The members of Adelaide, Australia’s Atlas Genius do things a little differently….They set about building a studio where they could write and record music for their newly formed band three years before they even played their first live show as Atlas Genius. “We really got down and dirty with dry walling and literally laying the floorboards, and at the same time we were taking a couple of days a week to focus on writing songs,” recalls Keith Jeffery, Atlas Genius’s vocalist/guitarist. “We had a lot of song ideas and it was important to us to have our own studio where we could experiment and hone in on our sound,” adds brother and drummer, Michael Jeffery. Their dream studio, which took two years to build, was designed and outfitted by the brothers with the help of their father (who comes from a music and engineering background). Once the studio was complete, the first song that Atlas Genius finished was a song called “Trojans,” which they wrote, recorded and produced in collaboration with their friend, keyboardist Darren Sell. After many weeks tweaking the song, Michael insisted that the song was ready to be heard outside of the studio walls. Within an hour, “Trojans” was on the Triple J Unearthed Website, SoundCloud, and for sale via TuneCore on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify worldwide.
“We had begun to think that music was a pipedream and we had all gone back to university to pursue more realistic careers,” says Keith. “We’d had such a long slog of playing late nights and working all day, and it felt like we didn’t really have anything to show for it.” But then, in the midst of cramming for their Fall 2011 semester final exams, Neon Gold discovered “Trojans” on the Triple J Unearthed Website and wrote a post praising “Trojans” as a song sure to “invade your head, all dressed up in a clever disguise of earnest vocals riding a hooky riff.” Checking the band’s email account for the first time in over a month, the band found that dozens of record labels, publishers, lawyers, booking agents and management companies from all over the world had contacted them. “We were trying to focus on school, but it was just impossible,” recalls Keith. “So we said, ‘There’s something going on here. Let’s get back to the music.’” The band added manager, Jonny Kaps from +1, to their extended family to navigate all of the interest as the band focused on writing and recording more songs.
Atlas Genius: Molecules
Quickly named an iTunes Single of the Week in Australia and New Zealand, “Trojans” reached #4 on Hype Machine by the end of May. In August, SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s Alt-Nation discovered the song on a blog and decided to give it some spins. There was an immediate reaction from listeners, and in September, “Trojans” was placed into heavy rotation, where it maintained a top-five position on the listener-generated Alt-18 countdown and peaked at number one for 4 consecutive weeks in January 2012. “Trojans” began selling over a thousand tracks per week on U.S. iTunes and soon climbed to 45,000 sales – all with zero promotional efforts from the still-unsigned Atlas Genius.
Atlas Genius: Molecules Lyrics:
We steal the molecules from the dead
We liberate inanimate objects
Is this a path of will up ahead?
Or are we just destined to get what we get?
True to your face like never before
Even the mistakes aren’t really mistakes at all
I wanna confess that you own me
And we don’t rest if we’re lonely
There’s innocence in the moment
Maybe now’s the time to be alive
We steal the molecules from the dead
We liberate inanimate objects
Is this a sign of will in our head?
Or are we predestined to get what we get?
True to your face like never before
Even the mistakes aren’t really mistakes at all
I wanna confess that you own me
And we don’t rest if we’re lonely
There’s innocence in the moment
Maybe now’s the time to be alive
We’re just fragments of a great collide
I wanna confess that you own me
And we don’t rest if we’re lonely
There’s innocence in the moment
Maybe now’s the time to be alive
There’s innocence in the moment
Maybe now’s the time to be alive
Maybe now’s the time to be alive
