One week has passed since ATREYU released their latest studio album "Baptize". For their latest track they performed for the first time in a new formation and put themselves to the test. The result is absolutely worth seeing! In the first half, the troupe dealt with successful and emotionally charged lyrics, whereas the second half is devoted more to features. Despite all this, the band is bursting with motivation through their detailed songs. So how does it go for a band that produces a longplayer during a shutdown and has to arrange itself in a new formation? We asked Porter McKnight for you!
Sarah-Jane: What makes a producer so special for you in general?
Porter McKnight: Not all producers are made the same! We’ve worked with a few in our career, and honestly no one compares to John Feldman. He is a caffeinated whirlwind of inspiration, and a master as helping us to find the best version of our artistic selves.
Sarah-Jane: What makes John Feldmann so special and why did you choose him for the new album?
Porter McKnight: He truly cares about the bands he works with, and he gives us his all when he’s there. He creates a fantastic environment and team to work with as well.
Sarah-Jane: Atreyu made a reaction video for "Catastrophe". That was pretty cool and creative of you guys. How did it come about?
Porter McKnight: We wanted to make something fun an unique for this song. Something totally different than the Save Us, Warrior, and Baptize videos we’d already filmed. So Brandon came up with the idea of having our friends film reactions, and we film ourselves reacting negatively and talking shit about the song to add a bit of humor to it. I then sifted through everyone’s reaction videos and edited it all together! Such a fun video.
Sarah-Jane: You made some music videos for the new album - what makes them important nowadays? How can one imagine a video shoot with you guys? Is everyone prepared?
Porter McKnight: Vielen Dank! Everyone is very prepared, yes. We filmed Save Us, Warrior, and Baptize over the span of two days in the fall of 2020 with the same team that created our album artwork. Brandon and myself came up with the main ideas for the videos, and then we worked on those ideas with the team, and we are very happy with the result. I personally have written/directed/filmed/edited music videos, and we’re definitely going to work on some more fun ones for this album cycle.
Sarah-Jane: Jacobs said: “We've even got everyone in the band harmonizing, singing together, like Queen or Def Leppard."” Should this reflect your cohesion? Or for what reason did you decide to sing in multiple voices?
Porter McKnight: We’ve always loved those bands, especially Queen, and have always had a reverence for those layered group harmonies. With the addition of Kyle, and Travis stepping up to sing for the first time, we now have 5 people able to sing great harmonies. We’ll use these magical harmony powers a ton going forward, I’m sure!
Sarah-Jane: "Warrior" has a little bit the character of a Disney song or it reminds me of one of the songs from "The Greatest Showman" - was that your intention?
Porter McKnight: Ha! Not really. We wanted to create a triumphant and uplifting feeling with that song, so that was our goal. I suppose most Disney and musicals strive for that as well, so there’s the connection!
Sarah-Jane: For the new album you paid attention to many small details that give some songs even more meaning. How did you come up with the idea to accompany "Underrated" with violins?
Porter McKnight: We’re always one that tries to add many unique layers to the song to provide the listened with many different ways to connect to the song. If you listen through our verses in particular there are many subtle layers of guitar work that can really take you on a journey. We LOVE using strings wherever possible as well!
Sarah-Jane: Which song was the most difficult to play musically for you or you personally? Were there any new techniques you used?
Porter McKnight: Catastrophe. That second verse for me is going to take a TON of practice to be able to play and scream that verse! We are always finding new styles and challenging ourselves to be better musicians, and we certainly succeeded on this album.
Sarah-Jane: In some interviews you said that your lineup changes bring new opportunities and developments. Do you now also need to take further vocal or guitar lessons to develop further?
Porter McKnight: Brandon and I both took vocal lessons from the wonderful Melissa Cross to ensure that we’re singing/screaming from a place that’s not harmful to our voices in the long run. She has been a great help!
Sarah-Jane: Can you imagine to turn some songs into acoustic versions in the future? Which songs would that be?
Porter McKnight: We just performed Save Us, Baptize, Warrior, Stay, Becoming the Bull, Ex’s and Oh’s, and the Theft on acoustic the past couple days! Its very fun. The fans are asking for an acoustic album! We’ll see, haha.
Sarah-Jane: Now that there is a glimmer of hope for concerts again, can you imagine that in the future live concerts will be broadcast as a livestream? Would you agree with that?
Porter McKnight: Some concerts, for sure, but I think when the artist knows they are being filmed they can sometimes lose their ability to connect to the present moment and with the fans that are in front of them, and that can affect how the performance goes. We’re definitely going to be doing some fun things with Twitch in the future though!
Porter McKnight: Vielen Dank für Ihre Zeit und dass Sie so tolle Fragen stellen. Wir vermissen Deutschland sehr und können es kaum erwarten, zurück sobald es sicher ist! Schön tag noch!
