Night Owls: The Ataris

This month sees the release of The Ataris long awaited follow up to the 2003 album ‘So Long Astoria’. But with rumours rife that ‘Welcome The Night’ is their farewell record, does this spell the end of the Indiana seven-piece? Gigwise caught up with Kris Roe to discuss the present and future of the band.

“Oh no, that’s complete rubbish…” replies frontman Kris, slightly surprised. “I don’t know where they come up with this stuff.” The internet is full of stories suggesting that this is the last album you’ll release as The Ataris, is there any truth to them? “If anything ‘So Long Astoria’ would have been the last album because of the changes that were made after it. At the end of the day, those guys wanted to change their lifestyles and it meant that the band came to a close for a while, but John (Collura, bassist) and I just picked up from where we left off and carried on. We don’t want to let anyone down, y’know? We want to continue doing what we love; playing music and travelling, seeing the world. I think we used to take that for granted sometimes.”

‘Those guys’ refers to bassist Mike Davenport and drummer Chris Knapp who both quit the band in late 2004, to be replaced by Sean Hansen and Shane Chikeles, respectively. Also added to the new line-up are guitarist Paul Carabello, cellist Angus Cooke and Bob Hoag on the piano. So, did the band feel under pressure to keep The Ataris moniker even though they are basically a new band? “No, not at all. If anything we wanted to keep the name because it felt like if we didn’t it would have been like giving in to those people who expect us to set boundaries for ourselves. We always had songs that we could never play just because we couldn’t pull it off right with that line-up, but now it’s just taken on a whole new life. We’re playing songs off the new album and it’s fun again… It’s a new beginning.”

Where do you think these rumours have surfaced from? “I think we’ve been misquoted somewhere. What was said in passing was that we were over it as a band when it came to ‘So Long Astoria’ and when we started playing music as the band we are now it felt like a new beginning. We’re very happy now, it’s the best time we’ve had in a long time.”

With ‘Welcome The Night’ The Ataris have created a new sound for themselves. It’s a huge step away from the pop/punk of any of their previous albums and something that fans will probably be surprised by. Do they think it might alienate some of their older fans? “Well I think that good art and good music should challenge people, it should be daring. I think that if we didn’t do what we felt in our hearts then we’d be doing, not only ourselves but the world, a disservice. At 30 years old, and John at 35, we’re asking people not to put a limit on what they think we can do, I don’t think we should have to write something that’s the same as when we were 19, I think that’s kind of shallow and narrow minded.”