{"id":68711,"date":"2020-11-07T21:53:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T02:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=68711"},"modified":"2020-11-07T21:54:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T02:54:05","slug":"interview-with-james-thorley-of-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2020\/interview-with-james-thorley-of-atlas\/","title":{"rendered":"James Thorley of Atlas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re present on almost every Rock album and in almost every concert setlist, carefully crafted so as to bring almost every teenage listener to tears \u2013 and evoke nostalgia in almost every middle-aged metalhead. Love them or loathe them, love songs have always been a big part of the genre, especially if we talk about AOR\/Melodic Rock scene. It\u2019s been mostly the late \u201870s and the \u201880s that gave us timeless classics from the likes of Toto, Survivor or Foreigner. The representatives of the younger generation in this genre are still able to find inspiration in the same topic, though… Just take a look at the British Melodic Rock ensemble Atlas \u2013 and you\u2019d better be sure their newly released album Parallel Love<\/em> wasn\u2019t named like that by sheer accident!… Hardrock Haven caught up with the band\u2019s keyboard player and producer James Thorley to find out more about the love theme behind the album, the ups and downs of recording process in the middle of lockdown and more…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hardrock Haven: The first thing that comes to my mind upon listening to Atlas is obviously the \u201880s influence. What do you think is so inspiring about this decade, especially when it comes to music?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: I\u2019d say really it\u2019s just that bands that we\u2019re influenced by just happened to be from that decade. I don\u2019t know if it was really the decision that we consciously made that we wanted to sound like the music that came from the \u201880s. It was really the bands that we were listening to when we started playing that just happened to be from that era. That\u2019s what we ended up sounding like when we started playing and writing music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Twenty years ago, the \u201880s music was ridiculed and no longer cool and now it\u2019s appreciated and longed for. Why do you think it is so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: You do see trends that just happen to come and go. When you look at the \u201890s, the \u201880s music just wasn\u2019t popular whatsoever. Everyone hated the guitar solos and they wanted more simple music and I think that\u2019s coming round again now when you hear a lot of \u201880s influence coming to Pop music… It\u2019s really hard to pin it down to be honest, but we\u2019re all glad that it starts to come back and that obviously helps us a lot that people start to enjoy this type of music more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: What\u2019s prompted the heavier sound of your second album Parallel Love<\/em> \u2013 was it a natural progression for the band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Yeah, it was more natural. We were playing live a lot more after the first album came out, so from touring that first album we wanted to capture how we sounded live in the studio, \u2018cause previously we would just record the songs and not play them live. And then when it came actually for us to play the songs, we had the amps blasting out and we didn\u2019t have the overdubs, so it all sounded a lot rougher. So this time \u2018round we wanted to capture that so when we do play live \u2013 eventually, whenever that is (laughs) \u2013 we would sound more faithful to the record really. Also, we experimented with seven string guitars this time around, which had a big impact on the heaviness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019re also the producer of the new album, with Christopher Borg (Art Nation, Taste) mixing and mastering the recordings. What kind of experience was that and do you think you achieved your goals sound-wise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Yes. Chris did a really good job mixing \u2013 we worked with him on the first album and this time he\u2019s just elevated the sound so much more. So [collaborating with him] is a really good experience. As far as producing, it\u2019s just the way it\u2019s been since we first started really. We know what our music should sound like, so it doesn\u2019t make sense really to work with anyone outside of the band. So we recorded everything at home and we sent it to Chris to mix and we were really, really happy with the job he\u2019s done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you have any other projects as far as music production is concerned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: No, at least not at the moment… nothing\u2019s in the making. If anything came up, I\u2019d potentially work with other bands but at the moment we just don\u2019t have the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And what genres can you imagine yourself producing \u2013 similar to Atlas, like a familiar territory, or something more challenging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Probably just the stuff which I\u2019m used to working with which is Melodic Rock \u2013 anything with keyboards, heavy guitars… Oh, I probably just botched it up as people won\u2019t be happy (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: (laughs) Differently from many Melodic Rock bands of our generation, you don\u2019t really try to modernize your sound. I mean, Parallel Love<\/em> could\u2019ve been as well released in 1989 or 1993. Are there any contemporary influences in your sound that may be revealed in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Yeah, I mean… I listen to a lot of newer bands \u2013 more than I do \u201880s bands \u2013 whereas the other guys are probably more into the \u201880s stuff. But I personally listen to a lot of the Synthwave bands that have been coming out… There\u2019s some really cool, interesting stuff coming out in that genre, so I can see that maybe having an influence on our future music. Even now, on this album, we used a lot of Synthwave influences. And some other bands with the seven string [guitars] are coming out and that\u2019s the stuff we can listen to. So I\u2019d expect us to move forward. We\u2019ll just develop our style a bit more and maybe bring some more modern influences. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Speaking of the band\u2019s sound, Melodic Rock acts often speak of the difficulties with balancing keyboards and guitars while recording, so that the final effort\u2019s neither too guitar-oriented or too keyboard-oriented. Is it difficult for you and your bandmates?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Yeah, it is hard. When we first started out and we were mixing our own stuff \u2013 actually the first EP \u2013 that was the biggest challenge… \u2018cause there isn\u2019t a lot of stuff to read on really. Not a lot of popular bands are using heavy synths and heavy guitars, so it was a learning curve. I think the hardest bit is that the synths take up so much frequency space in the mix and it just eats everything, so you have to make a sacrifice and decide if you want this song to be really synth-heavy or you want the big guitars with the synths just in the background… So there is a balance in that when you do figure out while writing the songs how to get \u2018round that. And a good example is \u201cHuman Touch\u201d, which is our main single. We have the guitars kind of coming in and out during the verses like they\u2019re syncopated and giving the synths a lot of space in the mix. But you can still hear the guitars so there\u2019s no superiority. So it is a bit overbalanced and you have to figure out how to get \u2018round that \u2013 which is hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: In terms of lyrics, Parallel Love<\/em> can be actually treated like a concept album of sorts which is not that common in AOR\/Melodic Rock unless you\u2019re a band like Ten for example. So what\u2019s prompted the idea of one theme for the album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Going into it, we definitely wanted to have a concept, but not necessarily a concept album where songs relate to each other music-wise and tell a story. We didn\u2019t quite want that. We thought that\u2019d be too progressive and put people off listening to the album. But at the same time we really wanted the songs to have a theme running through them. So we looked up what\u2019s popular with AOR and we felt people expect to hear love songs. So we put a twist on that. We looked at different aspects of relationships, so each song looks at different areas of love, relationships, friendships… You can still relate to it in some way as it\u2019s not necessarily a love song. So it\u2019s not necessarily a concept album, but an album with a theme running through it \u2013 a Parallel Love <\/em>theme running through it (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. So is it easy to built the entire record around what is probably most explored topic in not only in music, but also in general?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: I guess it\u2019s just what\u2019s natural to write about really in AOR. I don\u2019t think, at any point, we\u2019ve felt like we\u2019ve been treading on the new ground… like it hasn\u2019t been covered before and did feel original. But I think we\u2019ve definitely written enough love songs by now and that we won\u2019t be writing anything like this again! (laughs) We basically covered what we can cover in eleven songs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Did you drew your inspirations for these songs from real life experiences, or also from movies, literature and so on? And if not, how personal do you get in your lyrics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: I can\u2019t speak for others, but for me it\u2019s only writing from personal experience. I\u2019ve never written from a narrative or a story… not quite one of my strengths to be honest, so everything\u2019s my own experience. I try to keep it a little open-minded, so that any listener could interpret it in different ways really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you think love songs are more relatable for the listeners than those built around other topics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: That\u2019s a good question. I haven\u2019t put too much thought into it, but I imagine so. To be honest, if you looked at the most popular songs on the charts right now, I imagine a very high percentage of them would be love songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And what\u2019s the greatest or your favourite love song of all time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: (laughs) I don\u2019t know, but it\u2019d probably be a Toto song. Maybe \u201cRosanna\u201d…? Just because of the shuffle groove and vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Back to Parallel Love, <\/em>what kind of experience was to record an album during what is the most difficult year for the entire music industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: It was an absolute nightmare to be honest! I mean, none of us could record together. We finished writing the album a few months before a lockdown in the UK, so we had another month or two to prepare the recording sessions. We got the drums recorded and then, the next day, England went into lockdown. So, the guitarist and the bass guitarist had to record their parts in their home recording studio and then sent the recordings to me at my studio so that I could add it all. And then I had Craig, the singer, recording his parts to send them to me and only then we could send it all to Chris… So we were never in the same room to record this one, which was very strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: …And do you think this fact actually shows in the final product \u2013 the final result of your recordings? I mean, with all those difficulties…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: I don\u2019t think so. We\u2019d been together to demo the album and we\u2019d spent about six or seven months going over and demoing it and making the songs the way how we all wanted them to sound. Well, maybe some part could have turned out a little differently if we\u2019d been together. Maybe some ad-libs or some improvised parts that could\u2019ve happened didn\u2019t happen… But we\u2019ll never know really. We can\u2019t tell and still, we\u2019re very happy with how it turned out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So in the face of all these difficulties still being a large part of our daily lives, how do you plan to promote Parallel Love<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Every time we book a show, it just gets pushed back, so… (laughs) It\u2019s hard at the moment. We\u2019ve got a few plans, but we don\u2019t want to announce them just quite yet in case it just doesn\u2019t happen. Next month, we have a show in England \u2013 how they do it in England at the moment is that everyone\u2019s seated and far from each other… So we\u2019ve got that booked and we\u2019ll see if it actually happens or not. If it doesn\u2019t, it will probably be next spring when we will be touring. We might be doing some livestreams, but it\u2019s not quite the same in our opinion than playing for a proper crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Speaking of touring, last year you were on tour with fellow British act Midnite City and the Swedish Age of Reflection. Do you feel there\u2019s a support among newer bands in this genre, or more of a competition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: There\u2019s a lot of support. We get a lot of messages from other bands saying that when this is all over, we should go out and tour together. And when we were on that tour, everyone was great. There\u2019s always a little bit of competition when you\u2019re a support band to any other band \u2013 you wanna try and win over the crowd more. But we\u2019re such a small genre and it\u2019s such a small music scene that you can only be supportive to survive it really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Small or not, what do you think about the current Rock scene in the UK?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: It is quite good and it\u2019s starting to grow. There\u2019s some really, really good bands \u2013 some of our favorite bands \u2013 that are definitely worth checking out. It\u2019s a really good network too, like a Facebook group \u201cThe New Wave of British Heavy Metal\u201d \u2013 awesome people on there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Thorley: Just a \u2018thank you\u2019 to you and everyone who\u2019s picked the album so far. It\u2019s been amazing, all that support that we\u2019ve had all over Europe and everywhere else… And hopefully we\u2019ll be able to get out there and play at some point… (laughs) Now it\u2019s all pushed back, but one day we\u2019ll be looking back at all this and it\u2019ll be just a memory hopefully…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Atlas online @ Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 They\u2019re present on almost every Rock album and in almost every concert setlist, carefully crafted so as to bring almost every teenage listener to tears \u2013 and evoke nostalgia […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":68712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15162,203,15161],"class_list":{"0":"post-68711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-atlas","9":"tag-interview","10":"tag-james-thorley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}