Interview With Kris Roe of THE ATARIS
By Kevy-D
This interview was conducted at the Ataris/Lagwagon/Vandal's show at Cat's Cradle (NC) a couple months ago… The following is a transcript (done to the best of my ability) of the Q&A session I had with the lead vocalist and guitarist, Kris Roe:
Kevy-D: All right, I'm here with Kris from the Ataris, how ya doin' Kris?
Kris: A-okay, sir.
Kevy-D: Cool, so I just got a couple questions for you…first of all, how's the tour?
Kris: The tour is very, very swell. We've been out for about a week and a half now, we got about two or so months to go, we're getting ready to go to Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and do some headlining shows, and then were gonna be back here on the warped tour, and we'll be doing our headlining tour in the fall.
Kevy-D: I guess the question on everyone's mind is what's up with the Apple commercial?
Kris: Well, this is the deal: we had just opened a record store in Santa Barbra, and the day of the opening, we we're getting everything ready and I get this call from my label like, "Hey Apple's trying to get a hold of you", and I'm like "Apple? Like the computer? What do they want to talk to me for? Did I fuckin' rip somebody off?" But they checked out MP3.com and Napster for the most downloaded punk bands, and they saw that we were one of those bands, and they want to use one of your songs, and I'm like "What the fuck are you talking about?" So I call the lady up, and she's like "Yeah we have this new commercial for this new product we're gonna be having"… And I was like "Well what song do you want to use and they we're like "The Radio Still Sucks."…. And I'm like "Fuck, a million more people will hear how much we hate the radio.” So I talked to my band about it, and our biggest concern was getting sued by all the bands we mention, so if we do it, we want to record a version where we can just talk shit about the radio without saying the band names, cause I don't want to spend the next ten years in court with fuckin Marilyn Manson and all these bands… So they were cool with it if we could do it by that night. So we played our acoustic show at the store opening, went in at two in the morning, and about an hour and a half later we recorded it, someone came and picked it up and flew it to Japan for the presentation of the Apple commercials. So the way I see it, it was just a cool case of biting the hand that feeds you.
Kevy-D: Uhhh, let me see here, I've got a few more questions…
Kris: (reading my notebook) Jesus versus Superman?
Kevy-D: Yeah, Jesus vs. superman, who would win?
Kris: Jesus
Kevy-D: But Jesus is a pacifist.
Kris: (silence)…You fucker!
Kevy-D: what would you do if I gave you 3 dollars?
Kris: 3 dollars? I'd uhh… Fuck… I'm not good at questions like this.
Kevy-D: No, really if I just gave you 3 bucks…
Kris: I'd probably just go blow it on some baseball cards or something….
Kevy-D: Have you seen Lil’ Bow-Wow?
Kris: Yeah, but I'm not quite into that guy. We actually ran into the Cash Money Records tour with Xzibit, Juvenile, and motherfucking Method Man…and it was cool, they gave us a bunch of DVD's and CD's… but if I was 10 years old and like that (in reference to Lil' Bow Wow), I mean getting all the 10 year old girls…Man, when I was 10, I wished I was that cool. So yeah, more props to Lil Bow Wow for doing what he's doing. Word.
Kevy-D: A lot of your lyrics are about girls. Is there any one particular relationship experience that influenced your lyrics?
Kris: Well, I've been married for the last year, and before that we were dating for about a year. The new record I wrote around 4 months before I was getting married, and my wife, my girlfriend at the time, we were going through some rough times, and it was just my way of therapy for myself, and that's why this record is more like our "Empire Strikes Back" record, It was our real down note, but I think our next album will be much more a happy record, cause I'm in the most beautiful and great relationship I've ever had in my life now. I mean, it was great then, but try to go on tour, and have this demand to go on tour for 4 months at a time… You have to know your limits. We were on tour for 52 days last year… That will put a strain on any relationship, So most of the stuff on the new album is about her, but lots of the stuff for our other records is just about a lot of different relationships, and friends and what not. But pretty much the new record is all about my wife and traveling and stuff like that.
Kevy-D: My last question is: do you have any advice for any musicians out there or any unsigned bands, or anyone just trying to get their shit together musically?
Kris: Sure…best thing you can do is just - stupid as it sounds - work really hard, and don't ever give up. As far as real advice, make a demo of your best songs, and go to shows and give it to the bands you like. Period. Cause most bands I know will listen to it and if they like it they will get back to you. We listen to every demo we get. Right now, I've helped to get a couple bands signed (Useless ID, Antifreeze, Audio Karate). We really care about that shit. Personally, I believe in karma, and I believe I was given this awesome gift to sing songs, and there are other kids out there and I want them to have that opportunity.
Kevy-D: Well, I think that's it for me, thank you very much. Good luck with the rest of the tour.
Kris: Thank you very much.
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