- Interview
November 2020 -
Hello, what's up with ATOMIC VULTURE lately? I see you have a new special vinyl released on Polder records, can you tell us more about it?
Polderrecords released a compilation vinyl (PolderRiffs Volume 1 – different colours) with 5 Belgian bands under the Polderrecords umbrella. (www.polderrecords.be) Bands: Motsus, Darqo, Von Detta, Rawdriguez, Carneia & Atomic Vulture
The plan was to release it on Alcatraz Festival (BE-Kortrijk), where all these bands were supposed to play the LaMorque stage, but, as we all know by now, due to Covid-19 the festival was cancelled.
Luckily the release wasn’t. It’s a great initiative of Polderrecords, that puts great effort in supporting beginning and/or local bands in this genre. Tom Maene, CEO of Polderrecords, is a great guy, highly motivated to give bands like Atomic Vulture a platform and for that, we will be forever grateful!
What is an atomic vulture? Does it have special powers? Was it genetically modified due to an atomic error? Why not FUKUSHIMA VULTURE?
Damn right we have special powers! :-)
Per definition “atomic” means: “The nature of matter at the atomic level"
We try to lift music to that next level. By breaking it down, freeing ourselves from traditional structures (not being tied to vocals helps) and releasing a new construction on to the world.
Come fly on our wings – we’ll take you to outer space
From these words, which do you think would fit your music the best? Ritual, tribal, occult, warm, burning, groovy, smoke, ambient, dreamy, landscape, exploring, retro...
Hard question… it’s so subjective, you see.
Even the term “warm” can make some people think about Atomic Vulture, whilst others immediately see themselves on the beach, under a sun screen, listening to Caribbean vibes.
To answer this question, we’d like to refer to some quotes from reviews, where our music has been described as:
Spaced-out Stoner Rock, thunderous drumming & huge riffs gravitate towards another dimension.
Heavy, fuzzed-out, swirling grooves, thunderous driving beats & temperamental drumming.
Raw 'n' groovy, meaty fuzzed instrumental stoner rock and peppy, perpetual motion riffs.
Rolling guitar riffs, Bass & drums thunder & roll beneath the maelstorm.
Dusty instrumental stoner groove riffraff, hotter than hot stuff.
Powerful instrumental stoner with the most subtle psychedelics.
Sound is purely stoner, dazzling and mending riff-o-rammas.
Full of reverb parts, thick & greasy riffs full of Fuzz.
The softest reverberation with the most diffuse density of thick sounds.
Stomach curdling riffs and high-gain, stomping melodies.
Clear hard rock element that bleeds through the ambient instrumentalism.
Swirling, atmospheric, and heavy riffing awesomeness.
Whirlwind of sounds, rocky dry riffs and liquid solos.
Why do you play instrumental music? Perhaps you had a singer that sang in a yogurt unknown language, and it didn't sound so cool, so you sent him to the vultures? Ahah
The vulture has in the past indeed devoured one singer.
The decision to keep it instrumental wasn’t because we couldn’t find another vocalist, but because we didn’t want to.
Like said above, this way we’re not bound by a certain structure and don’t have to pay attention to chorus and strophes. We feel it’s more challenging for us as musicians and we’re freer to mix different rhythms, styles, tones and sounds.
What do you think is the difference between "heavy psych" and "stoner rock"? It's not always easy to distinguish both... (Sometimes I like to play with words, and I imagine someone perhaps took the words "Heavy metal" and replaced "metal" with "psych" AhAh...)
We don’t know and actually, we don’t care.
When we’re making music, we don’t think about “our genre”. We just play what we think sounds good.
This day and age everything overlaps and music = music.
You used to be either a rocker, or a punker, or a technofreak, or a hiphopper. Due to/thanks to globalization everything blends into everything and we’re freed from boxes.
We do get that people sometimes still need to put a label on things, so if you want to call it StonerRock, SpaceRock, Heavy Psych, Classic Rock, Heavy metal, Stoner Metal,… take your pick, we don’t mind :-)
If Lemmy had kept playing with HAWKWIND (and didn't create Motorhead later), do you think their music would have been the same? Perhaps Hawkwind would have been heavier? Perhaps they were the first "Heavy psych" band...?
We think you can say HAWKWIND can indeed be defined as a heavy psych band, if you insist on using labels 😊
Perhaps it would have been a bit heavier with Lemmy, or perhaps their genre/music would have evolved in another way anyhow, who knows. All we know, is that thanks to Lemmy’s departure, we’ve got to enjoy two great bands instead of one.
When I was younger, I saw Black sabbath as a quite dark and serious/ occult band... But the more I explored their discography, the more I found this to be (very) varied musically... Do you think it's important to be quite eclectic when you play music? From the various Black sabbath records and epochs, which do you prefer and which could be closer to the Atomic vulture sound?
Eclectic, for sure!
Like said above, we don’t think in boxes and each of us has a different background, whether it’s our age and thus the music we grew up with, as the bands we were a part of before Atomic Vulture, or the music we listen to now.
It may surprise some people, but our personal music collection varies from Ray Charles, to Deftones, Front 242, or Kyuss.
There is a difference between bands on our fixed playlist and songs we get inspired by.
For example Chvches or even The Weeknd can give inspiration for a certain drum arrangement. Our influences also influence our music, in order to finish with something unique.
About Black Sabbath, it was a difficult choice of course, but if we do have to choose, below our favorite albums:
Pascal: Vol.4
Kris: Paranoid
Jens: Master Of Reality
All albums with Ozzy are great, but the ones with James Dio are great too, though a bit different. There is no comparison, but we think the first albums most lean into the sound of Atomic Vulture.
A latest tendency in the stoner/ sludge world is to play slower, slower, sloooower... Some bands almost play monolithic doom AhAh. Is it a genre you could be interested to integrate in your atomic sounds? Or you prefer things a bit more rock'n roll?
We don’t really keep our vulture eye on tendencies in the music scene, although we have noticed this hype.
We just try to do our thing, which often leans more to rock’n’roll – straight on!
Keep your head banging and body moving!
Of course, in certain songs there is a tempo change and some riffs, solo’s and melodies create a more doom feeling, which is good to give your neck some rest, but we love driving it up again.
You are pretty active on Instagram, at least more than the average bands... To be communicative on social medias, for you is it more a pleasure, or a necessity? I know every bands do not get too involved in this and prefer the label do the "dirty job", but isn't it a "necessary evil"?
We’d happily outsource this side of “the job” and put all our time in the creative, artistic side of playing music, but unfortunately at this point, we don’t have a management or someone to help us with this. So hereby: Agencies, feel free to contact us and solicitations for a social media expert start now! :-)
But in the meantime, we feel it’s a necessity, so do it ourselves.
Social media have become a very important platform and you can find Atomic Vulture on youtube, bandcamp, instagram, facebook, soundcloud, spotify, bands in town, reverbnation, …
You have released CDs, Vinyls... But I see no tapes in your discography. What do you think about this format? If a label made an offer, would you be whiling to ride the cassette road?
We’ve noticed this trend as well, for the first time at a festival in Italy last year where another band was selling them. We get this hype, because often modernization and digitalization go hand in hand with a return/yearning to the “old”.
We do feel vinyl is still on the rise, the demand rises and more people invest in a LP player.
At the moment, we don’t know how many people are able to play cassettes and have no insight on the demand.
Plus, we come from the tape era ourselves, so do know some problems are accompanied with it (we all remember the use of a pencil when the tape has come loose :-) )
But if offered by a label, why not? :-)
You're located in Brugge, this town is famous in France for the chocolates (Jeff de Brugge), but what else can we find here? Is there a cool rock scene?
Actually, the three of us live in different cities, none of which in Bruges :-) But try explaining that to a foreigner! Ha. But we do rehearse there and Atomic Vulture has mounted just about every stage there is in Bruges.
Although bars, venues and concert halls have it more and more difficult each year (due to digitalization, more booking of the “bigger” names, so they’re sure of income, …), here too you find a countermovement.
There has always been and always will be a steady rock scene in Bruges, thanks to venues like (amongst others) bar De Kelk, Charlie Rockets youth hostel and bar, Barrock, concert hall Entrepot, Magdalena concert hall, Daverlo cultural center, …
A lot of bands still originate in or around Bruges, especially those within the overall “rock genre”. Perhaps there’s something in the soil there? :-)
First that come to mind: Cowboys & Aliens, Motsus, Darqo, Rawdriguez, Carneia, King Hiss, …
Which bands/ records/ albums did you listen to the most the last months? It it mostly about older or newer bands?
It’s always a combination of old and new, and different genres, varying from rock (in all its subgenres), to electronic music, to jazz/soul/…
Even now we still discover a band or a song we’re completely obsessed with, and then it turns out it’s a band from the seventies that made one album or had one hit.
When it comes down to newer stuff, we often listen to bands we’ve played with on a festival or just went to see a show. We really try to support the local scene and bands which are lesser known. Not because we have to, but because there are some great bands out there!
The “normal” classical radio is a bit too commercial for us, we must admit.
What are the next plans with ATOMIC VULTURE?
Covid-19 really put a damper on our concert agenda, so we have no choice than to focus on 2021.
But that being said, luckily we had plans to go into the studio in November 2020 to record our new album anyway. So in a way, Covid made it possible for us to really focus on being prepared for that as well as possible! The release is planned for next Spring, accompanied by release shows and other thing on both physical, as virtual stages and platforms.
So keep an eye on the vulture :-)
https://www.facebook.com/atomicvulture/
https://atomicvulture.bandcamp.com
