02/06/2006

 

Samir : Hi! Thanks for talking to us. How's everything with the band?

Never been better, we are just rehearsing and getting ready to destroy in europe this summer. we are so pleased to be able to come back over with steve flynn and tony choy, we wish rand could have made it but we have some great guitar players to handle it!

Samir : Present yourself to the audience.

I am Kelly Shaefer Greetings!

Samir : How come you named the band "Atheist", what's the story behind that name?

It was a very powerful name and it fit perfectly with the philosophy of the band. its a perfect metal band name dont you think?

Samir : Can you give a small history of your band ?

Well our histroy is far from small so i would suggest checking out the bio on the website. We have been through a lot of shit so it would be hard for me to expalin all of it as you could imagine.

Samir : Which of the Atheist albums is the most special to you and why?

All of them in there own way. but my fav is unquestionable cause its the last stuff we wrtoe with roger, and technically its just a monster! tons of great drumming and lyrically it's very deep.

Samir : Let's talk about your songwriting .what's the kinds of your lyrics?

 

Well ranging from alien life to reincarnation, we covered a lot of topics that had never been covered by a metal band at that time. we never really were fans of death and gore type lyrics, to me there were so many other things that needed to be touch upon, so i always tried to make it as interesting as possible.

Samir : In your opinion, why was Florida the center of the death metal scene?

Who knows, thats just the way it happened, there were a lot of great bands that got started here in florida, i think maybe having bands like DEATH and Nasty Savage, Morbid Angel, kind of kick started the movement, and then it just exploded!

Samir : What do you think about Chuck schuldiner? He was the grandfather of death metal, wasn't he?

No doubt! he was doing it first, he really deserves a lot of credit for having the balls to make that kind of music when no one else was even thinking about it. He was a visionary.

Samir : On the end of the '80s the famous death metal scene in Florida began to unfold. Tell us please about those times, about the bands

They have taken part in the scene. This is metal history. it is metal history. We all did shows together and the the scene just was on fire down here, maybe due to the heat hahaha, but it was great to be a part of it, there were many great shows and even more great death metal. we never realised it at the time, cause we wer ein it, but as years went by we knew that we had helped create something very special, i cant tell u how cool it is that people have held it in such high regard after all of this time. i mean its a who's who of death metal when you look at all of the bands that came from florida, and the shows were just amazing. it was a great time for metal!

Samir : Do you listen to death metal? What's your opinion, about the death metal scene of nowadays?

I would not say that we are as into it as we once were, but we have a ton of appreciation for the bands that do it well, and there are not as many that do it well like in the old days, but thats just my opinion. its much easier for bands that play heavy to gain exposure compared to back then. So it s a bit easier for bands today to play that extreme shit and have mags and labels being interested in them.

Samir : There's always been a difference between European and American Death metal. what do think about that ?


Well american death metal used to be the mainstay now europe has really taken it and nurtured it to become what it is today, the euro fans are to be commended for not being trendy. i think some of the more dark stuff comes from europe due to the enviroment, for instance scandinavia and the cold ass weather makes for different sounds thats for sure!

Samir : Lets go back to the early days of Atheist and go through the history of the band.What memories do you have from those days?

Way to many to mention really. We had a few tours some dates were good some were shit, i think the best time we ever had on tour was with benediction in europe 1993, those guys were so cool to us and they really made it possible for us to come over there and play. we owe them a lot! all the dates we did in holland were amazing! they were fans of tech metal so it was nice for us. some countries were not very into technical metal so it was tough for us.

Samir : Tell us something about your gigs.What was the best live experience.


The best experience for me was a show we did in minneappolis, minnesota here in the states, we were not expecting much love from this city cause we had never been there, but at the end of mother man the crowd started whistling the birds at the end of the song, it was incredible! we could hear it over the music it was just very unique.

Samir : What are your touring plans?

Well we are gonna do these shows this summer and see how it feels, if it goes well we will do some more, we also plan of doing a run of american dates as well. it will all depend on who wants to see it you know if there is a demand to see the band we will do ur best to get out and play.

Samir : You will play at this year "Wacken Open Air"so what do you think about it ? what's your feeling when you will play there ?

Well we here it is a great fest so we are honored to be a part of it, and we hope everyone enjoys it. for us its nice to go there and play now that so many people appreciate the music in a different way now.

Samir : What have the media and fans to say about your album "Elements" and do you remember how many gigs did you do on that album?

When it came out many were confused by it because it had such jazz overtones and latin rhythms underneath all of this textured guitar work and screaming vocals. as you may know we write and recorded that whole record in 40 days, so to us we are just amazed at how it came together and at the fact that it stood the test of time, and is appreciated now more than ever. we just did the one tour in 93 and then we broke up.

Samir : What would you like to say to your morocain fans ?

Thank you for sticking with us and for turning new people on to the band. and we hope to come play for you this year!

Samir : If you 'll be invited to playing here in morocco, do you accepte about this invitation?

Of course!

Samir : Are you involved in any other band/project besides atheist?

Oh yeah several in fact! Neurotica was my band after atheist we released 3 records here in the states and toured on Ozzfest. we plan on releasing those records in 2007 in europe so watch for that, also i have a band that i am playing guitar in called UNHEARD www.myspace.com/unheard, also another rock project called Big Machine www.myspace.com/bigmachine that is written by Brian Johnson from Ac/DC, all of that stuff should be out in 2007

Samir : Who are your main influences and what albums made the biggest impact on your life?

Black Sabbath, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Mercyful fate. Rush, King Crimson

Samir : What can you possibly say about such a great band like Death, who has written history in death metal?

They deserve the legacy they earned, i personally am not a big fan of anything but Human cause paul and sean killed on that record, it was there most technical as well.

Samir : Thank you Mr KELLY for all of your time ,Any final comments?

Thank you all for everything and we hope to see you all at the festivals in europe, make sure you turn on a friend or 2!! Cheers !

Members :

Kelly Shaefer
Steve Flynn
Roger Patterson
Rand Burkey
Tony Choy

Albums :

Piece Of Time 1989
Unquestionable Presence 1991
Elements 1993
Atheist - The Collection Boxed set, 2005

Links:

www.kellyshaefer.com
www.starrfactoryrecords.com
www.officialatheist.com