Here is a vintage interview from about 1999 or 2000? This interview was originally printed in KGB (small run fanzine out of Shreveport, Louisiana) #5 and online at Hand Carved Magazine (RIP). This interview was conducted when the band played in Longview, Texas at the VFW hall-style venue, The Lion’s Den.
What can I say looking back at this all those years ago? Some cool stories, but I was still figuring out what and how to do interviews and make them interesting. You can see some of the out of the box ideas like, “What kind of video game would the Atari’s be?” And things like that.
I do remember Kris being very kind to us, and I really remember leaving this chat enthused. I also stole Kris’ Porn Star T-shirt. I later tried to give it back to him some 10-15 years later and he politely declined it and we had a good laugh about my dumb ass fanboy stealing clothes right off a touring musician’s back (or in this case the sweat soaked shirt was left on the table where we had our chat.)
Photos also by Damian, who never really did master how to be a concert photographer.
I had the chance to see The Ataris, back in August of ’99, when they opened for Good Riddance at the Galaxy Club in Dallas. I was impressed by their show. I was surprised to learn of their chance coming to Longview, Texas and I jumped at the chance to interview Kris after the show. Currently the band is signed to Kung Fu records with two releases, “…Anywhere but here,” and “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts … Next 12 Exits.” They also have an EP out on Fat Wreck Chords, “Look Forward to Failure.” -Damian–
Damian: So Kris. How many times have you had your heart broken? Kris: Hmm… About four times that really mattered.
Damian: It seems every song on the new album is about a girl. Any particular reason why? Kris: I wrote most of those songs over like a couple year period and I was going through a lot of changes in my life. I think that it was basically that the record was a transition from like moving from one place to another and getting over past things and trying to move along with my life. There were a lot of things I left behind when I moved. Damian: SO, How is your relationship with Kung Fu Records? Kris: We can’t complain too much. They definitely got us to where we are today as far as they helped me start and move out to California and get our first record out. You know we basically did all the other work ourselves. Went out and toured ourselves. We fuckin played shows for five people across the country a couple of times and once we put out the EP on Fat, that boosted our sales a ton and Fat Mike was kind of responsible for the ripple effect of us actually starting to blow up a little. So I give Kung Fu some credit and I give Fat some credit. Now the only problem we have with Kung Fu is that kids are telling us theat they can not find our records on Kung Fu, but they can find the one on Fat. So we’re working with Kung Fu. We’re trying to make the best of this situation. We’re doing fairly well as it is. We want to keep eye to eye with our label. Damian: Now I heard you guys were suppose to do a full length on Fat, but something happened with the EP and Fat canned ya’ll. Kris: Nope. That’s completely false. We never had any kind of intentions of doing a full length on Fat. We have one more record on Kung Fu and weather or not what we do after that is unknown. We’d like to do a full length on Fat after that and I’m sure that it would probably work out but that is sooo far away. I’ve got the whole new record written and we probably won’t record. We’ll just be touring for the next year, I’m sure. We’re probably going to go to Europe and tour and probably Australia and come back for another U.S. tour. Then we’ll probably record. So our next record probably won’t come out till 2001 at this fucking pace. Damian: Now I saw you guys play with Good Riddance in Dallas, there seemed to be more of a hardcore type audience, did you feel alienates in any ways playing with them? Kris: well you know some crowds are hit and misses. All the other shows we played with the Good Riddance have been excellent. We’ve done a lot of shows with them. Same way with a lot of other bands. We’ve toured a lot with The Vandals, We’ve toured a lot with Lagwagon, A lot with the faster Fat style punk bands or whatever they tend to draw a more punk, you know, whatever type of audience. And We’ve grown on people like that. Its like we can’t win every audience over. We just take the good with the bad and try to make the best of every situation. If one guy is being a fucking chump, that’s fine. Let him be. In the end, we’re still gonna have a good time. Damian: So how have you evolved as a sing writer since the first album? Kris: I think that when I recorded most of the first record I recorded it probably from like sixteen till, actually fifteen till nineteen or something and during that period most of my musical tastes were pretty standard. I didn’t branch out and listen to a lot of variety. I was pretty Ramones, The Queers, Decedents, The Misfits. That stuffs all pretty good. Now I listen to such a wide variety of things that I’m influenced by so many different types of music and so many different types of bands. That’s definitely helped my song writing as a hole and also learning stuff from being in the studio with different people. Working with Joey Cape in the studio was a hole big learning experience. That guy is one of my best friends and I totally respect him as a song writer. He’s given me a lot of tips and suggestions. The same with the guys from the Decedents and All. They helped me out a lot, too. The more we’ve played shows and developed as a band, the better my song writing and singing got. That’s the thing with the first record, we didn’t have time to develop as a band. We just kind of recorded the record and went out and started playing shows. So it was kind of a record before a band. And now its like we’ve been playing for about two years now. Damian: So there is a new line up for the new album right? Kris: Yea, we’ve had this line up for about two – two and a half years. Except one guitar change, Marco our guitar player now, he was in our band when this line up formed as a four piece. He didn’t want to record with us because he had other things he was doing at the time. So we got our friend Pat, who is on the record. Then it came time to do a big tour and Pat didn’t want to tour. So we asked Marco if he wanted to come back and play. So Marco got back in the band. So that’s basically how our line up has been for the last two and two a half years. Now our old line up was me, our drummer Derrik, our old drummer Derrik, he’s from Lagwagon and this other guy named Jason and that line up lasted about six months. The line up basically never was the Ataris, to me. The Ataris began when this band [line up] started. Damian: So were are ya’ll heading next from here? Kris: Oklahoma. Squeek: Where at? Kris: Oklahoma City. Damian: were did ya’ll come from? You said you drove a long way to get here. Kris: St. Louis. Damian: Was it worth it? Kris: Yea. It was a great show. Squeek: So you enjoying the tour so far? Kris: Every show has been excellent. There were a couple of days in Ohio that were the promoters fault. They didn’t promote the shows really well. They were definitely some of the smaller shows on the tour, but I really can’t complain. No this was a good crowd. Squeek: No, this place usually doesn’t have, but 10 people in here and the never sing along. Kris: That’s the biggest payback is that kids sing your songs. Everyone be apart of the show. Its awesome. You should have seen us the first week of the tour. We were just like, “Man, we’re gonna eat shit sooo bad! We’re gonna go out and there is going to be like five kids there at every show. Its going to be so lame. No one is going to know our songs, we’re gonna loose our ass. We’re gonna go home fucking broke, not be able to pay our rent. Nuh uh. Exactly the opposite. “What the Fuck!” It totally, I mean 110% surprised us. We didn’t have any clue that we would do this fucking well. We were completely honored that we could do this. Its made my fucking life. Damian: Is your family supportive of your stuff? Kris: 100%! Damian: So if the Ataris, your band, was a video game, what would you do? Kris: What would we do? Probably drive around in a little van, get lost all the time and try to scam on chicks and like, I don’t know. See how many things you can do to impress a girl and be a bunch of drunk bastards, running around, getting into trouble and blowing up hotel rooms with fire works. Something like that. Playing music and making friends, gaining fans and whatever. Damian: It sounds like you have a story there. You set a hotel room on fire with fireworks before? Kris: A few times. Damian: A few times? Can you tell us about that? Kris: This is the longest story in the fucking world. So I’m gonna totally downsize it. It was two years ago, our first tour with MxPx and we played this small town in California and after the show it was out first time to really hang out with them. They had always been a band I really admired I really wanted to. “Hey, you know lets go hang out and get a hotel and hang out and party.” So we did that and as usual, I’m not racist at all, but there is always the typical middle-eastern/Indian desk clerk guy. The guy was very kind to us when we checked in and he made it a point to say, [Using his best Apu, from the Simpson’s, voice] “No parties! You can not throw party tonight!” And I was like “Okay, sure. Hey, you guys got a pool?” [Apu:] “The pool is closed! The pool is closed! The pool is off limits! Do not get in the pool!” “Okay” So the first thing we do, is we’ve got a bunch of booze, put all the furniture in the room, out into the courtyard, climbed the fence, get in the pool. We’re drinking Jack in the pool or Cisco in the pool or whirlpool or whatever the fuck. Then this guy walks out in this turban. Like ten minutes later and [Apu:] “Get out of the pool! Get out of the pool or I call the cops. Go back in your room.” So we’re all like, “Aww, man!” So we go back and we still got all the furniture out in the courtyard. He didn’t see that, and we’re totally getting wasted and Marco, our old bass player, and he was in our band for a little while. Just a tour. He decides to throw this bottle up against the wall and it shatters. He’s like, “Check it out.” I’m like, “Oh its pretty rad.” I’m pouring Cisco all over Derrik our drummer and he’s running around naked with a towel on his head. And then MxPx, their lead singer is running around with a lamp shade on his head. Their like, “NO! Check this out!” Trying to top it. So I pulled some fireworks out of my bag. I lit one and I tossed it in the room! Its spinning, buzzing, on the ground. Big multicolored fucking fireworks and its like burning holes in the rug. Then the rug catches on fire. I’m stomping it out. Everyone is cracking up laughing. All of a sudden smoke alarms go off and I’m like, “Oh, Shit!” I try to grab the nearest pole or coat hangers or something, to knock the fire alarm out of the ceiling. Then this fucking sprinkler system is going off through out the entire hallway. I’m like, “What the fuck! This sucks!” So I yank it out and the power goes out in the entire wing. What the fuck do you do? So we pull all the furniture in, Shit the patio doors. They go to their room and we go to our room and we totally don’t surface till the next morning. I even left shit out. We were scattering tortilla chips throughout the hallway, the roadie for MxPx was like running around naked peeing in the hallway. Showing his multi-piercings off. So the next morning MxPx was like, “Okay dude, we’re gonna leave.” I was like, “Oh yea? Did you guys go checkout?” “We paid on a credit card.” “Oh fuck.” No wait they paid in cash. Well WE paid on a credit card. So we’re fucked. We’ve got to go and checkout. So we’re like, “All right we’ll catch up with you guys.” So we all basically have to flip coins to see who is going to go down to the guy or whoever is there and checkout. So its me and out drummer, Derrik. He decided to go. Derrik, he’s a really different kind of guy. He’s like totally the most funny character. As soon as we walk in we see this guy. The guy is STILL there. Same guy. I was like there is no way in hell. It can’t be the same guy. The guy must live there or something. He’s got his back turned to us, shuffling some papers. I’m going, ” Oh fuck.” and Derrik, Just like totally funny, he doesn’t give a fuck. He goes up to ring the bell and goes BING! and fucking rings the bell as hard as he can. He’s like, “Hey guy!”The guy is like, [Apu voice:] Why? Why you do this? Twenty-four complaints, broken glass…. WHY?!?” He’s totally frustrated. [Apu:] “After all my years as hotel desk clerk, I have never seen such activity! You just go! Get out of here right now!” He’s crying, I’m like, “Fuck, we just ruined this guy. So that was it. Fun. Damian: Did you have to pay? Kris: It was on Derrik’s credit card. I’m sure he got the bill. There’s been a few other times, but that was the first one. We’ve got plenty of fireworks for tonight….
Damian is the host of Mostly Harmless Podcast. Freelance writings have appeared in Vice, New Noise Magazine, Colorado Springs Independent, Denver Westword and more.
Damian is currently bartending and working in music production in Napa, California. These are the adventures of his new life in Napa with his girlfriend Claire. Plus other adventures, writings, interviews and more!
Editor’s Note: This is the raw draft of the interview published by New Noise Magazine. This draft has not been seen by an editor. There will be errors. There are three things that should immediately spring to mind when thinking of Fort Collins, Colorado: The Blasting Room, Surfside 7, and Elway. Elway, or the band formerly known as 10-4 Eleanor, have taken their small town roots and have grown into a healthy body of excellence. After six years of growth in Colorado, a place that holds the band’s namesake as sacred as Jesus Christ himself, Elway have packed their bags and sailed the seas to the concrete ocean of Chicago. We join Guitarist/Singer Tim Brown just days after recording the follow up to their 2011 debut, Delusions to talk about the move to Chicago, recording with Matt Allison and their new album: Leavetaking. You’ve moved the week of recording from the snowy mountain town of Fort Collins, Colorado to the third largest city in the states. The name of the album, Leavetaking alludes to moving on. How much about it is leaving Colorado? Leavetaking does in part refer to my moving to Chicago and the experiences that lead up to my doing so, but the overall theme of the album is not so solipsistic. The album is about parting ways with the past, and the sort of ups and downs that that entails. Of course the lyrics reflect my personal experiences to a certain extent, but in writing them I tried to focus on the emotions and thoughts that frame situations like my own rather than the unambiguous minutia about my life that may or may not be relatable. What do you hope to gain by living in Chicago vs. Colorado? I lived in Colorado for most of my life and I spent the last six years in Fort Collins. It’s a small college town. I graduated college and started touring a lot of the time. It seemed every time I was back in town more of my friends would have moved away. I just sort of receded into this pattern of drinking a ton to pass the time between tours. I don’t want to make it sound like I was at some rock bottom and I needed to get my shit together because that’s nowhere near the case. I still drink all the time; I just do it in a locale that is still exotic to me. I won’t hit rock bottom for years! I don’t resent the times I spent in Fort Collins, but after a certain point I felt like I needed to move on, you know? I moved to Chicago because I love this city and had the good fortune to meet a ton of great people here over the years. It’s always felt like a second home to me, and I’m currently quite happily exploring what it feels like to have it as my first. I suppose I am hoping to gain good times and meet different folks in a different part of the world. Same reason why we forgo financial security to tour with a punk band. You guys seemed to benefit from being one of the few punk bands in the small Fort Collins scene. Will you miss the Big Fish/Tiny Pond aspect of the musical scene in Fort Collins? Because the town is so small, the music scene in Fort Collins has a real ebb and flow to it. The only music that is constantly popular and successful in that town is jam/newgrass/dubstep or whatever is the college genre du jour. DIY punk and indie bands are a constant as well, but being able to consistently play great shows is tricky there. Our band is a byproduct of a high water mark for the DIY scene in Fort Collins. When we started playing in 2007, it seemed like there were tons of house show spots and everybody was really enthusiastic. We cut our teeth playing basement shows and Surfside 7 at a time when there was a lot of enthusiasm for what we were doing. Over the years, that feeling came and went and shows got worse and better and worse and better in infinite succession. The truly great thing about Fort Collins is that it is an easy place to have your home base. It wasn’t until we started touring really consistently that we started to garner momentum as a whole. Our friends in Fort Collins have always been very supportive. I don’t know that we were ever big fish in a tiny pond there though. There is no real punk ‘scene’ to be on top of. We built a scene playing alongside our friends in indie bands and alt-country bands to whoever in the narrow demographic of ‘music-savvy drinkers’ would listen. It was a great way to start out. With a new start there is an excitement of the life you can create in a new city. How did that excitement show itself in Atlas Studios? The prioritizing and task-management that any move requires was something of a stress factor during our time recording at Atlas. Joe and I were frenetically searching for jobs during the day before our sessions would start. We ate microwaved spaghetti and shitty white bread because we were broke and had to be a little spendthrift. The upside was that it was incredibly liberating to know that after we finished the record we could crawl out of the windowless sound cave at Atlas and get to know a new city. I certainly hope that the urgency comes across on the record. Many of your favorite records have been recorded by Matt Allison at Atlas Studios. Is there something magical in the air of that room? Is there a residual vibe from the previous artists that have shared that room with you? Before we ever came to Atlas, the thought of doing a record there was extremely intoxicating. The stuff that has come out of
YOU GUYS!!!! Claire and I are going to do the dang old, dang thing! Ha! No we’re not getting married or having kids….We are moving out of Colorado at the end of January! I have been here for 20 years, and while I feel like Colorado is my home and I will one day die here; Claire has lived in Colorado all her life and wants a taste of something different! So we are going to go off and have an adventure. We have no clue where we will land, or awaits us, and it doesn’t matter as long as we have each other and our Dick… the tabby cat. Claire has a passion for fine wine and has always wanted to live near the water. After talking her out of moving to Florida, we are currently looking towards Northern California. But we’re also looking at Burlington, Vermont after she had a dream about it a few weeks ago. So it feels like anywhere is on the table right now. I don’t really care where we go. I’ll go anywhere with her, as long as it is not Florida. I have no doubt that one day we will be back in Colorado one day, but for now, we’re going to go see where the roads take us. Life is too short. I’m already 40 and maybe we’ll get 40 years together… So why not get out there and see what is happening in the world? Plus, for the last two years I have sat here on the couch and “worked on myself,” and worked on my growth, while she has been sitting here feeling stagnant. It’s time for me to be the supportive partner and it’s Claire’s time to grow now! You know, but with a nice ocean breeze in her hair. We might land on our asses. It might be a disaster, but as long as we are doing it together… We’re going to have one hell of an adventure to tell you all about. I could end it there, but before I go I want to thank the Graf brothers for taking a chance on me at Music City Hot Chicken – Denver. I was ready to do something stupid. I was ready to stay here, while Claire went off to California without me. We would try the long distance thing and see where our roads lead us. But the brothers and owners of Music City, Sam and Jordan heard of my predicament and my own special version of “Should I stay or should I go now,” rambling through my head. I had been telling them that I wanted to stay here and build something with them here in Denver. I just wanted to be a part of something special. We sat down and they each told me it would be okay for me to leave and things would work out just fine. A few weeks ago, I was cleaning the fryers for the umpteenth time, “Here’s Your Future” by The Thermals, played unprompted in my head. That week, Claire had been in California exploring and looking for her future home. There was no one home waiting for me and I was probably going to fall asleep on the couch again that night, after drinking too many beers. I was sad and lonely and in mourning for the life I thought I was going to have to lose. “Here’s Your Future.” And I know it’s obvious to many of you, but remember I’m not that fast and on more than one occasion someone has asked me if I was on the spectrum…. I’m scraping the flour out of the bottom of the fryers, and then it dawns on me… It took me long enough to get there, but I figured it out. I was already building something special. I was building a life with this wonderful woman. I would be a fool to let her go on alone without me. I want to go on this journey with her. I decided to commit to her and us. Had the brothers not sat me down and told me everything would be alright if I left, I probably would have stayed and kept pushing through. I would have made a bonehead decision to stay here and potentially miss out on a great adventure with these women I love, oh so much. Also, if I’m being completely honest, I always felt in over my head in my job at MCHC. I wasn’t cutting it, and didn’t know how to communicate what I needed to make things work. Cleaning those fryers, I thought a lot about Eric Stoltz and his time on Back To The Future. Stoltz was originally cast in Back To The Future as Marty McFly, when Michael J Fox was not originally available. Fast forward seven weeks of filming and it just wasn’t working out. On paper Stoltz seemed like a great idea. It could have worked and it could have been great, but the chemistry just wasn’t there and during those seven weeks, Michael J Fox became available and the film would of course go on to become a classic. I’m excited for the young man who is taking my spot. He’s got way more knowledge, experience and the back of house skills needed to take the restaurant to where it needs to go. He’s younger, hungrier and incredibly positive. He’s what that place needs and I can’t wait to watch it become a runaway success… much like Michael J Fox and Back to The Future. So “Here’s You Future:” We’re going to go off and have some adventures. We are going to hunt for that simple, happy, healthy life. We’re going to do it together. We’re not leaving until the end of January. I’m going to be with MCHC till mid-January and we will be leaving heading somewhere the first week of February. We’re going to be looking for recommendations on where to go. She wants
