Attila made a few stops at Impericon Festivals in the month of April and yours truly had a great chance to catch up vocalist Chris "Fronz" Fronzak, joined by guitarist Chris Linck and bassist Kalan Blehm, to discuss the latest news of the band and their future plans.
U: A lot of things have changed since we last saw each other. First and foremost, you are now an independent band, quitting Sharptone Records after approximately two years. What lead you to this decision?
U: And on "Callout 2" you mention “fuck a label, fuck the industry”. Was it intentional? Did you address it to specific people?
F: No, it’s pretty general, towards everyone (the other guys laugh) I’ve seen a lot of shady business go down with record labels, even pertaining to us, and as far as the industry goes, it’s just very shady. There’s sketchy things going on, no respect…
U: …with a lot of people speculating that there’s gonna be a new album soon.
U: Maybe on Stay Sick recordings..?
U: Final question: If you were members of the Spice Girls, what would be your Spice Names?
U: A lot of things have changed since we last saw each other. First and foremost, you are now an independent band, quitting Sharptone Records after approximately two years. What lead you to this decision?
Kalan Blehm: We can do everything better on our own.
Fronz: We can run our own shit better than a label can at
this point and that’s really what it comes down to. We want to release music as
we like; we want to release singles but labels always want albums…
Chris Linck: It gets to the point where we are constructing our
own tours, creating our own marketing plans, doing everything ourselves, but we
were paying people for what we were doing, so…
K.B.: Cutting down the middle man.
F.: I feel that in the grand scheme of things, a label is
helpful to a small band, but when you’re the size of Attila, it makes no
difference to have a label.
U: And on "Callout 2" you mention “fuck a label, fuck the industry”. Was it intentional? Did you address it to specific people?
F: No, it’s pretty general, towards everyone (the other guys laugh) I’ve seen a lot of shady business go down with record labels, even pertaining to us, and as far as the industry goes, it’s just very shady. There’s sketchy things going on, no respect…
C.L.: A lot of lies, a lot of secrets…
F: Honestly, it’s one of the worst industries to be involved
in. People will tell one thing to your face and then just lie to you.
C.L.: You see through all the bullshit, so… We just made the
hard decision to take care of everything ourselves and since we’ve done that,
we haven’t been happier with how things are rolling, and the most successful
things that we have in our career right now, are happening without a label and
without anyone working for us.
U: Well that’s really nice to hear. On "Callout 2" you mention
people by name, which caused a lot of controversy, with certain people taking it
as a good harmless joke and others thinking that you try too hard to remain
relevant. What is your view on that?
F: People are talking, so that’s what we wanted. I don’t
really care what people think (laughs)
C.L.: People need to learn how to laugh a little, enjoy music,
just chill. Not try to dissect everything with…
F: Just take it how it is. Whatever you wanna feel while
listening to that song, is whatever you wanna feel.
C.L.: We had a good time, we had fun fun writing it so…
K.B.: Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
F: That song’s a molehill, keep it chill.
U: And you also dropped “Blackout” recently…
C.L.: Yeah! That song’s awesome!
U: …with a lot of people speculating that there’s gonna be a new album soon.
C.L.: Keep them speculating! Maybe so, maybe not!
U: Maybe on Stay Sick recordings..?
F: No, independent. Independent no matter what.
C.L.: Anything we’re putting out [will be] on our own. We know
what we want to do but we don’t want anyone else to know what we’re gonna do so
maybe an album may be coming, more singles may be coming…
K.B.: EP…
C.L.: No more music may be coming… (laughs)
F: EP, album… Keeping the mystery. [Ignoring my pleas
for a scoop] We’re gonna do one of the things we just mentioned. That’s the
scoop.
U: Fine, I’ll take it. I don’t like it, but I’ll take it.
F: (laughs) Fair enough.
U: How do you feel about Warped tour coming to an end?
C.L.: It’s a bummer, everyone had a lot of good memories from that tour and it was an important time in our career. We are thankful to be a part of it.
C.L.: It’s a bummer, everyone had a lot of good memories from that tour and it was an important time in our career. We are thankful to be a part of it.
F: I think it’s kinda sad, cause I remember being
thirteen-year-old Fronz going to Warped tour, getting a bunch of free condoms
and watching Yellowcard and Coheed & Cambria… It was massive and I’m
thankful that Attila got to be a part of it for 4 years. I think I would say
“thank you” to Kevin Lyman for giving us the chance. I can count the people who
have given Attila a chance on less than one hand and he is one of them, so I
appreciate him putting us on and believing in us, ‘cause Kevin Lyman fucks with
Attila and that’s awesome.
It’s sad it’s coming to an end but it’s the direct result of
the way the music industry is going. I would say that not many people in
America want to go to a punk rock festival; less people are going to it, kiss
Warped goodbye. When people want to go to festivals again…
C.L.: They could fly to Germany and come to this one! [i.e.
Impericon festivals]
F: Yeah, come to Europe where shit is popping off.
C.L.: We’re over here in Germany, and this festival today is
bigger than any Warped tour and they got it all figured out!
U: From an outsider’s perspective, it seemed that Warped was
doing great.
F: It’s easy to say that… Attendancies are diminishing
greatly –we jumped into Warped tour at the tail end of the tour’s run and even
from our perspective [on our first Warped in 2013] -we did 2014 full, 2015 full,
2016 we took off, 2017 we did full- we got to see [that]. 2013 we did half
the tour and it was huge. Every year it gets smaller, smaller, smaller to the
point where you know things are going to end.
C.L.: Shows were getting cancelled in certain cities…
F: It’s unfortunate. The generation of people in America
that did go to festivals were growing up and the newer generation wasn’t
supporting live festivals… It is what it is, I’m not gonna complain about it ,
you know, you create your own destiny and that’s the destiny that America
created; it’s the world where Warped can’t exist. It’s super sad, ‘cause I miss
it and I wish Warped was around forever.
C.L.: The other thing that’s crazy about Warped, and it doesn’t
pertain to our band, is that there are a lot of bands whose career depended on
Warped. A lot of old school bands that came out of the woodwork to only do
Warped tour and now it’s their career, that was their move! So now you’re gonna
stop seeing certain bands touring.
U: Final question: If you were members of the Spice Girls, what would be your Spice Names?
F: I would be Lamborghini Spice.
K.B.: I’d be Brock Spice –Brock’s my drunk alter ego.
C.L.: Babyface Spice.
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