SHREDnews

Photo Credit: Jonathan Melamed
Interview By: Kayley Guyette

http://www.myspace.com/vanattahigh

SHRED: When and how did Van Atta High get started?
Clark: VAH formed in June 2006 when our singer, Steve Kellner, started the band with some friends. The weird thing is that the member changes have been over time, so it was never like everyone quit and a whole new band came in, which I think sometimes people think when we say he is the only “original” member. The 2 newest members, Justin(guitar) and Glenn(Drums) have been in the band for 8 months now and Stephen Jasko (guitar) and myself, Clark(bass) have been in the band for about 2 years, we joined in spring/summer ‘07.

SHRED: Any story behind the name?
Clark: It’s the name of the High School in the show Full House, not sure why it’s the band name, just kind of a random funny thing.

SHRED: In your opinion, what do you think makes Van Atta High standout?
Clark: I think the song writing stands out. It may have a flavor similar to some bands out there, but I feel like some of our songs….like “Shakin’ In My Shoes” or “Doin’ Somethin’ Right” are kind of different than the pop-punk bands we’re compared to. We also don’t limit ourselves to one genre….we’ve had intense screamo songs and ballads with piano and guitar solos. We also try to stand out by pushing ourselves on the internet as much as we can.

SHRED: What genre of music do you consider your band to be?
Clark: Well obviously Rock, but I find it hard sometimes to narrow it down. Like I said, sometimes it’s pop-punk-ish and sometimes it’s a little more hardcore….sometimes it’s an epic ballad with almost like a classic rock influence creeping in.

SHRED: Your new EP “Doin’ Somethin’ Right” came out in Early March, how was the recording process?
Clark: It was a bunch of songs from all different sessions. Kind of all the demos we had done within the past year all combined on one CD. The demo’s actually came out better than we had expected for like all of the songs so they were worth releasing.

SHRED: What has been your fans reaction to the new EP?
Clark: Honestly, it’s hard to say. I hear some people saying that it’s such a departure and a 180 degree turn around for the band, but I think they’re forgetting what exactly the band sounded like even in 2007. We had songs like “Call Me Jersey”, “Just Lie” and “Throw Away Heart” and we weren’t screaming all the time in other songs anyway. I don’t think it’s all that different, the progression felt natural to u s. Some people seem to really love the new stuff though too, so we’ve had lots of feedback in both ways, even the negative stuff usually has some positive mixed in.

SHRED: Do you have a favorite song off the album? If so, what one?
Clark: My personal favorite is probably “Birthday Girl” or “Doin’ Somethin’ Right”, maybe it’s because they’re the newest ones, I’m not sure.

SHRED: Do you have plans to record a full length CD in the future?
Clark: Yes for sure. Not sure when that will happen, as we are probably going to be changing labels for the full length, but as soon as we can, we will be working on that.

SHRED: Van Atta High has played at large scale shows like, Warped Tour, Taste Of Chaos and Bamboozle. How did playing those bigger shows compare to regular shows you guys play?
Clark: They’re just cooler because there’s more people. Bamboozle ‘08 was one of the best performances we’ve done just because of the huge crowd we had. We feed off the energy of the crowd and when it’s a lot of people really feeling it, then we really vibe off that and give it back ten times harder. Although that’s true and you like it more when you’re playing to more people, there’s something to be said about small shows. I think most of the memories we have together in the band comes from the weird small shows you go to, there’s a certain charm to it that I can’t put my finger on, even though sometimes it’s a bummer when it’s happening. We try to play our best at all shows though.

SHRED: Any tour plans for the summer?
Clark: Yeah we’re going to be doing a couple east coast runs throughout the summer. We’ll be venturing past PA into the Midwest a little bit, but mostly east coast stuff (NJ, NY, PA, CT,MA,)

SHRED: Anything else you’d like to share?
Clark: If you don’t know already, our new EP, DOIN’ SOMETHIN’ RIGHT is in stores everywhere and on iTunes NOW! It’s only $5.99 on iTunes, help us out and get a copy, we’d really appreciate it!