ALEX RETRO

ALEX RETRO

As someone born in '91, you were alive during traditional pop punk's heyday but were too young to really be part of it. How did you end up discovering pop punk, and particularly the underground scene that you're now a part of?

Great question! I always love answering this one. It goes back to my nerdy side, but video games play a key role here. When I was 12 I bought the first three Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games for the N64. Those games were all loaded with awesome songs, and I had never really heard music like that before. The most notable was Blitzkrieg Bop, which was on THPS3. I would play that song over and over, until one day my dad came in the room and told me it was by a band he was familiar with, the legendary RAMONES. It turned out he had an old cassette tape his roommate in the 80s had made for him, which included the albums It's Alive, Too Tough to Die, and Animal Boy. Those 3 albums pretty much changed the way I perceived music. At this time I began seeking out CDs of pretty much anything that looked like it might contain what I called "skateboarding music". My brother gave me a Warped Tour comp for Christmas because we recognized some of the bands that had been on Tony Hawk. Next I bought an MxPx CD at a garage sale because I had heard some of their songs on the old music scanner at Walmart. GO GARAGE SALES!!!

Florida has long been a punchline to jokes due to the gnarly crime headlines and general sense that it's a fairly wild place in certain parts despite doubling as the mecca for American retirees. What's your take on life in the Sunshine State?

Exactly! "Florida Man Starts Nerdy Punk Band"! But in all seriousness, I haven't really noticed the crime too much, I mostly just notice that it's hot ALL THE TIME. We'll get a few cool months from maybe November-February, but for the most part it's always summer. Take it from me, Endless Summer isn't that fun. But going back to your crime question, I DO notice there are flashing cop cars on the side of the main road outside my neighborhood basically every night. Fun.

How did you first begin your journey as a songwriter? Did you take musical lessons? How did you begin forming an understanding of song composition?

It pretty much started as soon as a friend told me he was learning guitar, and as soon as I thought I could sing. I would sit in class with a notepad next to my actual school notes, and I would just write these dumb songs about the 90s or "the cool kids" or whatever. I'd have melodies for them in my head, and pretty much figured my friend would be able to put music to whatever I came up with. We never actually had a band, but we had an idea for one and I had entire album tracklistings made up. Songs about garage sales and cereal and stuff. I guess not much has changed, haha. I eventually started teaching myself guitar when I bought one for $40 at a garage sale. (What's with all these garage sales?)

Atomic Treehouse has a very classic vibe to it, and your recent video for "Expired Box of Chocolates" would have been a welcome contribution to the Mutant Pop Records phenomenon. Do you take a lot of inspiration from that label specifically, and the 90's era of pop punk songwriting?

I wouldn't say the label as a whole, but there is one Mutant Pop band that has pretty much been a permanent corner stone of my influence. And that band is The Kung Fu Monkeys. I'd openly admit some of my songs could be described as Kung Fu Monkeys "style parodies". 

The 90s era of pop punk is definitely a major influence, including stuff from a lot of different labels. Lookout, Epitaph, Tooth & Nail, etc... they all had awesome bands that I grew up with. I can't imagine the influence will ever wear off. Basically if it pairs well with Donkey Kong Country, I'm in.

How did you end up forming the band? You've also maintained a solo project, and I'm interested to know how that experience has been compared to the band experience?

My bandmates and I are all longtime friends, so they were an easy choice for musicians to play with. It's definitely been a different experience from the solo project in many ways, but also similar in others. I've been doing the solo thing since 2011 and it's been hard to kick something like that off. I think it can be difficult to rise up as a solo artist when people don't already know you from a band. We started Atomic Treehouse in 2016 and we've been well received at shows. With both the band and the solo act, there's a lot of crowd interaction. We do talk between songs, and fortunately people usually think we're pretty funny. Occasionally we'll end up with a crowd who awkwardly stares back and then some dude shouts "It's time to move on from 1996, bro!". I do the same stand-up style thing at the solo shows, but probably even more so. The solo shows are usually at small coffee shops and it pretty much just feels like hanging out and being "the guy with the guitar" who plays some funny songs while you're together.

One way the band is a lot different in the songwriting process is that we're all involved in the musical aspects. No one else really touches the lyrics, but the music is certainly a combined effort. For instance, I typically write guitar solos or lead lines alone at home by playing over a demo from practice. A good portion of the time, I'll dropbox the finished demo to the guys, and Johnny will tell me he doesn't like the lead line or that it sounds too much like Never Learn by MxPx or something. He told me that at Target while I was trying to pick a TV dinner, dude. He was right to do it. I went home and made something more unique that I now love playing live.

You guys have recently been recording some songs in studio and the results are very impressive. Is your plan to continue releasing digital singles online, and is there an ultimate plan to release a full-length?

Thanks! Yeah, the recent singles were all recorded by Matt Goings at Killian Studios. He's great. He's actually on the opposite side of the state from us, but we like working with him so we keep going. As for a full length album, yeah, it's almost done. It'll have all 3 of those singles on it. We haven't publicly announced it on social media or anything yet, but I've told plenty of people, so they know. Guess the cat's out of the bag... GO CATS!!!

Do you receive positive feedback and support from your family for your music? How about friends? Internet?

My family is definitely supportive and I'm so thankful for that. I know it's not rare for musicians' parents to be all "Pop punk? I thought we raised you better on AC/DC!" or something. But my family loves it, they come out to our shows when they can and they have CDs. I even play a short acoustic set at the family reunion every year, and that's by request!

Friends, maybe about 50%. I mean, we've definitely made a lot of friends by playing in the band, but if we're just counting people who meet us outside of music, it's pretty split. Our close friends support it, and occasionally someone from my school days will randomly share a song on Facebook and be like "I always knew he'd make it someday!". I'm flattered they interpret being on Spotify as "making it", haha. But seriously, I appreciate every little thing like that.

The internet, I'm not sure. As far as pop punk fans we meet online, we're often very well received. But for example, when the Still Got Zelda single dropped, I paid to promote it on Instagram. It was pretty embarassing, haha. We got some comments like "This makes me never wanna play a Zelda game ever again" or "This makes Zelda fans look bad". The lyrics of the song aren't really meant to be taken seriously, and we're fully aware the genre is simple. I guess some people don't get it, and that's fine. I just let it roll off, then have fun quoting it at band practice.

Your lyrics have a certain timeless quality and it seems that you're sticking to fairly traditional topics but putting your own spin on them. Do you typically draw inspiration from your own life, or are the lyrics written based on topics? What's your method?

Uhhh... all of the above? Haha. Well sometimes I'll write a song about a literal sequence of events that happened to me, mainly if it was funny. Other times I'll come up with some sort of phrase that I think might be a good way of conveying love or heartbreak, and I'll build a song around it by drawing inspiration from various experiences both new and old. Expired Box of Chocolates is actually a pretty good example of this. It began when a local gift shop was throwing out expired candy, and I got a few boxes of Valentines chocolates. I found myself thinking "how lame would that be if I gave THIS to a crush?". That was when the idea was born, "Yes! That's it! I need to write a song where a guy is trying to be smooth, but accidentally gives his love interest expired candy! What a dork!".

We've discussed spirituality and the virtues of attempting to live a good life - where do you see music in the context of your greater purpose in life? What are your main motivations and sources of inspiration for your music and songwriting?

In that context I'd definitely say it's about spreading positivity in a world full of darkness, and to influence others to do the same. There's a lot going on in the world that people can argue about over and over, but at the end of the day we should love our fellow beings. I actually steer away from controversial topics when writing songs. I don't feel my calling is to address big issues or try to make some sort of statement. Humor is a big part of both my personality and my music, so when people come to an Atomic Treehouse show I just want them to be able to forget about their problems and have something to smile about.

You have a distinct style as an illustrator in addition to being a skilled songwriter. I understand you've done art for other bands as well? How often are you drawing and creating other works when you're not involved with music?

I've loved drawing since long before I got into music. My mom still has old drawings I did of Toy Story characters in '95. Those were hilarious. I drew a lot of comics in high school that my classmates would read. A few years ago I actually published a one-off Halloween comic book using my old Forestview Drive characters. I've done almost all the art for our EPs and merch, with the exception being the Still Got Zelda single artwork which was done by my friend Gavin. I don't draw as often as I should these days, just due to time constraints. I always do all my drawing by hand using a pen or pencil and piece of paper. Then I just scan the drawings in and do all the coloring on Adobe Illustrator. And yes, I've done art for a few bands over the years, but it's not too common and I have to be a fan! It's always exciting when a band I like is stoked to use my art.

Who are your current favorite pop punk songwriters? Who are your favorite all-time songwriters?

Lately I've been on a Travoltas kick, and I definitely love Perry's songwriting. He really knows how to bridge the gap between Ramones and Beach Boys. I've been aware of Travoltas for a long time from comps and stuff, but I've only been taking the dive into their discography recently. Johnny is a big fan so he's already well versed in their tunes.

As for all time favorites, I'd have to say Mike Herrera from MxPx for thoughtful/reflective lyrics, James Cahill of The Kung Fu Monkeys for punky pop love songs, and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer for straight up emotion and just plain weirdness. He's awesome. GO WEEZER!!!

Final question: What is the best Zelda game of all time and why? And have you ever listened to "Lon Lon Ranch Theme" for 10 hours on YouTube?

I can't say I've listened to that theme for 10 hours straight, but if I were to listen to any song for 10 hours straight it would definitely be Tarzan Boy 1993 Remix from the Ninja Turtles III soundtrack. That would be awesome.

The best Zelda game, Ocarina of Time. I know it's a cliche answer but there's a reason. We see it on "best of" lists left and right. I've played through the entire game multiple times over the years, and there's no part of the game that I dread having to revisit. ...Except that owl when you first leave the forest who asks if you'd like him to repeat what he said. And then you keep accidentally pushing "Yes" because you're trying to scroll through the text quickly. Exhausting.