Music, Style & Culture

Atari Teenage Riot: ‘There Was A Lot Of Bad Blood’

DIY chats to Alec Empire about their reformation.

Last month Atari Teenage Riot released their first LP in over a decade. Joe O'Sullivan chats to Alec Empire about their reformation, turbulent performances and why their latest album is louder and heavier than ever before.

'Is This Hyperreal?' is your first album in 12 years - what was your motivation for reuniting the band and recording after such a gap?
It started with Hanin Elias' (who had left the band in the nineties a couple of times but then kept returning) idea to play one show in London last year. The majority of our fans in the US had seen ATR shows without her, Nic Endo used to jump in on the vocal parts back then. When we played that last show in London at Brixton Academy in 1999, Elias left that afternoon and didn't perform with the rest of us. The show was very confrontational and became quite legendary, received raving reviews from the UK music critics. Since then there was a lot of bad blood between her and the rest of us. When she offered to get things right again and suggested that we played one more show to end it 'in peace', Nic Endo and I were into the idea. A few months later CX Kidtronik came on board. I had doubts about the whole thing. Many bands reform and most of the time it's disappointing. When Elias realized that she had lost her screaming voice over the past ten years and simply couldn't get through one show, the whole thing seemed doomed. I suggested alternative musical ideas but in the end she didn't show up, again!

So what did you do?
We were backstage with half hour to stage time and we had to make a decision… we just went for it and the show blew everyone away. The first thing that was unexpected was the audience. It wasn't the old fans who had come out, the majority were new fans who had never seen ATR before. I had underestimated the influence of groups like Crystal Castles, M.I.A, Kap Bambino, Bloody Beetroots etc. Music critics constantly draw comparisons to ATR, some of the bands even name drop us. Looking back it makes more sense why it all worked out but I didn't see it at the time. Nic Endo is a very charismatic performer. I knew this from the nineties, but over the past decade Nic has developed a more distanced and cold image on stage. It hit most people as a big surprise that she can pull off a show like she does in ATR. Stagediving, the whole thing. CX Kidtronik didn't just replace Carl Crack, the previous MC who had died in 2001, CX does his own thing. The idea to reunite for one show had failed but something creative came from that chaos. It's hard to explain… there is this energy suddenly. It's new. With the new album we wanted to capture that.

You've also recruited new MC CX KiDTRONiK. How has he (and presumably his different vocal style) been incorporated into the group?
CX Kidtronik is 50% producer and 50% rapper. When you see ATR live it all makes more sense, as we are all running the machines at some point. It doesn't quite make sense to just look at his vocal takes in ATR songs. He is controlling a lot of 8bit gear and adds noises and other sounds. I think CX's voice sounds really good with Nic Endo's and mine together. That is a real strength. Combined together they all sound like ATR but not like nineties ATR. He has done production for Saul Williams with Trent Reznor together and was part of Anti Pop Consortium for a while, but has also released his own music via Stones Throw in Los Angeles.

Your music has always been heavily politically motivated. What has been the subject/subjects of your ire this time around?
The main themes on the new album are hacker activism, governments corrupted by multinational corporations and the control technologies they put in place, freedom of the internet but also its dangers for ordinary citizens… human trafficking is also an issue on the song 'Blood In My Eyes'.

What about in terms of sound? With solo work, you've veered off into vastly different directions - have you tried to replicate the ATR sound or was it a more natural process?
Every ATR album has its own theme and is different from the previous ones. But ATR has a very characteristic sound that needs to be kept, it's that sound that makes ATR always stand out from every other electronic act. This is mainly the Atari computer we use to program the music on. The lyrics demanded a slightly more techno approach, a bit colder sounding maybe, not as chaotic as '60 Second Wipe Out', which was mainly about revolution and chaos. Overall the new album sounds bigger and heavier than the previous albums.

Given how long the band has been in existence, is it important to you that you are seen as a 'current' band? That you deal with 'current' issues?
I think it's important to speak about things in our songs which interest people. These can be current but these could also be visions of the future. In general, ATR is more about a world view and not so much daily news or something. When we speak about a German issue, then we make sure that we present it in a way, that it makes sense to other people outside of Germany as well. Governments trying to control the internet, for example. Germany is a good example because we have seen twice in the last century how dangerous big government can become, when the wrong people use the technology against the population, but obviously Americans or Japanese can relate to these issues as well.

You've kept yourself prolific in terms of releases in the last decade - will his solo work/production duties etc continue? Or is ATR the prime focus of all members now?
Yes, of course. This was always the case. Atari Teenage Riot is not a conventional band, it's more like a collective. New Alec Empire material is on the way, we just don't want to put out too much music at once.

Bands are now coming to the fore where they're listing you as a major influence on their lives and work - does that make you proud? Or do you feel that by citing you, they then have to live up to a certain standard that you yourselves have set with your work?
I think that's great. Especially when bands like Crystal Castles and others have come up with their very own style of music. ATR might have been an influence, but they are not copying ATR. At the end of the day music is like language, it has to move freely and develop. In terms of living up to standards, I don't think in those categories, it doesn't make sense. Always make the best and most honest music you can make, don't worry about what others think about it. Especially when you are doing something different, you need to be prepared that people won't immediately like what you do. I can stand behind every record I put out over the decades, that is important, that you as the artist know you did what you needed, and wanted, to do at that moment.

Finally, what can people expect from an Atari Teenage Riot show? Will it be a 'Greatest Hits' style set or is there going to be a Brixton Academy v2.0 in the future?
Both! We go into these huge noise parts when we feel like it, with the songs together, it's a hell ride haha…people love it. We have a word in German for it, it's called 'Rausch'… which describes this euphoric feeling.

Atari Teenage Riot's new album 'Is This Hyperreal?' is available now via Dim Mak Records.