Thanks for taking some time to chat with From the Green Room
1. What’s the name of the band?
Atomic Agent.
2. Where are you from?
Hämeenlinna, Finland.
3. What type of music do you play?
Hard Goth Rock. There are so much of dark elements like the lyrical themes, the tone of
my voice and much of the guitar melodies that fall into the Goth/Gothic category, but this
stuff also has so much that cockiness and heaviness of Hard Rock, that I think Hard Goth
Rock says it best. Although, there is a lot more, when you start digging in.
4. Introduce yourselves to the readers and tell us what you do in the band?
Hi! I’m Al Aston, I sing and play all the instruments – until now, that is. For live
purposes we are forming a line-up, other members so far added are Neville van der Smith
on bass, Count Jan Woods on drums and Nicholas de Sin on rhythm guitar. We’re still
actively looking for a lead guitarist – preferably someone, who can make the guitar sing,
so to speak. If this line-up will also start making studio recordings, remains to be seen,
but we are already actively rehearsing for possible future live shows.
5. This is probably a common question but one that most want to know, what musical
influences did you have growing up, and what are some now?
My first musical influences were artists like Elvis Presley and David Bowie. Then I got
gradually deeper into more extreme metal, and metal, especially thrash and death metal,
are what made me want to play an instrument myself. At one point I listened to a of 80’s
Goth Rock, then a lot of punk hardcore and even played in a certain punk hardcore band
for almost a couple of years.
6. Have you always been into music? Was it something that just came to you
naturally?
I have. None of my family was that musical, other than listening to music, but me and my
friends we really hit it off with metal stuff as teenagers, it really felt like it was made for
us and we were made for it. To be honest, before any serious metal came into picture, I
had no idea I had any musical talent myself. So yes, in the end it did come to me pretty
naturally.
7. What can we expect from the band in the rest of 2023 and beyond into 2024?
There’s a couple of singles coming out – pretty soon I hope, then an EP called Dolly’s
Not Alone later in the spring. A sophomore album is also in the works. On top of that we
are rehearsing the live stuff as mentioned, and hoping to hit the stages later this year –
provided that we find the lead guitarist, of course.
8. For someone who wants to know more about the band, were can they find you at?
And were can they find your music?
You can find us on several social media, like Facebook and Instagram, but not on X. The
debut album Secret Society is out on pretty much all digital streaming platforms. I’m just
hoping we could get a physical release out at some point too.
9. Let’s answer some fun questions, what is your all time favorite band?
Oh man, this answer could change on a daily basis! But today I’ll go with Carcass. I just
love them so much, especially Heartwork is something that makes my clock tick! A
perfect combination of heaviness, blasting, harmonies and technical brilliance (without
going overboard at any point).
10. If you could tour with any band and open or have them open for you, who would
you choose?
Open for us? Well now… We usually get asked only the question who should we open
for, but I like the way you think! 😀 But I think we’d team up with bands like Tribulation,
Candlemass, Paradise Lost and such quite nicely.
Thanks for chatting with me From the Green Room and look forward to chatting
again in the future.
Thank you, it was my pleasure!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atomicagent666
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atomicagentband
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@atomicagent
Bandcamp: https://atomicagent.bandcamp.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vWRdIwcIKLKWbTH31k9N1
ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/atomicagent
Tidal: https://listen.tidal.com/artist/41772380