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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Atari Teenage Riot
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 14 June 2011
Formed in Berlin in 1992, digital hardcore outfit Atari Teenage Riot released provocative debut album ‘Delete Yourself!’ in response to the rise of neo-nazism in their native Germany.
Whilst on tour in support of follow up LP ‘The Future Of War’, they met and recruited noise artist Nic Endo. She was key in creating 1999 long player ’60 Second Wipe Out’, which, as with previous albums, was released via the band’s own Digital Hardcore Recordings label. Having elected to disband in 2000, ATR lost MC Carl Crack to a drug overdose the following year, while fellow founding member Hanin Elias went off to found her own all-female Fatal Recordings label.
Remaining faction Nic Endo and Alex Empire recruited CX KiDTRONiK on MC duties for their reformation in 2010. With fourth album ‘Is This Hyperreal?’, the trio have sought to apply futuristic, bass-laden production and punk-rock riffery to protest rhetoric and themes of unrest in today’s so-called ‘digital age’. With that set for release on 20 Jun, and a string of foreign festival appearances lined up this summer, we pulled aside Nic Endo to ask our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I come from a classical music and jazz background, but was working within the experimental electronic underground scene in Berlin in the 90s when Carl Crack from Atari Teenage Riot asked me if I want to join them. My main focus is on sound design, abstract music and Japanese avant-garde noise. I am also responsible for all of ATR’s designs since 1998, record covers, logos, etc. I am also taking the band photos that you see in the media and on the record sleeves, and since last year have also taken over all female vocals in the band.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
There was a lot of stuff we wanted to talk about: hacker activism, human trafficking, control technologies in the modern age, and keeping the internet free from government and corporate control. We think these are the main issues of our time and there need to be powerful songs written about them.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It’s always different. This time we started with a world tour – amazing shows which went as far as Taiwan, Japan, then to the US, Canada and, of course Europe, too. That energy made it onto the record. Before Christmas the blueprint was finished. Then Alec Empire and I flew to Japan to write lyrics, while CX KiDTRONiK was working in Brooklyn. When we came back we pretty much nailed the whole thing. We wrote 21 songs. So, we had to compile those types of tracks which made the album flow in a good way. The other songs are very strong, they are not like outtakes, so we will put them out later. But we hate super long albums. We prefer to listen to something tight and exciting, that keeps the momentum going. That’s the great thing about the internet age, you don’t fear that certain tracks will never be heard, so it’s more easy going.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I am personally influenced a lot by John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, James White, Alice Coltrane and Maya Deren. These people make me creative. They aren’t a direct influence as in me trying to sound like them. I just love how their brains are wired.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
It’s important to understand that this is not entertainment. It is a physical experience, as Alec Empire likes to put it. So this music involves you 100%, it engages you, it makes you think, it takes you to the extremes. Some people go on holiday and spend weeks in some hotel with a swimming pool, we like to jump out of a plane right into the ocean, dive deep while lightning and thunder is coming from the sky. We love adrenaline and action. Our live shows are insane. People go absolutely nuts. Many bands talk about it but we live it.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
To shake things up in a music scene which glorifies the past and doesn’t push the boundaries anymore. Do we succeed? You decide.
MORE>> www.atari-teenage-riot.com
