5 Years

Hope your new year is getting off to a great start! We haven’t forgotten about you. Thanks for thinking about us.

On January 16, 2008, we uploaded “Dark Lotus” to OurStage.com. The next day, we shared “Automatic Doors”. OurStage uses judging software to allow its users to listen, judge, and rank artists’ music. If you haven’t used their service to discover new bands, we’d highly recommend it. Full disclosure here: we may be a little biased. Per this month’s report, 5 years later, “Dark Lotus” and “Automatic Doors” remain in the top 20 in their respective genres.

5 years.

Thanks, guys. That’s quite an accomplishment and we share it with you.

-Mason

Fade to Black

Nadeem Majdalany, our good friend and the producer of our “Automatic Doors” video, recently contacted me to talk about his directorial debut, Fade To Black. Fade to Black is an imaginative short that he wrote and is trying to raise funding for. If the project reaches its funding goal, Nadeem will get to step behind the director’s seat for the first time and we’d love to see what he would cook up! Here’s a glimpse of what he’s working on:

Fade to Black will star Jake Brown and Brigette Davidovici and will feature work from some of the most talented and successful editors, visual artists, cameramen, lighting and wardrobe people in Los Angeles. You can watch the leads talk about the project after the jump.

Fade To Black – indiegogo from Fade To Black on Vimeo.

What do you think? Is this project something you’d like to support? Nadeem and his friends have raised over $3,000 on Indiegogo.com and they’re close to their funding goal! There are 5 days of funding left, so it’s make or break time now. That’s why I’m writing this post.

Nadeem isn’t making Fade to Black to score a profit. He’s making it to bring a cool vibrant story to life that strikes a chord with anyone who’s ever had a passion so strong that it redirected their life in a profound way. If you dig the concept and look and feel of Nadeem’s project as much as we do, we hope you’ll help by considering making a donation or sharing this blog with a friend or family member. Here are some additional links where you can learn more about Nadeem and his project:

http://www3.indiegogo.com/fadetoblackfilm

http://www.facebook.com/groups/fadetoblackfilm/

http://www.facebook.com/fadetoblackfilm

https://twitter.com/FadeToBlackFilm

Mason

Updates

I realized it had been a while since we posted about what we’ve been up to, so I wanted to take a moment to share some news with you. First, 2011 was one of a’tris’ most productive years. Last year, we wrote and demoed 22 new songs, over 2 albums’ worth of material. As many of you know, each song was released in the form of a music video on YouTube. Some of these videos featured public domain footage while others were conceived and created by our friends at Bouncing Ball Films. Each song featured an original logo by either alphabetica design or the band and we wanted to thank every one who purchased one of our logo shirts at the a’tris merch store. While we set out to do all of these things once every week, when the dust settled, we averaged one demo every two weeks. We’re totally cool with that.

Did you miss some of our videos? Click the above image to see an archive of our work.

Last year, we had the pleasure of collaborating with Tiger Darrow on a few songs. One of our favorites was a cover of Jonathan Seet’s “A Million Hungry Eyes,” which you can check out here. Tiger recently released a new music video for her song, “Machines.” We’re big fans of what she’s doing and have already begun collaborating with her on something new. We think you’re going to really like it and will keep you posted.

This year is already off to a great start. “Dark Lotus” was the second most popular rock video on Ourstage last month. That puts an a’tris song in the top 10 for 12 months. Craziness. Seriously, thanks for all of your support! Until the next post, we hope to see you on Facebook and Twitter.

-Mason

R.I.P Steve Jobs

 

It’s shortly after 3AM and I still can’t go to sleep. While I never had the pleasure of meeting Steve Jobs, I am deeply saddened by his passing. Steve was my hero. Without his products, I don’t believe that I would be the writer or the person that I am today. There isn’t an artist out there whose life hasn’t been touched by Steve’s work in some way. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. The world won’t be the same without him. He will truly be missed.

Mason

Mason opens J-Rock SoHo

This Saturday, I’ll be playing a solo set to kick off J-Rock at SoHo Gallery for Digital Art. While a’tris’ sound is different from much of the music you’ll hear during the evening, I’ve always been influenced by Japanese art and it’s an honor to open an event that will bring some seriously talented Japanese artists to NYC. If you live around the area, I hope you’ll join me in welcoming them. Throughout the night, there will be a fashion show, live music, and animation. You’ll be in for a real treat. Details below. Hope to see you there!

Date: Saturday, 9/24
Time: 6:00PM
Venue: Soho Gallery for Digital Art
Location: 138 Sullivan St.  New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $12 in advance at http://t.co/dLBqrAmz

-Mason

Mason chats with Sphere Music

In case you missed it, last week, I sat down with Baxter Labatos from Sphere Music and had a great chat about what a’tris has been up to lately. I’ve included a snippet from our conversation below. You can check out the rest by clicking here.

Listening to a’tris reminds me of the time I discovered Aphex Twin and Radiohead. Sophisticated beats, smooth synths and psychedelic guitars create a suave atmosphere that is distinctive and also pleasurable listening experience. a’tris is the brainchild of Mason Taylor, from the Berklee College of Music, and producer/songwriter Michael Kreher. Taylor and Kreher added co-writer/guitarist Ben Azar,then came Nate Lueck on Bass and Travis Abel on drums. Since then the band have drawn from interesting styles to create their own music that not moves the crowd to their feet but also makes on ponder about existential angst .

SM – Your music is very atmospheric and I love your occasional use of female vocals . What influenced you to create this direction as opposed to the current trend in your bands right now?

Thanks! We honestly just try to write and record music that we’d want to listen to. Our thought is that, by taking this approach, regardless of how different the arrangements are or esoteric the music may be, there are going to be people like us out there who will want to buy it and share it with their friends.

SM – You seem to be doing a lot of things left and right. What are your rules about performing, composing and taking time off?

This is a full-time job for us. There just aren’t any medical benefits or vacation days. This year, we launched a project that saw us releasing a new song and music video each week. That is currently on pause as Nate is touring with Ted Nugent. Usually we take breaks when opportunities for collaboration come up or members tour with other artists. The Ted Nugent tour, for example, was something that we just couldn’t let Nate pass up. If your readers would like to check out what we accomplished so far with this project, I hope they’ll take a moment to visit atrishq.com and/or youtube.com/atrismusic.

-Mason

Quinn Monroe Wears a’tris

Our friends at Hollywood Girl have thrown even more love our way with the release of Episode 6. Not only does the new episode prominently feature “Automatic Doors,”  Courtney Zito’s character, Quinn Monroe, also sports a #songaweek t-shirt during a key scene with Danielle Bisutti. If you like this look, all you need is the shirt – which you can purchase here - and a pair of scissors.

Thanks for all of your support, Courtney! a’tris loves Hollywood Girl

Interview with Pearl Snap Discount

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Gadi from Pearl Snap Discount. Check out the first part of our interview here.  Gadi is one classy guy. His post features a lot clips from our chat and some videos as well. I think you’re going to really enjoy it.

-Mason

Week 23: Taste So Sweet

To download free music and a karaoke version of this demo, visit a’tris HQ and sign-up for our mailing list.

To submit a cover of this cover, please post a video response on our YouTube page.

Here are the lyrics and chords to this week’s tune:

Taste So Sweet

You are a vulture dressed in women’s clothes.
With a child’s eyes and the heart of steel,
you spend your days sucking blood from a stone.
and your words reek of death
I’d love to see you rot.

That would taste so sweet.
That would taste so sweet.

You shove anyone who you think will go down.
But someday you’ll be the one who’s on his knees.
Everyone will laugh at you and leave you there to cry.
They’ll go too easy on you.
I’d love to see you burn.

That would taste so sweet.
That would taste so sweet.

It will all come back to haunt you. I promise.
It will all come back to haunt you when you sleep.
You wont be able to escape it if you try.
It will hunt you down.
I’d love to see your face when it happens.

That would taste so sweet.
It would taste so sweet.

As always, T-shirts and ringtones can be purchased at our web store.

Week 22: I Will [Radiohead Cover]

To download free music and a karaoke version of this demo, visit a’tris HQ and sign-up for our mailing list.

To submit a cover of this cover, please post a video response on our YouTube page.

Here are the lyrics and chords to this week’s tune:

I Will

I will
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won’t let this happen to my children
Meet the real world coming out of your shell
With white elephants
Sitting ducks
I will
rise up
Little babies eyes eyes eyes eyes
Little babies eyes eyes eyes eyes
Little babies eyes eyes eyes eyes
Little babies eyes eyes eyes

As always, T-shirts and ringtones can be purchased at our web store.