Hey! This site hasn’t been updated in a while! What’s going on?

Here’s the sitch… Atomic Brother is on a bit of a break.

Atomic Brother began around 2001 with our first release in 2004. But the history of Atomic Brother started way before 2001. James and I started playing together in college in the 90s at the Berklee College of Music. We started a couple bands, recorded some demos, did a bunch of gigs and then after we graduated we toured with a band across Europe for about a year. After that we did some different things and came back together to start another band together in 1998, released an EP and then went on to do Atomic Brother for the next 10 or 11 years. With Atomic Brother we released See Me Comin’, Silence Collide and Pretty Little Lunatic and recorded enough material for another full album.

So, what the hell? We recorded enough for another album but did’t release? Yep. That’s right. James and I both love the music we created with Atomic Brother, and love playing music with each other. But, musically we needed to do some different things that really didn’t fit with our definition of Atomic Brother.

Is Atomic Brother breaking up over musical differences? Hell no. We’re doing what we do. We play together and bust our asses real good making the best music we can. Then we take a break do something different and eventually come back together and create more music.

We don’t have a schedule for getting back to Atomic Brother, but we appreciate everyone that’s supported us in the past and all the new people that are discovering Atomic Brother and buying our records and supporting us into the future.

Keep up with James at http://jamesmelillo.com/.

Keep up with me (Sebastian) at http://sasebastian.com.

And keep checking back here. Who knows, maybe we’ll finish mixing the last batch of songs and put them out before we get back together. Stay tuned.

Day 6, no recording today. Dropping James off at the airport at 5:30 AM for his 7 AM flight back to New York. But there’s still some work left on these songs- comping, editing, mixing and mastering. So, these songs will all be on the Winter EP. In the meantime, we’ve got 6 other studio tracks cued up for release, with the next one near the end of April.

– Sebastian

This was the last day of recording. We got to it right away, reviewing the guitar solo for “When It’s Over.” After review, we really liked the solo from the previous day, so James learned that solo, and plugged in to the Fender, and nailed it. Then he hit the solo on the outro, finishing up all the songs. With all the tracking done it was time for some fun-the live acoustic tracks. Each of the Eps we will be releasing will have 3 studio tracks, plus 2 live, acoustic tracks. The live tracks for this session were recorded differently than all the others. When we recorded at James’ place, we could only record 2 inputs at a time, so we recorded those with a pair of condensers in stereo x-y pattern. For these recordings we had the stereo condenser mics, but I also recorded the line out of the Takamine acoustic and had James sing through the Carvin mic. Another twist on these tracks was the bass. In the other live tracks I played James’ Fender Squire P-Bass. On these I played my new upright bass with pickup. To finish out the recordings we ran through live versions of “Better Day,” “Uninvited,” “Home In The Sky” and “The Blindness.”

– Sebastian

Day 4, Easter Sunday, started out with James making us huge-ass, shrimp omelets for late breakfast. Then an early start with more work on “The Blindness.” The vocals on “The Blindness” moved along really quickly, and then we moved on to recording bass. I typically play “The Blindness” on a 5-string bass, but my Jaguar bass had the perfect tone for this song. So, I ended up tuning down to D, and spending some time learning how to play the song in the new tuning. After that all the main tracks for all the songs were wrapped and it was time for guitar solos and other filler parts. James rocked guitar solos on “Better Day” & “When It’s Over.” When we record guitar solos we loop the solo section, and let James rip until he finds the solo he likes best, before we hit record. First we started with “The Blindness.” James had a melody part to finish up and the solo. We ended up going with the Fender for all those instead of the Marshall, for a less harsh sound. “When It’s Over” was the last song of the day. James didn’t like solo from the demo, so he started fresh, and we looped this one for a good hour, did a couple takes and decided to revisit on Day 5. After quitting time it was dinner at Texas Land & Cattle followed a trip down South Austin one of James’ new favorite guitar players, Red Volkeart, at The Continental Club with his band Heybale. The band featured 5 top country touring side men, and was outstanding!

– Sebastian

Day 3 started out with migas for a late breakfast at Maudies North Lamar and back in studio. We still had work to do on “When It’s Over,” We did all the electric guitars on Friday, today was all about acoustic guitars and vocals on that song. We recorded James perferoming acoustic guitar parts with 2 different acoustics. The main part is played on my 1970s Kay acoustic, and the rhythm is the Takamine we used on “Better Day.” We also did a little editing on the song form, trimming out some verse lead-ins, bringing the song to about 5:30 minutes from just over 6 minutes. This one features both me and James on vocals. James takes the lead, singing in the chorus, and lots of screaming in the choruses. My part is a harmony to the verse vocals. After wrapping up “When It’s Over” we tracked all the rhythm guitars for “The Blindness” and then headed out to Trudy’s for a late dinner and Margaritas.

– Sebastian

Second Day in the studio is wrapped. We started out the day showing James around downtown Austin and Lake Austin. Went for some crepes for lunch, and back in studio by 12:30. We started with James singing the vocals for “Better Day.” Although we had already figured what we wanted on this track, we spent a little more time tweaking melodies. After “Better Day” vocals, we moved on to recording the bass. We spent a little more time on bass than I’d like, but, I’ve never been happy with my part. So, we looped the different parts until I got the part I was really happy with. With “Better Day” in the can, we moved on to guitars for “When It’s Over.” For this one we broke out my Fender Deluxe 90 amp to record James performing 2 clean guitar parts in the verses. The Fender was close mic’d with a single SM57. We were back to the Marshall for the distorted guitars on the choruses. We wrapped the session after 7 hours, I grilled up some dinner and then we headed downtown for some live music.

– Sebastian

We’re out at AGCruxansata Studio (aka my project studio) in Austin, Texas recording 3 tracks for Fall/Winter Eps. James came in from NY around 11 am, then we went out to rent a guitar amp – a JCM 900 head with a JCM 800 cab- from David Marshall at Fast Horse Studios. We started with the song “Better Day”, recording rhythm guitars with James playing his 1986 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty and my 2008 Les Paul Standard. THe cabinet was mic’d in the our usual way, 2 SM57’s one on the outside of one speaker, and one on the inside of another, making for a full-range sound mixed together. Then we tracked James playing an acoustic rhythm track and a second acoustic capoed at 10th fret for mandolin-ish kind of melody, with my Takamine. The acoustic was recorded mic’d & direct through, both through a Focusrite Platinum TwinTrack. We went a little extra and also recorded bass. For this song I used my 2009 Fender Jaguar with 2 lines- 1 through a Radial Pro DI and the other through the Focusrite.

-Sebastian

Been mixing six new songs at 5th Street Studios in Austin, TX with Craig Sadler behind the desk. Mixes are sounding great! We’ve got 3 songs for our second Ep to be released in Spring, and 3 songs for a third Ep to be released this summer. Today is revision day. We’ve spent the last few days sitting with the mixes nitpicking, and today is the day we finalize everything.

Stay tuned for release dates!

– Sebastian

At the end of December James spent some time in the studio with drummer Robert C. Kelly recording tracks for the fourth Atomic Brother Ep. The 3 studio tracks on that Ep are called “Better Day,” “When It’s Over,” and “The Blindness.” These are a little departure from the first three Eps. So, what’s up with all the Eps; there’s only one out now! mixing the second Ep starts March 2, and I’ll be back at 5th Street Studios in Austin, TX overseeing the mix with Craig Sadler behind the board mixing. We’ll be releasing this, still untitled EP, in April. And like the Silence Collide Ep, this will be digital-only, and will have 2 live acoustic tracks. We’re also putting together some bonus material that you can only get here at our site. I’ll be providing updates from the studio here and on our twitter feed. So stay tuned.

-Sebastian