure if we did good or bad but it was a really fun show. We all got home and really wanted to play another one.
Have you ever had any bad live experiences?
A while back we played a show at a venue called Badlands. The actual venue is really cool but this place is about an hour away from our side of town. We were one of the first bands booked for the show so we didn’t really know who we were playing with. It turns out that all of the other bands were these intense death metal bands. So there we were trying to appease the musical palette of a bunch of bearded metal heads. We were definitely out of place but we laughed about it later.
What band would you love to support on tour?
This is a difficult one because there are so many! Personally, I would really like to go on tour with The Wonder Years. They are a smaller band but they seem super chill and it would be a great tour. I would also love to open for A Day to Remember because they are the band that got me into this genre of music and that would definitely be a big tour.
What are your musical guilty pleasures?
For me, it would have to be Katy Perry. She is catchy. Don’t judge! In fact, we may have possibly tried covering a song once… Moving on…. I know Mike is into some T Swift, Eli listens to some old school Irish punk, and Jake definitely has the Jonas Brothers on his iTunes.
As a band, what are your worst habits?
As you have probably already noticed, we tend to make jokes that only we find funny. Mike randomly eats paper and Jake is addicted to wearing girl socks.
Would you ever try out for a reality talent show like American Idol?
No, from what I’ve heard you need to be talented for those.
What are your New Year's resolutions?
I haven’t really made any yet but this is a good reminder. It will probably be something about staying focused senior year and getting a lot done with the band and our album release.
Where do you hang out in your spare time?
We usually hang out at Jake or Eli’s house and engage in various shenanigans. Some other common hangout spots include Chipotle, PV Mall, Guitar Center, Desert Ridge, and the local rollerblading rink.
What's the best thing about living in Arizona? And the worst?
The best things are that this is home and you are forced to be creative to entertain yourself. The worst thing is the summer weather.
Check out Atlantic Aftermath online, and listen to some songs, at Facebook.com/atlaftermath
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This page was last modified on 28 December 2010 at 13:12
