In diesem Interview mit uns dem Frontstage Magazine spricht Dan Jacobs, Gitarrist der Band Atreyu, über ihr neues akustisches Album „The Pronoia Sessions„. Ursprünglich inspiriert von den VIP-Treffen mit ihren Fans, entschloss sich die Band, einige ihrer Songs in einem intimen, akustischen Format neu zu interpretieren. Jacobs teilt Einblicke in die Entstehung des Albums, die Auswahl der Songs und ihre emotionalen Coverversionen von Klassikern wie „Like A Stone“ von Audioslave und „Mary Jane’s Last Dance“ von Tom Petty. Zudem spricht er darüber, wie die Pandemie ihre musikalische Entwicklung beeinflusst hat und was die Zukunft für Atreyu bereithält.
Frontstage Magazine: What inspired you to create The Pronoia Sessions as an acoustic album, and how did you choose which songs to reimagine for this project?
Dan: The initial inspiration came from an idea we had for our VIP meet and greets. We wanted to offer something special to our fans that purchased the upgraded VIP package at our shows so we decided to strip down some of our songs and play them acoustically in a very different way than anyone would expect us to perform them. We especially wanted to approach them this way because of the intimacy of this type of performance. After several tours of doing this, and getting such great feedback from our fans that participated in these intimate shows, we decided that it could be fun to take this idea and record it, adding more songs to the mix as well as some cover songs to make things even more interesting.
Frontstage Magazine: Your music is known for its raw energy and intensity. How did you approach the challenge of capturing that same emotion in an acoustic format without losing the original power of the songs?
Dan:Our music has always been very emotional both lyrically and musically so slowing the songs down and using different instrumentation combinations, we are able to make them feel almost more emotional and somber in that sense. Especially on our covers of Audioslave and Tom Petty both fronted by artist that have passed away and we wanted to really feel the weight of their loss in those songs.
Frontstage Magazine: You’ve covered two iconic tracks, Like A Stone and Mary Jane’s Last Dance. What drew you to these particular songs, and what was your main focus when interpreting them?
Dan: Both artists are big inspirations to everyone in our band and losing them has definitely made a unforgettable dent in the music industry. We wanted to pay homage to these incredible artist and as I mentioned before, perform these songs in a way where you could really feel the weight and sadness of their loss. In the realm of The Pronoia Sessions it felt like the perfect place to showcase this side of Atreyu and do our best to breathe new life into those incredible songs.
Frontstage Magazine: The pandemic forced many artists to explore new creative directions. How did the Covid era influence your musical evolution and the creation of The Pronoia Sessions?
Dan: I wouldn’t say that the pandemic directly inspired this record, but the return to playing shows afterwards and the excitement around being able to come to shows again brought more fans to our VIP meet and greets which intern led to us being inspired to release The Pronoia Sessions as an album as opposed to just playing them exclusively live.
Frontstage Magazine: Which of the reimagined songs surprised you the most during recording, in terms of how they evolved compared to their original versions?
Dan: Right Side of the Bed for me has such a cool unique vibe to it because we slowed it down a lot and made it much sexier even having myself write and record a saxophone solo as opposed to my guitar solo to give it a different vibe that felt more appropriate for the reimagined tempo of this song.
Frontstage Magazine: Do you have plans to perform these acoustic versions live, or do you see this new sound influencing your future studio albums in any way?
Dan: As far as exclusively playing them live, we have no plans just yet other than sprinkling a song or two into our regular set to add some fun dynamic. As far as it influencing us moving forward, it would probably be more so continuing epic production elements as we’ve always been a fan of to make songs really come to life with texture and depth to them but aside from that this is about as soft as we go and moving forward, I have a good feeling we’re gonna be going the total opposite direction and getting back to our roots again.
Fotocredit: Atreyu / Offizielles Pressefoto
