Ahead of their eagerly awaited show at The Engine Shed last week, Mike and Ben of Lower Than Atlantis chat to The Linc‘s Caitlin Holloway and James Buxton about their favourite musicians, live shows and new music.
What’s the difference between playing big arena shows and smaller, more intimate gigs like the Engine Shed?
M: It’s a completely different vibe playing a major venue in a major city in a big venue with all this mad production like screens and video cameras on our mic stands; we’ve done all that before. We’ve done that a million times. We just wanted to come and do the further reaches. I feel like it could also be a bad thing though, because if you’re s***, you can’t really go from big shows to small shows.
It’s been over a year since your last album, do you have any plans for the future?
M: Uhh, f*** it, yeah we’ve just recorded a new song, a brand new song. Everything was done in house and it’s getting released soon. In about three or four weeks, I think. But yeah, we’ve already filmed a video for it and everything.
On that topic, what’s it been like building and recording in your own studio these past few years?
B: Oh man, we might be losing it actually. It’s almost like we’ve outgrown it a little bit. We got it two albums ago and we’ve recorded some demos and the last two albums in there but it’s just a bit small these days. Like, once you’ve got all of us and our cases and the crew in there when we’re rehearsing before a tour there’s just no space.
M: But Ben is building a proper studio in his house so we’re gonna record there next, but it’s great to have that personal space to rehearse. I mean, when you’re this good, you don’t really need to rehearse.
Who have been your favourite bands to tour with?
M: Our most recent tour with Young Guns and Hands Like Houses was fun. We also toured with our best friends blink-182. It was crazy sitting there having a cake and a coffee with Mark [Hoppus], they probably think we’re a bunch of f***ing g**ps.
What would you say is your favourite song to play live?
M: Either Had Enough, which is probably my favourite LTA song, and it’s the first one of the set, so it’s like f***, wow. And it starts with this instrumental bit where I’m off stage so I’m standing there watching these guys play a gig without me. And then there’s Another Sad Song. On the European leg of the tour I did it with no mic and just my guitar and just walked into the middle of the crowd. And then the last song I’d say is Here We Go. Also there’s a song off the last album called I Would, which was never a single or anything, and it’s turned into one of our biggest songs really weirdly.”
B: Also to add to that, I’d definitely agree with what you said, but we’ve been playing a lot of older songs recently. It’s really weird like those were our biggest tracks on our first album and now no one really cares about them. Cause in Europe we’ve only started getting big off the last two albums whereas over here it’s been a steady progression over the last ten years so it’ll be interesting to see how they go down.
B: A lot of people jumped on at the self-titled album. The weird thing is, though, a lot of our mates’ bands, cause we’ve been going so long, have peaked or at least plateaued but with us, albeit a slight incline, we’ve always been on the up. Another band like that that’s a few years ahead of us is Architects. Like they’ve never been stuck at one point; they’ve always been growing. After the success of the self-titled album I just thought that’s it, we’ve f***ed it but we’re still growing. Like internationally we only really started getting big recently. We’re definitely a grower, not a shower.
Mike, we know that you’re a huge fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, how much would you say they’ve influenced your music over the years?
M: A million billion percent yeah. Definitely. Everything from Billy Corgan’s guitar playing to him as a writer as well. Like, one of my favourite things about Pumpkins is they’ve got some songs that are basically straight f***ing metal and then others that are just pop songs but they always just sound like Pumpkins because of his voice.
M: I really like hardcore, but I really hate when some of my favourite bands are about to release a new record and I know exactly what it’s going to be. It gets boring, I just want something different.
After our interview, Lower Than Atlantis went on to perform an incredible show, with a charming stage presence, high energy songs and an acoustic performance that brought a lot of the audience to tears.
With new music on the horizon, our team here at The Linc can definitely say that Lower Than Atlantis are one to keep an eye on in the months to come.