After stepping down as keyboardist and occasional lead vocalist for dapper pop-rockers, Little Red, Tom Hartney assembled the six-piece band in late 2011. The Atoms might appear to simply be Hartney’s subservient accomplices, but Swoboda makes it clear they’re a tight-knit multi-faceted unit. “The band being called Major Tom and the Atoms, everyone sees Tom as the bandleader, the champion out front, but internally this is a real band. Everyone’s bringing ideas to the table, everyone’s co-writing. It’s not his dictatorship by any means.”
Hitherto the band have just one release to their name, 2012’s Shake It Till You Break It EP. The five song homage to classic rhythm and blues was constructed when the band were still finding their feet, but Swoboda indicates the collective’s significant consolidation over the last year impacted the construction of the forthcoming full-length. “Once we started writing for this album it was completely everyone pitching in equal amounts. It became a real band effort. Everyone does expect it’s going to be Tom’s show but it really is a band writing effort, a band producing effort.”
Taking charge of everything associated with recording, releasing and promoting a record is a hefty task and Swoboda admits their determined independence delayed the release date somewhat. “The recording was done so long ago – we can’t even remember going in and tracking this thing, it seems like so long ago. You know, you take on the artwork yourself and you take on publicity and all of that and we’re just looking forward to the launches.”
Having six band members would lighten the load imposed by upholding an independent ethos, however Swoboda admits that their extended personnel can sometimes act as a hindrance. “It’s a bit of a challenge, six guys in the band. Look, we can’t even organise a breakfast together let alone get everything smoothly rolling for the release!” Thankfully each member has been able to take responsibility for multiple tasks and a chief example of this is the band’s recording procedure. “Simon Tait our guitarist is a brilliant audio engineer, [so] he’s taken that on. We’ve all co-produced the album but he’s recorded and engineered it and done a really fantastic job.” says Swoboda.
The freewheeling quality introduced on Shake It Till You Break It is further emphasised on the album and Swoboda reveals that fittingly things did get a bit crazy in the studio at times.
“In Bloodhound, a sick bluesy number, one of the amps caught on fire. In the room mic you can actually hear Taiter, our guitarist, just screaming ‘Let it burn! Let it burn!’ It encapsulated the vibe of this big bluesy nasty number and how raw it was.” Evidently, the band aren’t afraid of the record’s man-made nature coming into view, but Swoboda explains the services of technology were called upon when the situation beckoned for it. “You know, if the tempos not right in something, we reverted to playing with a click and not doing the live take. So there is a bit of perfectionism. Finding that balance is key and I think we’ve done a really good job of it.”
The record’s first single, Confusion, is a bustling demonstration of the band’s growing strengths. Lyrically, Confusion depicts the narrator’s quest to ‘kill the man in the crimson gown’ and Swoboda explains that the album title came from recognising the frequent character allusions within Hartney’s lyrics. “When we were looking at this collection of songs I just said, ‘You assembled this cast of characters, this reads like a comic book, we’ve got to play on that.’ It’s the strength of the album. Every track on there just gives you such a strong visual.” Confusion illuminates Hartney’s eccentric personality and Swoboda reports that the frontman’s presence becomes especially arresting on stage. “When he’s singing them live he turns into the Bloodhound, he turns into Jack The Ripper, he turns into Sherlock Holmes and that’s the beauty of having him as the focal point. It allows him to step into each of these characters.”
Major Tom and The Atoms are a unique entity in contemporary Australian rock music and Swoboda indicates they’re itching to present Heroes, Villains, Boom Boom Boom! to the wider public. “It’s a bit schizophrenic, it’s a bit like a comic book and we’re going to run with it and hopefully the audience will connect with that when we play them live.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
