ProgScape.Com: Hello Little Atlas! With your new record, Surface Serene out and getting very good reviews, we thought it would be nice to sit down with you guys and get to know you a little better! First off and foremost, why don't you each tell me about yourselves and your backgrounds:

Steve: I grew up in Miami and was the product of 8 years of Piano lessons until I discovered the saxophone. I started playing in High School, mainly cover band stuff, but I began writing at that time as well. I played in about as varied a group of bands as you can imagine. My first band was a Dixieland band, of all things. I played sax and clarinet. Once I got to college, the bug to play rock bit, and I joined a cover band in Nashville which morphed into an original project. I was also in the University Jazz Ensemble, playing sax, until I joined the choir. There just weren’t many girls in the jazz ensemble. It worked out well because that’s where I met Joanna, my future wife. I lived in Memphis for a year playing in an R&B band doing all those classic 60s tunes; that would be the last cover band I played in...When Joanna and I moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, the first thing I did was look for a band. I found a great bunch of guys to play with for the 4 years I lived there. Mosaic, Mimosa, and Big Mean Turtle were the 3 bands (which shared a lot of the same members). Joanna and I got married in Arkansas, but settled back in Miami, which is where my family lives.

Joanna: I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where I had been singing my whole life. I was always in a choir. When I got to college, I soon met Steve (who swept me off my feet). When we moved to Arkansas, Steve played in a few bands, but also wanted to play some coffee house scenes and asked me to come along. I have been at the formation of virtually every tune he’s written since the late ‘80’s and often created my own harmonies. I jumped at the opportunity for them to be heard! After we moved to Miami, he asked me to continue singing with him, and except for about a three month hiatus when our son was born, I’ve been singing with him ever since.

Diego: I began playing drums at age 15 in my original country of Venezuela and played with many different bands covering many different styles. In 1986, I joined Radio Clip, which became a very prominent touring band. We made 4 records and played over 200 shows. I moved to Miami in 1994 and "retired" from drumming for 6 years. I bounced around a few projects until I got the call from Rik that Little Atlas was looking for a new drummer. I jumped at the chance.

Rik: I'm from Venezuela , I played with a lot of bands there. I played with 2 major Venezuelan (pop) artists, Guillermo Davila and Jorge Aguilar. Also, I worked as a sound engineer, working mostly for music for commercials. Since moving to the United States, I’ve worked as a music producer, sound engineer and session musician.

Roy: I have been playing electric/acoustic guitar for 16 years. I am originally from North Carolina where I was lead guitarist for Iota, a progressive rock band in Wilmington, NC in the late 1990's. I was also the guitarist for Impulse, a new Age/Progressive project based in Raleigh, NC. My influences are Steve Howe, Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp, Alex Lifeson, Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio, and Adrian Belew.

PS: Great! With all of those different backgrounds, how did the band come together?

Steve: Little Atlas was actually formed in 1997. We released a CD in 1998 called Neverworldly. The band, at that time, was more of a "meat and potatoes" classic rock sound. We got comparisons to Jefferson Airplane quite often. I was primarily writing from the guitar at that time. Well, as it often happens, band members started to leave. I was left in somewhat of a crossroads...should I try to find new members and keep on moving forward or should I let Little Atlas go quietly into that good night? Ultimately, with support from Joanna, I started placing ads in local media, music stores, and online. I knew I wanted something different in sound, something more adventurous than we had been doing together. I had felt constrained a bit. While I was searching for musical soulmates, I continued writing new material, this time writing almost exclusively from the piano. Many of the songs written during this time became what you hear on Surface Serene.

PS: Why did you decide to write progressive rock instead of another genre of music?

Steve: It was never a deliberate decision, just the evolution of my songwriting. I was always a huge Genesis fan. In fact, my very first CD was Genesis Foxtrot. I also grew up on Kansas, Rush, and Yes. Despite those influences, I had never written music in the vein, probably because I wrote from guitar (an instrument I am only passable on). Once I became comfortable writing from the piano, those influences started bubbling up. The current band lineup was essential in this process too.

Rik: That's the kind of music that I have always liked. I "woke up" one day realizing how unhappy I was with the music I've been playing, even listening to, over the 80's and I big part of the 90's. I started to listening to my old cassettes and CDs and rediscovering this classic progressive music, and I said to myself that I wanted to play music like that. For me it was like magic: that the same day I made that decision to try to play progressive music, I opened the New Times (a local news paper) and I saw the Little Atlas ad looking for a "bassist". It was meant to be.

Roy: I chose Prog because it's not really a distinct genre. This means that there are no real boundaries in prog and my main goal as a musician is to break new ground musically through collaboration with other like-minded musicians. I ask myself, what is progressive rock?...Rock music that progresses beyond what's been done in the past. I don't like to attach the word "progressive" to any particular sound or style. I think any album that breaks new ground can be called progressive. I don't feel that an album can be labeled as prog simply because the music is complex with long songs. Many albums like that already exist; therefore, making complex music isn't necessarily progressing. The albums throughout the past that have touched me the most deeply and that have had the biggest influence on me are generally considered to be progressive rock albums. I think that with Surface Serene, we've definitely broken some new ground, and I'm proud of that.

PS: How did the songs on Surface Serene come together? Were all of the songs (music & lyrics) written by Steve or were they band compositions?

Steve: The songwriting process for the band sort of goes like this: I’ll sketch out a tune, write the chord changes, melody, and lyrics. Then I bring it to the band. This is where the magic begins. We work as partners in arranging the song. Rik, Roy, and Diego provide great input in the song arrangements. The lump of clay becomes a vase if you will. Every song on the album, every single song, is what it is because of the input of these remarkable musicians. Once the songs and arrangements were flushed out, Joanna and I work out vocal arrangements. She has a terrific ear for harmonies and writes the backing vocal parts that are so integral to the sound. Lyrics are another story. I draw my inspiration for lyrics from a variety of places. Some are from the dark recesses of my own psyche, and others are from experiences and interactions I have with others. Some are works of pure fiction. I won’t tell you which is which. Something exciting has been happening with the songs written since Surface Serene came out. We have begun to write as an ensemble. Its challenging and requires an excellent working relationship to pull off, but I think the future of our music lies in a more collaborative approach to our songwriting.

PS: How long did it take to record Surface Serene? Where exactly is HipKat and Big Eye Studios? Did you do everything digitally or did you use analog tape?

Steve: In some ways, Surface Serene took 4 years to complete. There were many false starts as band members came and left. The album that you hear, though, took us about 14 months to complete. Most of it was recorded in HipKat Studios, which is a fancy name for "Steve’s spare bedroom". Over the years, I have dumped pretty much all the money made from performing music into my studio and built up a decent collection of gear. We recorded all the vocals in Big Eye Studios, which is Rik’s studio. It was a much better choice for recording vocals as he has a wonderful vocal booth with the glass window between it and the control room. Plus, Rik is a master of engineering and recording. It left me completely free to sing and not worry about hitting the "record" button. The whole CD was recorded digitally using Sonar and Digital Performer. Rik and I share producer credits for the CD.

PS: When the album was done, the next step was to get on a label. With that being said, how did you hook up with Progrock Records

Steve: This is a great story of how technology has changed the way the music business works. I have been an active member of an internet listserve called "Mixmasters" for about 4 years now. The group is composed of recording musicians who provide feedback to each other on mixes. We upload mixes and critique each other. It’s been an invaluable learning tool for me. Anyway, I had started posting preliminary mixes for some of the songs that would end up on Surface Serene. One of the list members emailed me off-list to tell me that a friend and former band-mate of his was starting a progressive rock music label, and that we would be a good match for him. He asked if he could pass along my contact information. A few days later, Shawn Gordon (president of PRR) emailed me expressing interest in Little Atlas. I sent him some more demos and pretty soon we were signing a contract with them. Progrock Records has been great. They have provided us with some serious promotional muscle and have really been pushing the CD. We’re thrilled to be with them and proud to be in the company of our label-mates.

PS: What reviews have you been getting about Surface Serene? Have they been mostly positive? What do the "critics" have to say?

Steve: We’ve been getting almost uniformly positive reviews on the CD, which was, to be frank, a relief. We certainly love doing what we do, but we honestly had no idea how it would be received. The critics seem to agree that Surface Serene rides on strong musicianship and solid melodies. They also recognize the influences of bands like Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson on our music. Fortunately, no one has accused us of being derivative. We were selected as CD of the month on ProgressiveRockBR in Brazil and Prog4You, too. The weekly rag from the Miami Herald also did a really favorable review for us. Personally, if the media had hated it, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world or anything. We do what we do to satisfy our own creative spirits. It is a nice thing when others appreciate it, though.

PS: With most "prog" acts, touring doesn't usually happen often. Does Little Atlas plan on touring? How do you see LA getting your sound out to the "masses," as it were?

Roy: I would love to go on tour. Hopefully, Little Atlas will be able to someday. You just can't beat that "live" experience. A positive thing is that our style of music seems to be on the rise around the world. A full-blown tour in the near future is highly unlikely, mainly because we each have so many commitments at home in Miami. I don't see Little Atlas dropping everything at home, jumping in a van, and touring clubs around the country. It would take some fairly generous financial support before that would happen. Although, we do have plans to do some smaller mini-tours around Florida and the southeastern US, which will hopefully expand our fanbase, enabling us to explore touring further. In the meantime, we've concentrated on using the internet (with the help of our wonderful label, Progrock Records as our primary tool for exposure. This has been much more effective than I expected. We've really built up some momentum, and everything is rolling along quite nicely. I have to say that it's been a lot of fun so far. Steve really deserves a lot of credit for working his ass off to keep everything rolling.

PS: What do you see for the future in Little Atlas?

Steve: As Roy mentioned, we would love to hit the road on occasion. I think the best scenario is for us to get involved in some of the Progressive Rock festivals around the country. We’re going to be pushing for that in 2004 for sure. In the mean time, we have new songs to write. We already have 3 songs for a new CD. We’ve changed our approach to writing, and 2 of these 3 songs are true band compositions, with full input from all. I am excited about our future!

PS: Two more questions and then we'll let you get on with your evening. :) First off, are you happy with the record? Anything you'd change? Anything you'd do differently?

Steve: I can hear every little blemish on the CD because I spent so much time with those tracks. I was rather burned on the songs, so it took me almost 2 months to listen to the CD once we got it back from the manufacturer. I have to say, that I am very pleased with the production and sound quality. Rik has taught me much about the art of engineering. I think we work very well together, kind of a yin and a yang in the studio. As for doing things differently? I think we’ll record the drums in a larger room next time to get a somewhat "bigger" drum sound. Other than that, I am quite pleased.

PS: Any last comments you want to share with the world?

Steve: I just want to thank the awesome community of music fans that support progressive rock. I feel a song must be shared to be completely free. When we connect with an audience, whether live or through our recorded music, the entire song becomes this living, breathing entity that creates a bond between performer and listener. We are glad that we can share our music. It is really a gift that goes both ways.

To learn more about Little Atlas, check out the following links:

Little Atlas's Official Website
ProgRock Records