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Midlands-based math/post-rockers a-tota-so, who include members of Alright the Captain, have shared ‘Far Enough’ the second animated video from their upcoming album ‘Lights Out’. Guitarist Marty Toner drew the short straw and filled in the blanks in our introduction to a-tota-so…
What are the origins of a-tota-so, how long have you been playing together?
We formed in 2011 as a two-piece, I was playing in a band called Alright the Captain, and Jamie [Cattermole] was playing drums in a band called Cheap Jazz, we used to tour a lot together and we lived together so just started making noisy music together and I used to sing in the band for a bit too. We never really did that much as a band at the time but when ATC went on hiatus we focused all our attention on a-tota-so and got Chris [Marsh] in to play bass and we’ve been keeping ourselves busy ever since.
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe yourself?
We like to shift between really loud and really quiet sections and try to make our music as engaging as possible, you could call it math rock but it’s not just noodling for the sake of it really, we tend to be mostly instrumental but with all the guest vocals on the new album there are going to be some very different live shows over the next year as we’ll try to get as many of the vocalists involved when we can.
How did you feel performing your first gig as a band, and how was it?!
In all honesty, I can’t remember our first gig, we were probably super baked. Our first gig as a trio was supporting an Irish band called All TVVINS at The Venue in Derby which was cool cos we were big fans of their guitarist Lar Kayes work in an awesome band called Adebisi Shank
‘I Am’ was recently released as a single, and the new album ‘Lights Out’ is set to land on the 11th March, what goes through your mind in the run-up to new music being released? Excited? Nervous? Both?!
Anxiety and excitement tend to be the main two things that get me, it’s always daunting releasing new music for a variety of reasons but we’re dead proud of this new record so we can’t wait for people to hear what we’ve been working on.
While usually an instrumental band, ‘Lights Out’ features a guest vocalist on each of the eight tracks, was this always the plan for the album, or did that happen organically?
Before the pandemic, we had been speaking to Ellie from No Violet about guesting on a track with us which we had planned to perform together but it took a lot longer than we anticipated to getting round to doing and then covid hit so it gave us all the time we needed to really focus on making a new album, at the time we didn’t think we’d be playing live shows again for a very long time so we developed the idea of getting more vocalists involved to create an album that we would enjoy listening to without the worry of live restraints.
It’s a fantastic way to highlight the talents of eight different vocalists, were you able to record the vocals together, or were your hands tied thanks to the Covid restrictions?
It was a bit stop and start with all the covid restrictions so studio sessions tended to be sporadic or cancelled when people had symptoms etc but all the vocals were all recorded remotely and sent to us to mix at JT Soar. It was ace to get a fresh perspective on each of the tracks with the vocals added in.
What themes are explored on the album?
It’s pretty dark in parts because we were all going through the same shit at the same time so there are a lot of feelings of anxiety and depression and just feeling pretty down, but at the same time, gives a glimmer of hope that things would get better again eventually so it’s kinda nice that it’s being released now that things are starting to get back to normal again a bit now.
The artwork for the album is stunning, who created the concept behind it? And, the animated video for ‘I Am’ is equally as stunning, and works really well with the album artwork, what was your reaction when you first saw the completed video?
The artwork started out as an idea I had when my Dad passed away a few years back actually, for our first album we used a photograph that he had taken as the artwork so I wanted to do something for him again on this release. He used to take us out as kids to go see the baby birds nesting in an old water pump in the rural countryside in Ireland every spring, so we toyed with that idea but when we were discussing the idea with the artist (Simon Curd) we developed it a bit further and he suggested changing the pump to a well and it just developed its own little story from there. When Steve McCarthy came to make the video he decided to work with the album art concept and created the beautiful animated video for us as a learning curve for himself and he did a banging job on it, we love it so much!
Listening back to the completed album from start to finish, for the first time, what moment gave you the biggest goosebumps?
“When The Waves Come” was a real big moment, I’d kinda given Ashley Tubb a quick brief just to scream over the end of the track but he asked if he could do something over the whole track which we obviously said yes to and it just blew me away, I fuckin love Sugar Horse so getting him involved was great!
In terms of a similar audience, which band out there at the minute do you feel a-tota-so would be best suited to open for?
I like to think we can fit in to so many different lineups if you can get over the fact we’re instrumental, but if we could play with anyone it would be stupidly cool to play with Tool or Giraffes? Giraffes!
Excluding yourself, which band would you like to see break out and become a success?
Sang Froid deserve to be HUGE, Aisling is a phenomenal vocalist <3
What are your own first musical memories? And what was the lightbulb moment that made you go “I want to do that”?
I remember rifling through my mum’s tape collections as a kid listening to all her old 60’s and 70’s rock stuff loads, and I had piano lessons as a kid, but the main trigger for me to want to get involved in doing music myself was going to my cousins 18th birthday and leaving with my first guitar after hearing Nirvana for the first time, I decided there and then I was going to teach myself how to play guitar and start a band.
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
The Guru Guru & The St Pierre Snake Invasion at Boom in Leeds, absolute belter of a gig!
What current social issue are you particularly passionate about?
We try to keep our music separate from politics but I guess we’ve been battered the past few years by a corrupt Tory government who make my blood boil, it’s just a really bad state of affairs when the people making the rules don’t follow them themselves. Something needs to change!
The album that you have in your album collection/Spotify playlist that would surprise most people?
As Nasty As They Wanna Be – 2 Live Crew – just a random album taking up space in my record collection, I’m also a big fan of the first Hanson record hahaha!
Although 2021 was another year to forget, there were some amazing new albums released, what would be your album of last year?
“Sugar Horse – The Long Live After” or “The Hyena Kill – A Disconnect” – they can fight it out at the Nottingham show I’m promoting for them at the end of Feb
What does 2022 hold for a-tota-so?
“Lights Out” comes out on the 11th March via Buttonpusher, you can pre-order it on vinyl at http://a-tota-so.bandcamp.com.
We’ll be playing a few shows to promote it too:
17th March at Network, Sheffield,
18th March at Rough Trade, Bristol,
19th March at The Chameleon, Nottingham
24th April – Strangeforms Festival, Leeds
If anyone ever wants us to come play a show just drop us a message and if we can do it we’ll be there!
How active are you on social media and where can people connect with you?
We try to keep active on it but the best place to connect with us is probably Instagram (@atotasoband) or Twitter (@atotaso)
