Atomic Life Have Arrived to Rock Your Face Off
When Long Island-based hard rock band Atomic Life performed at NYC’s Heaven Can Wait last month the sweat on the stage nearly matched that in the crowd.
An intense, blistering set that was nonstop energy, you’d have never guessed it was just their second show as a band.
Their maiden voyage had taken place the previous night in Philly.
With a sound that can be described as if Florence + The Machine fronted Velvet Revolver, Atomic Life is led by the powerful, and authoritative vocals of frontwoman Adea Frances, and features three veterans of the hardcore scene – Michael Sadis (NK) on bass, Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Thoughtcrimes) on drums, and Cody Hosza (Glassjaw) on guitar (photo: L to R).
The band released two singles before their initial shows – “Hit Me First,” and the song they kicked off their set with, “Incense & Aries” – each of which serve as a heck of an introduction to the band.
I caught up with Adea at Heaven Can Wait, and she discussed what each member of Atomic Life brings to the table musically, as well as how filling in for the frontperson of a hardcore band changed her life, and the time she taught a puppy how to mosh. She started things off, however, by talking about the formation of Atomic Life, and how she wasn’t actually part of the original plan.
You have three bandmates who are veterans of a number of well known bands. I’m guessing you all knew each other from the scene, but what initially sparked the idea of coming together as a band?
It’s kind of funny, I wasn’t supposed to be the vocalist of this band at all.
Billy and Michael have known each other for 20 years. They’ve been in bands together for that long, so since they were kids. Michael and Billy started writing. They wanted to start a new project. They had a couple vocalists in mind. They were auditioning people, and I heard a demo.
Billy and I had been in a band together before this (Pretty Cryers), and that band, I was taking a break from it. I heard the demo, and I said, “Can I try something over this?” That song became “Hit Me First,” which is our debut song. Michael heard it, and he called me, and he was like, “Dude, come on. You just made my decision for me.”
He was interviewing some super talented people for the space, but we just work really well together.
That’s awesome! The four of you are spread out on Long Island, and Brooklyn, right?
We’re all kind of on Long Island.
Cody’s on Long Island all the time. Michael and I live about an hour from each other, and Billy and I are in the same town.
What do you feel is the unique musical aspect each member brings to the band?
Oh, that’s a great question.
I think the natural answer is to say that Billy is a rhythm genius. He brings the riffs. He brings the structure of the songs. He brings the musical directing. He can imagine all of the parts coming together in a really unique way. He’s a phenomenal composer.
Sadis brings these heavy, thumpy tones. He brings attitude, but Sadis also brings the collaboration. He’s everybody’s hype man. He’s really a super hard worker, always on the go. We call him Microwave Mike, because he is always ready to keep writing. “Let’s get back in the studio. Let’s do the next thing. Let’s see how far we can push it.”
Cody joined a little bit later, but Cody and I have been friends for a while, too, and he brings … he’s a shredder. He can shred on guitar.
You left yourself out! What do you bring?
I sing. I write the vocal parts, and I write the lyrics.
In terms of sound, is this group significantly heavier than your previous band?
I’d say yes.
It’s different. This band is definitely more me.
You met my friend Steve Messina earlier. He’s part of the hardcore community in New York. For a little bit, while my friend Nick (Nicky Bullets), the vocalist of Car Bomb Parade, was on sabbatical I sat in for that band, so I met all these punks, this cool underground community. That really influenced my writing style.
I wouldn’t say we’re even anywhere close to being a punk, or a hardcore band, but … our heart is still in that.
It sounds like you may have survived a pit or two over the years. Do you have a crazy pit moment you can share?
A pit moment?
We played an outdoor show once. It wasn’t crazy or anything. I remember there weren’t that many people, but I could tell people wanted to dance, and mosh. This was while I was with Car Bomb Parade.
I brought my (German Shepherd) puppy. I had taught my puppy how to jump up and down. Actually, Steve took some photos of us in the pit. It’s just me and my dog together, just dancing around.
That was great.
For all the people reading this – you need to train your dog before you bring them into a pit!
Yes. I would not recommend bringing a dog to a pit ever, but my dog and me, it’s very different.
What have Atomic Life’s jam sessions been like? What kind of exchanges of ideas have been going on?
We kind of have our thumb in a lot of different areas. We try whatever feels good in the moment.
Billy and I have a writing practice. We write together literally every single day.
Michael writes. He’s a little further away from us, (but) he’s always jamming, and writing, and coming up with riffs, and sending them to us. Then we expand upon those.
How early in your life did rock and roll become of interest of you, and how quickly did you dive into it?
I’m very new. I’ll say that. I’m very, very new, and I’m very grateful that people are so welcoming in this community.
I wrote my first song during the pandemic. I’d never tried to sing, or write anything before then. I had crippling social anxiety, and I came into music, and everything in my life kind of just clicked into place.
The people that I got to meet, Long Island has an incredible local music scene, and they really elevate each other. That’s how I met these guys.
Do you happen to know the Long Island-based punk rock band – and longtime friends of the site – Bad Mary?
I do! They’re really good friends of mine. I love Amanda.
I played a show with them with my old band, and Amanda is a killer performer.
So you started writing in 2020, but were you someone who was deep into music before then?
Yes. I’ve always been a music junkie. I’ve always been a huge music fan, but in terms of writing, that’s the part that’s new.
Was there a specific album that made you want to become an artist?
There were a lot of albums.
There’s an artist (from New Zealand) called Sheep, Dog & Wolf. He’s very proggy. It’s one dude. He does all the parts. It’s incredible. The composition, the writing, the singing, the lyricism, every level of it I was obsessed with. I remember hearing that, this was even before I went to graduate school, so 2017, and and I was like, oh, I might want to write music one day. It sounds so different than anything that I’ve touched.
When I was, I want to say college age, I started getting really into this band called Hail the Sun. I found the producer, Mike Watts, because I remember listening to that band, and I looked up the producer because I liked it so much. I thought it was so unique. And Mike Watts is who we work with now for our songs.
Amazing!
Yeah. Amazing.
I realized he had worked on some of my favorite things. He had worked on As Tall As Lions. He had done some of Kevin Devine’s records. A lot of people that I had been really inspired by.
Presently, women in rock tend to be presented in a certain way. What are your feelings on those stereotypes?
Could expand a little bit more? What are you seeing?
When I think about the fact that whenever women in rock, specifically hard rock, are presented it’s always something like “the 20 hottest women of rock,” it’s never like “the 20 best vocals,” or anything like that.
Yeah, so music is a male dominated industry, substantially, right? That’s an undeniable fact. Women in music get criticized when they’re gorgeous, and wear makeup, and care about their appearance. They get criticized the other way, as well. We were just talking about Lizzo (before the interview). Lizzo is a superstar. I think she’s brilliant. She gets criticized every single day of her career.
At the end of the day, I think that you’re going to get criticized no matter what, so, you know, fuck it.
Hell yeah. So finally, how’d you end up landing on the name Atomic Life?
It was something Michael came up with.
Does it have a deeper meaning?
Oh, it does, but what do you think it means? What does it mean to you when you hear that?
Well, the first thing I think of when it comes to atomic is an explosion, so I’m assuming later tonight I’ll see an explosion, musically speaking, on stage.
Yeah.
So the thing that I think of when I hear the word atomic, I think of the nuclear family, and I think of the atomic test dummies.
We were just talking about women, and I was thinking about roles that were structured around the nuclear family, and what a woman should do in that family, what a man should do, so for me, the name becomes this kind of sardonic twist on the atomic family, the atomic life that we’re living as people who are all rebelling in different ways from those kind of predetermined paths, you know?
So everyone in the band is a rebel in some way, shape, or form?
Maybe.
For more Atomic Life, including everywhere you can find on them on the internet, check out linktr.ee/atomiclife.
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