Artist: Blank Atlas
EP: Solitude
Release: 14th October 2016
Blank Atlas are a young Alt Rock trio that formed in 2015 in Bristol, in the south-west of England. Since releasing their debut single “Lost At Sea” in April this year, they have put out 2 more singles “Want It Now” and “Liar’s Eyes” via YouTube.
“Lost At Sea”, the lead track from their debut EP, is the first song of theirs that I listened to. What was most noticeable about the track was the harmonies. At the time, I didn’t know if it was all sung by Dan, the vocalist and guitarist, himself or with other members of the band. Either way, I was impressed by it.
Blank Atlas show their fresh and unique sound through their newly released debut EP, “Solitude”, which is filled with energy, riffs and harmonies. All five tracks are written by the band and produced by the Alt Rock master Neil Kennedy. I would say Blank Atlas are a band to watch.
You can listen to the EP “Solitude” via iTunes and Spotify;
Blank Atlas have gigged relentlessly and have played with plenty of up and coming bands such as Fatherson, Allusondrugs, Press To Meco, Max Raptor, Boy Jumps Ship, Liberty Lies and many more.
The band kindly took some time out of their busy schedule to be interviewed by us. Here it is:
Hello, Blank Atlas! First of all, could you introduce yourselves?
Hello! Well, we have Dan on Vocals and Guitar, Chris on Bass and Backing Vocals, and Tom on Drums and Backing Vocals! Thanks for chatting to us!
You are welcome. Excited to talk to you today!
It’s good to know that everyone sings. Your harmonies are fantastic! I know Dan and Tom are brothers. But could you tell us how you all three met up and became a band?
Chris: We all went to the same secondary school in Aberaeron. Dan and Tom were already in a band when I got to know them, but they wanted a change in sound and recruited me as bass player. And that’s how the band, Avarice as it was called then, was formed.
So how did you decide on Blank Atlas as your band name after previously being called Avarice?
Dan: We basically had 30 different names to choose from and managed to shorten it down to 3. Blank Atlas was the one that we all thought was pretty cool so that won! We had some funny names that didn’t make it like ‘Use the Force’! I love Star Wars but I’m not sure if George Lucas would love that.
I think you chose the right name! Who are your influences? Does everyone listen to similar music?
Tom: We’re really big into our British Alternative Rock which reflects our sound a lot! Bands like Press To Meco, Don Broco, Arcane Roots, Lower Than Atlantis and Biffy Clyro all have a huge influence on us. We love them all dearly.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Chris: Me and Dan both write for the band but we tend to write very similarly. We will write the structure of the song, usually starting with a riff or a chorus, record it into a laptop or a phone and then show it to the band. After we’ve all learnt the instrumentation, we work out vocal harmonies as a group.
Okay. Your debut EP was just released a few days ago! How are you feeling about it right now?
Dan: We’re very proud of it, we’ve done tons of rubbish recordings, so it was nice to hear what we are supposed sound like, especially with Neil Kennedy in charge of producing it, he has produced some of our favourite albums. So we knew it was gonna sound sick!
Awesome! How would you describe this EP?
Dan: It’s a collection of riffs, harmonies and hooks all mashed together to create this masterpiece. Imagine if all the bands I listed earlier joined forces to create one super group; that’s our EP! There’s some really poppy stuff in there and there’s really heavy stuff in there too. We tried to write something that would appeal to quite a wide variety of people and hopefully we’ve done that!
You had the EP launch show on its release day. You must have been very excited about this show too! How did it go?
Chris: It was genuinely the best show we have ever done. We gig in Bristol so much that our fan-base gets spread thinly over the shows we do but for this EP Launch everyone that has supported us at gigs all turned up together. Everyone down on the front row was singing all the words and it was so overwhelming to see that kind of support. It was a 10/10.
You were on your UK tour just before the EP release. Can you tell us about it?
Dan: The tour was so cool! It was our first tour so we didn’t know what to expect. It was the first time we have played in most of the cities so we had no idea if anyone would come! Luckily every show was awesome, and was awesome to see people come out.
For sure! Glad to hear that. Are you planning the next one?
Dan: YES! There are already shows confirmed for next year, so that is going to be fun! Hopefully we can see some of you lovely peeps there!
What is coming next from Blank Atlas?
Tom: We’re going to concentrate on playing to as many people in as many cities, spread the love and that! But we have a bunch of songs that we are itching for you to hear. So we will be working on recording them soon too!
Exciting! Is there anything else you would like to say?
Chris: We’re still improving so much each year, we have songs in the works right now that we think are some of the best we’ve ever written, and our live show is becoming something we’d never thought we were capable of. I just want to say watch this space, we’ve got so much more to give.
Thank you very much for your time! Good luck!
(Teri Morris)
To find out more about Blank Atlas, visit their sites using the links below;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlankAtlasOfficial/?fr ef=ts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BlankAtlasBand/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlankAtlasBand
Website: http://www.blankatlas.co.uk/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/solitude-ep/id1151473988
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/19mN1VhMbwBSnFmLrX3a6m
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