Breathing in

The MUSE talked to Slug, also known as Sean Daley, from Atmosphere as they started off on the first leg of their tour in Columbus, Ohio.

The MUSE: Your last album came out in 2008, what have you been up to since then?

Slug: Releasing music, we put out a double EP last September, and prior to that, I put out an album with a side project of mine called Felt and that was in November of ‘09, and then prior to that, I had a collection of free songs that I put out on the internet, as well as a couple of other EPs…I don’t ever stop putting out music, but I take my time between what I like to refer to as official Atmosphere albums.

TM: You’ve done a lot of collaborations with different people, is there anyone in particular that you’ve really enjoyed working with?

Slug: Not to sound like a hippie, but I have enjoyed every single collaboration immensely, but to me that’s the whole point of the collaboration … I don’t collaborate with artists because I go ‘oh, this would make a great album,’ I do it because I want to hang out with a friend and act stupid and silly…. so I would say that every collaboration I’ve done has fit what I needed to get out of my time. Making music is kind of like leisure time to me, it’s something I enjoy. You could almost say it’s a hobby. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a career out of it, and pay my bills with it, but at the end of the day it’s still all about having fun, and I would rather be doing this than mowing the lawn.

TM: Is there anyone you haven’t worked with that you would like to?

Slug: I don’t really have a wish list, because I’ve never looked at it like that, it’s always been out of convenience and time management to be able to hang out with friends, to make music with friends. But I guess I would love to make a record with either of my children [a teenager and a baby], or my mom for that matter. That would be amazing to me.

TM: How do you stay inspired after working in music for so long?

Slug: I don’t stop noticing things that piss me off … A lot of the stuff that I write about is either about things that frustrate me or things that make me incredibly happy and I don’t really foresee an end to frustration or an end to happiness. And so hopefully, that will always be enough to keep me inspired. Also I stay surrounded with kind of a motley, assorted group of amazing people, and those people tend to be really inspiring.

TM: What were your musical influences growing up?

Slug: Prince is probably the main one. Also Run DMC, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Cane.

TM: How do you come up with the stories that make up many of your songs?

Slug: Most of my stories start off with some kind of reflection or conflict, or reflection of conflict. Most of my stories start with me trying to reinforce my moral compass, and so let’s say I saw something happen and it made me feel a certain way because I disagreed with it or because I agreed with it, and I want to make a song about that, but instead of telling the literal idea of it…I take the important parts of it to me and write a new story based around…what the moral of that story was. For the most part, most of my stories are not literal, and never really have been.

TM: What was the process like in making your new album [The Family Sign] compared to past albums?

Slug: The difference was that this was a collaborative effort between four people instead of two. It’s always been more so two people, and even though the other two people that we added worked with us for the past six or seven years, this was the first time that they got involved in the actual process of writing the music. Sometimes it’s hard for four people to find a happy medium … the thing that was beautiful about it though was the ability to write around each other.  It gave us more rules, but also less rules at the same time.

TM: What do you foresee for the future of Atmosphere? For the tour? In terms of future music?

Slug: I’ve never been good at the whole foreseeing thing. What I would like to happen is for everyone to stay safe and that we go out there and have a lot of fun. I take it on a day-to-day basis.

TM: You’ve recently started using Twitter, can you tell us about that?

Slug: [Rhymesayers] asked me if I would get more involved, and at first I was really hesitant just because I feel like it’s kind of weird, and now, I actually kind of enjoy it. It’s kind of fun to be able to dialogue back and forth with random fans. But I still think it’s pretty weird. If I didn’t have a band, I wouldn’t be on Twitter.

TM: Anything else to add?

Slug: Boycott cocaine, and eat your vegetables.

Atmosphere just released new record The Family Sign on Rhymesayers April 12, and will be playing the House of Blues April 23.