Great! Could not be better.
My first question to you is: how far and in what constellation do ATHEIST
exist again? How does the line - up look by now?
Well, we exist to enjoy these re-issues and turn people on to a form of music that was under
appreciated at the time we were current, and well we also would like to
reunite, ONLY to do a few special shows, non of this trying to re-create the
past bullshit. We are proud of what we have done on those records and really
just want to hear those sounds in the air one last time.
What did finally happen after the tour with BENEDICTION in 1993 / 94? I
guess that has been your final tour up to now?! How did the past ten or
eleven years look like?
Well it was a wrap!! Myself and Rand were at each
others throats, and frankly, no one was supporting our cause, we were
fortunate that BENEDICTION payed for us to be on that tour, and we are
forever grateful to them for that, we had good times and bad as many bands
do, but after losing Roger and then Steve Flynn to college, for me, and for
Rand it was just not the same.
What has been the reason to reform ATHEIST? And how did you get all the band
- members back together?
Well, once again: WE HAVE NOT REFORMED. We would just like to come to Europe and do some shows cause we never really got to Europe with a proper ATHEIST - line up… you know with Flynn on drums!
So that´ s the extent of any reformation, and we will only be doing a few shows, everyone is really busy, so it´s hard
to pull even THAT together, but I sure do hope it happens!
How difficult or successful has it always been playing this very technical,
highly progressive style in the Death Metal - scene that mostly prefers
more simple - structured songs? How many fans could you get with your music
and how far did the people like it?
It´s a well documented fact that I have
stated probably to many times, that it was a tough translation for most
metal fans, but they were intrigued, but confused, until like... 1995 people
started really appreciating technical metal more and more, and then our shit
started to make much more sense to them I would imagine, and so now is the
best time EVER for the music of ATHEIST. I´ll take a legacy over 100,000
records sold ANYDAY!
Are all or some of you trained in Jazz - music? I think that your style of
music can be lead back to that?! Do you personally see ATHEIST more as a
Death Metal or more as a Progressive - band?
No one is "trained" in Jazz. We do appreciate that style of music, but not unlike the appreciation of Metal. We just liked to fuck with people through the arrangements of songs and see
who was smart enough to dig it.
But back then they were few and far between, but we had some die - hards that
"got it", but the situation for that kind of metal today is another ballgame
all together.
Now, that your three albums have been re - released, will you also work on a
new ATHEIST - album? And where do all the bonus - tracks on the re -
releases come from?
No, we will not be doing a new album we will leave that where it lies. It speaks volumes
that it still holds water today, against today´s "technical" metal so why
fuck with it, you know? The bonus tracks are from all of our early demos,
they are painful to listen to unless you´ re a fan of that sort of thing, but I
cannot listen to them cause they are like incomplete sketches. I love to
listen to the remastered versions of the album tracks, as well as the Roger
Patterson demos which to me, is worth the sticker price by itself. Roger was
AMAZING!
I have heard that you are going on a tour next year?! Will you also visit
Germany on that tour? How will it look like?
We hope to!! It just depends on
if the world wants it or not, hopefully people in Germany will rally for an
atheist show in Germany, we are only likely to do a few selected appearances, so
it will be interesting to see what those places will be.
Do you think there will be a good chemistry between all the band - members,
musically and personally? Would you say that ATHEIST is the same band that
is was in the 90´s?
We have grown up A LOT! So we will have a blast, it´s an
entirely different set of circumstances, as well as a different response
from crowds as well, and at the end of the day, we can get through anything
if the shows are great! Me and Flynn and Rand talk quite a lot these days,
and me and Tony have started chatting again recently, so it feels good.
If you could turn back the time to the beginning of ATHEIST in the 80´s, what would you do better? What mistakes would you try to avoid?
Shit man, I am not sure I would change anything except to erase the day we
lost Roger. The decisions we made then were because we were young and stupid
biz wise, and we did not sign with the right label, we had the chance to,
but we chose the wrong deal, and well we paid for it with a lack of support
to nurture our weirdness into the already woven fabric of Death Metal.
Musically, I would not change a thing!
Have you ever watched auctions of ATHEIST - albums on "Ebay"? Before the re
- releases were available, you could have got poor by buying one of the CDs,
at least here in Germany!
That´s exactly how the idea to re-issue the records
came about, cause I was gonna have to pay 100 US dollars for a copy of my
own record online!! That´s insane!
What do you think would Roger Patterson say to your reunion???
Anything that celebrated our music would be welcome by Roger, he would say: "Crank it the
fuck up, and....do you gotta ci garette???” Hahaha!!!
How does the future of ATHEIST look like? What are your plans by now?
Our plan is to turn on all of the new wave of technical Metalheads and just
plain Metal heads onto what we feel is a little piece of history, I think
everyone enjoys a good underdog story, and that´s exactly what ATHEIST has
turned out to be, and it feels good to finally watch that music, and the
appreciation it yields from the Metal community. We just wanna spread the
Metal!
Do you have some final words or statement for your fans here in Germany?
Thank you so very much for your support of our music for all these years,
and we hope to meet you all in Europe 2006!
Stay heavy!
Kelly
www.kellyshaefer.com
