You’ll know the UK lads well from their dancefloor bangers off their You are Here debut, and while things have been quiet for the last little while, Atomic Hooligan are back. And while the breakbeats are intact on their new album, they come with an increased rock n’ roll focus that’s reflected in the release’s chosen title of Sex, Drugs & Blah Blah Blah. And in line with this, the recording of the album saw them spread their wings and take on more of a musical influence.
“We had a lot of vocals on the last album, but with this one I think we have actual songs rather than tracks with vocals, which we are happy about. And this album is defiantly more musical, like for instance, before we would have sampled strings and brass, but we bought people in to play.” With Sex, Drugs & Blah Blah Blah about to hit the stores, ITM talks to Atomic Hooligan about the recording of the album, and what they’ve got in store for their live performances this year.
Something I’ve never asked before but I’m sure has come up a lot: where did the name Atomic Hooligan come from?
It really didn’t come from anywhere exciting. We had to come up with a name for a gig years ago. And we just wanted it to sound big and powerful, like our sound. So Atomic Hooligan was born.
Your new record is called Sex, Drugs and Blah Blah Blah. Why that title?
It’s not really got a meaning as such, we just thought it sounded cool. You can take your own meaning from it. I like to think it’s about fake celebrity and everyone wanting to be a rock star, and how boring it is. And it is boring.
You said you were going to make the next album “more precise, simpler and maybe even more melodic, more song based”. What did you mean by this, and how have you tried to achieve this?
We just wanted to focus our production more. We still have a very broad influence in our sound, maybe even more so then the last album, but we wanted our sound to be instant and edgy. I think we have achieved this. We had a lot of vocals on the last album, but with this one I think we have actual songs rather than tracks with vocals, which we are happy about. And this album is defiantly more musical, like for instance, before we would have sampled strings and brass, but we bought people in to play.
It’s generally been a case of Matt producing and Terry DJing: has this changed over the last few years at all? For example, has Terry had more input in the production process on the new album? Has anyone else had any input, like Jay Cunning for example?
I was more involved with the writing of songs here, Like Papercuts and _Electro aint Electro, but we really have stuck to the same formula on the whole. If it aint broke don’t fix it. Mat is the studio guy and I’m the road man. I hot the road and play the gigs, and mat sits in the studio and creates magic. Every now and then i come to the studio and have a yes, no session and that’s the way we have always done it. Even though Mat did play a DJ gig a little while back. I think he quite enjoyed it.
Breaks seems to have fallen in popularity recently, you’ve said yourselves you think Australia’s been over exposed. And to me there seem to be not too many ‘massive tunes’ like there were a few years ago. Do you agree? If so, why do you think that is, and how are you responding to that?
Yeah, well it’s all relative. Certain parts of the world breaks is bigger than it’s ever been. Russia is the breakbeat safehouse right now. I do think breaks were just over exposed in Australia though. I think it was pushed and pushed and then there was a massive backlash, it’s just the way life and music is. No one is responsible for that. And to be honest, I never really saw the heyday of breaks in Australia. But I talk to certain people now and breaks is like a dirty word over there. It’s a shame really, mostly for the punters, if they are just not going to breaks nights purely because they are breaks nights then they are missing out on some really good music. I aint going to whine about it though. I’m not here to covert anyone back to anything. If you want to listen to breaks or even our album and the music we make then we are very happy, if you don’t, then that’s down to you. But don’t cut your nose of to spite your face, because you have a preset idea of what a certain kind of music is and if it’s hot or not.
Many dance acts have taken up guitars, drums and done ‘live’ shows. Pendulum and UNKLE are two I’ve seen recently and it seemed to me both dropped all pretence of being ‘dance bands’ and just rock out. I can’t really imagine your tunes from You Are Here getting the full rock treatment, do you guys differentiate yourself stylistically from your production to live show? In other words to you try and emulate the dance sound of your albums?
That’s exactly what we do. We re-produce as close as possible what we have done on the album. We don’t do rock versions of tracks. We balance live and electronic. That’s I think what we do best on record and live. It’s the hardest part really. To do this live is a fucking pain in the arse. But we have been doing it for years now. We have the bottom end of dance music in our shows, which I think some live dance bands lack as they don’t try to reproduce what they do on record. I am quite proud of this. We aint the first or only people to do this, but it’s not as common as you would think.
When will we get to see your live show in Australia?
When a tour or promoter has the vision to bring us there.
What have you had to learn or do differently with the live set up? Did you need to learn an instrument, have singing lessons?
Na, what try to do something your not good at? I scratch and trigger samples, Matt holds down the electronics and triggers samples and tinkers with the keyboard. We want you to enjoy our music live, not wince and wonders why the big bloke with the bald head is singing out of key
Have you had any issues with the band? Nine people is a lot to be on the road with! How do you resolve any conflicts, or are you all just cool, laid back people?
Everyone is just laid back and cool. There’s never been any issues really. Knock on wood. It can be a pain getting everyone to the airport in the morning, but apart from that it’s never really been any stress. We are just really lucky like that.
Do you see it as a necessary step to move to a Live Format to continue to survive as a dance act now days?
Yes and no. It’s another string to your bow, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We did it because that’s what we wanted to do to give our music the best chance to be heard. But there’s loads of dance acts that don’t go near the live arena and are doing fucking well. It’s a personal thing I think. It’s better if you don’t feel forced to do it and you will have a better time.
How do you juggle touring, studio time, doing the label stuff, and family life?
Well, we are pretty well organised when it comes to that. I just deal with the label, well me and Jay. Then I do the DJ touring. Mat handles the studio and family life. It ussualy works that we aint live touring and writing at the same time. So that’s easy to handle as well. It’s just like a 9 to 5, but you get to go out and listen to your favourite music at the weekend and get paid for it.
With this album out of the way, will you start putting stuff out on Menu, or do you see that as a totally different aspect to Atomic Hooligan?
I kind of see that as my little project with Jay now. We have a couple of remixes coming up. But as of right now, I like it that I am a little detached from the promotion of my music. I think it could be a little selfish at this stage to throw our music into the mix at menu. It wouldn’t be fair to Rico, Waks, Mr Stewart and the rest, as I would end up focusing on our stuff more than theirs. It’s only natural really. Or go completely the other way and over compensate and not focus on ours at all. We have been building Waks and Rico for a while now so I want them to go massive. All focus at menu is on these guys.
Atomic Hooligan’s Sex, Drugs & Blah Blah Blah is out this month through Botchit & Scarper.
