The Ataris Video Creation Contest

Grand Prize Winner

 

Grand Prize

Signed copy of the new album on both CD and Vinyl
ACID Pro software
Vegas+DVD Production Suite
Five Premium Loop Libraries
Sony D-VE7000s DVD Walkman

About the Contest

Exclusively at ACIDplanet.com® - create a video for the Ataris' "Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies" from their new Sanctuary Records release Welcome the Night.

This one's completely up to you. Throw your production book out the window, because the only materials you'll get for this one are a copy of the song and your imagination.

Special note: lawyers move in mysterious ways. This contest is only open to residents of the US and Canada.

About the Band

The Ataris new disk, Welcome the Night, is easily the most daring, dazzling and inspiring Ataris album yet. Instead of relying on volume for emotional release, the band explores texture, dynamics and multifaceted melodies, conjuring songs express a wide range of emotions and influences, while retaining their own unblemished purity.

In addition to exploring new musical ground, Welcome the Night, is far more poignant lyrically than the Ataris past albums.

To break beyond their melodic hard rock niche, and create songs that would compliment and enhance singer/songwriter Kris Roe’s intensely personal lyrics, the Ataris reconstructed their lineup, replacing their former members with guitarist Paul Carabello, bassist Sean Hansen and drummer Shane Chikeles, who played in a local indie rock band. “We were recording demos at a friend’s and they were mutual friends of his,” explains Roe. “We were all musically into the same thing, so we started jamming together just for fun, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is a chemistry I haven’t felt for a long time.’ So, we asked them to be a part of the band.”

Adding additional texture and depth are two more new members, cellist Angus Cooke and keyboardist Bob Hoag. “When we started writing new songs, I was like, ‘Why do we have to be confined to a guitar band?’” explains Roe. “I wanted more atmosphere. I was always friends with Angus who ran a studio in Santa Barbara that we had recorded at a bunch. And Bob was a friend in a band I used to help out in Tempe, Arizona. And we were all on the same page.”

To finish writing Welcome the Night, the Ataris rented an old house in Valley Village, California in early 2005. “We lived and recorded in an old house in the valleys of Los Angeles through several dreary and wet winter months.” For the next six months, the seven bandmembers lived there and worked whenever inspiration hit.

Producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Talking Heads, Silverchair) helped the Ataris shape their ideas into songs and encouraged them to follow their artistic muse no matter how unusual it seemed to be. He even supported the bands decision to record the entire album on tape, an unorthodox approach as opposed to the industry standard of today, which consists of computers and software. "We wanted to record the entire album live to two-inch analog tape, all seven of us recording and creating music in one room together at the same time," Roe states.

With Welcome the Night, The Ataris have not only reinvented themselves, they’ve also rediscovered the transcendent power of music, incorporating their love for ‘90s alt-rock, psychedelic Brit rock and indie rock into a single, coherent expression. Whether it’s the propulsive rhythm and ringing guitar layers of “New Year’s Day,” the beautifully dreary cello swells, tremolo-laden guitars and mournful vocals of “Secret Handshakes” or the echoing guitars and hollow handclaps of “Connections Are More Dangerous than Lies,” The Ataris have funneled their passion, heartache and heady contemplation into multifaceted tunes that leave marks. Relish the Night because daylight is far away.