The Atlas Moth emerge from their cocoon with an insatiable case of wanderlust

The February snowstorm that buried Chicago under several feet of snow – and carried a number of idiotic nicknames like snowpocalypse, snowmageddon, blizzaster and super snow-va – gave many Chicagoans an excuse to take at least a day off from work.  For the Windy City’s blues- and psychedelia-infused sludge metal quintet The Atlas Moth, however, taking a few days off due to a record-breaking blizzard was never an option.

Such is the way of life when you’re snowed into Highland Park’s remote Phase Recording Studios with 15 days of studio time booked.  “Luckily we didn’t lose power the entire time, but we didn’t leave for like two or three days,” says guitarist/vocalist Stavros Giannopoulos.  “The studio was up north in the suburbs and it was in like an industrial area, so it’s not like snowplows are really coming through there.”

The band – rounded out by David Kush (guitar/vocals), Alex Klein (bass), Tony Mainiero (drums) and Andrew Ragin (synths/guitar) – loaded their gear into the studio the night before the storm, ready to get started on An Ache for the Distance, the follow-up to 2009’s A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky and their first release for Profound Lore Records.

“We started setting stuff up with the intentions of recording in the morning, and then we woke up to 6 feet of snow outside the door,” says Giannopoulos.  “We couldn’t leave, so that was probably like a pretty big catalyst for how things worked out.”

Working under extreme weather conditions is nothing new for the Moth men.  Their first EP, Pray For Tides, was also recorded during a snowstorm.  A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky was recorded amidst torrential downpours.  They played Kuma’s Doom Fest during one of the coldest days in the city’s history and, according to Ragin, the band has almost always left for tour during a storm.

“We have had an almost eerie history of needing to do things during nasty weather conditions, so the storm actually kind of felt like a sign that we were supposed to be making a record,” says Ragin, who also serves as the band’s producer.

Following the release of A Glorified Piece of Blue-Sky, The Atlas Moth suddenly found themselves on the road touring with some of their favorite bands.   If the title didn’t give it away already, their experiences on these tours largely affected the writing and recording of An Ache for the Distance.  “The one thing that’s always tricky, I think, about writing music and recording music is you don’t know how it’s going to work live,” says Giannopoulos.  “Some things honestly do work better in the studio than they work live.  It’s just fact.”

With that in mind, the band set out to refine their sound.  Gone were the extraneous, spacey and experimental noise interludes that drug several of Blue-Sky’s cuts out to lengths over six minutes.  In was a conscious effort to concentrate on songwriting and thematic depth, keeping all but two songs below the seven-minute mark. 

As a result, the difference in the writing and recording processes were night and day.  Where the songs on Blue-Sky had been written and played long before they were ever recorded, back when the band was still trying to land opening slots on local shows, Ache was mostly written in the studio as the band was recording it.

“We’d all been listening to stuff like The Cure and Failure and the 90s-esque rock bands a lot – Whatever label works for that,” says Giannopoulos.  “That kind of comes across huge in this one.”

That’s not to say the album doesn’t still pack the same punch as its predecessor.  Album opener “Coffin Varnish” is a grade-A kick in the balls, utilizing the band’s three guitarists to full potential in an immediate bombast that slows down to a more sludge-oriented march.

“Oddly enough, ‘Coffin Varnish’ was like the last thing we did.  Before we went in the studio, I think Tony and I had played it like once,” says Giannopoulos.  “I was just like ‘There it is, figure it out.’  I went and did something and came back a day or two later, and it was just solid.”

The second track, “Perpetual Generations,” is hinged on an easy-flowing stoner metal riff, making use of primarily clean vocals.  “Holes in the Desert” opens with a catchy wall-of-sound bass-and-drum line, wailing guitar and moaning vocal combo that sounds like it could have come from any one of Maynard James Keenan’s bands.  “Courage” almost has a ballad-like quality to it and “Horse Thieves” features a guest appearance by Chicago trumpeter Jaimie Branch.

Simply put, An Ache for the Distance retains the band’s eclectic combination of New Orleans sludge, 60s psychedelics, blues and adds in more of a pop aesthetic, reminiscent of seminal NOLA sludge lords Acid Bath.

“Atlas Moth has so many influences that range far beyond the metal world that are very noticeable in their music, and that’s part of what I enjoy about it,” says Nachtmystium frontman Blake Judd.  “It’s a little different.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have former Death, Testament and Obituary axe man James Murphy mastering your album, either.  “It’s crazy.  I mean, he’s a fucking legend,” says Giannopoulos.

Following the album’s release in late September, The Atlas Moth will be soothing their ache for the distance when they hit the road with KEN Mode.  There, they’ll find out firsthand whether their album influenced by their experiences on the road works on the road.

“There is a continuing theme [on the album] of how this entire thing’s always built up to be something so extravagant and here we are not showering for two weeks and barely eating and just doing it because we want to do it,” says Giannopoulos.  “Doing it because we love it, not because there’s any grand outcome at this point, because we don’t see that in our future.  You can’t.”

And it’s that sense of wanderlust that keeps The Atlas Moth doing what they do.  Despite the dangerous and unpredictable nature of the road and regardless of how many cold cans of Spaghetti-Os they eat at 3 a.m.

“Those are the moments, man,” says Giannopoulos.  “I’d rather be cramped in a fucking van with five of my best friends, fucking doing what we do and not thinking about all this bullshit I have at home, whether it’s any responsibility or ‘I need to cut my fucking lawn!’  Bullshit like that.  I don’t even wanna think about that, you know?”

September 19, 2011 | Categories: The Atlas Moth | Tags: 2011, Alex Klein, An Ache for the Distance, Andrew Ragin, blues, Chicago, David Kush, Death, James Murphy, Metal, Obituary, Profound Lore Records, psychedelia, psychedelic, sludge, Stavros Giannopoulos, Testament, The Atlas Moth, Tony Mainiero | 1 Comment