EP Walkthrough: Atlas and the Attic breaks down ‘Impossible Stories’
Brisbane’s alt-rock four-piece Atlas and the Attic release new emotionally driven EP ‘Impossible Stories’.
Like many artists in 2020, after all the low-blows the year through at the industry Atlas and the Attic took the opportunity offered by venue and border closures to write new music and search for a new approach towards their sound and style. After kicking off 2021 with a series of headline shows and supporting gigs, the four-piece settled into the studio to work on their next release.
The result is their second EP, ‘Impossible Stories’, an emotionally driven series of alt rock songs that focus on doubt, unity and change. The EP takes on a new level of energy, drawing influence from 2000’s era pop punk as well as modern guitar pop.
‘Impossible Stories’ is about taking charge of your life, being proactive about change and being open to possibility. Written by lead singer Sam Leslie over a two-year period of upheaval, the message of the EP is about being open to change and about finding something new in life.
The 5-track EP is one for the books for Atlas and the Attic as they present with a punchier, poppier, catchier and more energetic sound. This is a breakthrough record for the band - it’s anthemic and energetic rock meets expressive and emotional pop. It’s as if Slowly Slowly met Bugs, had a rendezvous, and out came Atlas and the Attic . To be completely honest with you, it’s their best work year and we can’t wait to see how they grow into their future after this.
In the meantime, take a dive into the EP below, along with an exclusive interview with the band and track by track walkthrough where lead singer Sam Leslie breaks down the record…
Hyperfocus
Hyperfocus was without doubt the most difficult track to pull together as a band. We had lyrics, we had something that resembled a chorus, but we couldn’t quite figure out what direction to take it in. After playing through a few heavier and softer versions of the song, and listening to a handful of mid-2000’s rock hits, we settled on a jumpy pop punk track.
The lyrics are about my first few years out of high school, where I wasted a lot of time and didn’t make anything of myself. I wrote the song as an encouragement to myself to be a different person to who I once was, always searching for progress and learning, and keeping myself open to where life takes me. And fun fact - we chose a title for this track the day before we uploaded it to streaming services.
Gold
When we wrote Gold, it felt like we had just set the standard of what the new EP would sound like. A lot of this song came naturally; we almost immediately had the same song playing in our heads and we just had to find the way to make it work. With some solid guitar work from Nik, it wasn’t long before we had this anthemic rock track.
This song is about trying to find solace in a safe place, only to find rejection instead. What was supposed to be a river of gold was a place of bitter rejection and supposed superiority. If the story was told in chronological order, this track would preface Hyperfocus.
MMITM
Over the last few years, it is no secret that our world has divided more and more due to polarising ideologies all grasping some kind of moral high ground, while yearning for a safe and comfortable middle ground. MMITM (Meet Me In The Middle) is another upbeat rock song that came together very easily once we were jamming it out. Right from the start we knew we wanted this song to be fast paced and energetic, and it all progressed nicely from there to gang vocals, a beautiful guitar solo, and a big, banging finish.
Stay
It may not seem like it from a listener's perspective, but Stay is the first song we wrote for Impossible Stories. We’d been talking about recording a 5 track EP for a long time, and when we got in the studio and layed down the tracks, things were finally heading in the right direction. We had a song with a catchy hook and a memorable guitar line right from the get-go, with a lyrical theme that I believe everyone can relate to on some level - social anxiety.
Horizons
Horizons feels to us like a culmination of this journey. All of the songs that I’ve written in the last 2 years have a consistent theme of hope, doubt and change, and this track brings them together, uniting them as of equal importance. I almost feel like after this one it’s time to push these themes aside and find new experiences to write about - probably. Musically, this might be the simplest song we’ve ever written, but because of that we had a tough time keeping it as interesting as possible. We didn’t see a need to change the chords and beat being played, and instead we spent extra time in the studio layering instruments and adding backing vocals and piano. Horizons is, in our opinion, the perfect closing track for Impossible Stories.
Goooood morning Atlas and the Attic! It’s release day, how the heck are we!?
We’re great! We’ve been so excited for such a long time to get these songs out into the world, and it’s finally here.
First things first, for anyone that isn’t familiar with ‘Atlas and the Attic’ – describe
your music to us in 4 words…
Upbeat, expressive, optimistic rock.
So, today you have released your second EP titled ‘Impossible Stories’, talk to us a
bit about it! How did it all come together and what does the song mean to you all?
NIK: We’re pretty stoked for the EP to be out today, it’s been a long time coming, so for it to finally be released feels pretty unreal. We had a few songs lined up, so of course choosing the right ones to be in the EP and ones we like the most and connect with was actually pretty hard. But we’re happy with what we ended up with and we’re super proud of what we’ve achieved! We’re confident it’s our best work yet and we’re looking forward to what we can come up with next. Getting in the studio and recording the EP was heaps of fun, Cody McWaters is an absolute machine of a producer and working with him is always awesome. He’s a great guy to be around, always keen for a laugh but does a good job of keeping us on track too, and he brings the best out of the band and really makes a difference on the end results. So yeah, we’re pretty excited and super keen to share it with everyone!
What’s your typical songwriting and recording process?
ELLIOT: Typically, Sam will come to us with some of the lyrics for a song as well as some ideas for the musical side of things. Musically, every song that we play has plenty of input from each band member, whether it's deciding on chords, shuffling sections around or choosing drum rhythms and guitar riffs. We collaborate very well together.
ELLIOT: A few weeks before recording, our producer Cody McWaters will have a listen and give us some feedback. Our songs are always evolving, so even in the studio there can be some pretty big changes as new ideas come to us and Cody helps us find new sounds. This EP was a little different for us. As there were less opportunities for live shows, we took the time through 2020 to create songs with this EP in mind. We were able to intentionally craft it right from the first song we wrote.
And what do you want listeners to take away from the release?
One of the biggest things would be that they find a song they relate to and connect with on a personal level and keep coming back to. Each song has its own uniqueness to it, but combined all 5 songs share a similar quality and theme that we are really proud of and we are wanting people to connect to that.
What else can fans expect for the rest of the year?
We’re going on a small tour of South East Queensland in early October, playing shows on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane.Very sadly it looks like gigs are off in NSW for the time being, so we probably won’t be making it south or VIC this year either. Withthat said, we are demoing some new tracks already and would love to be back in the studio before the years end, as well as back to the stage for more gigs following the October tour run.
