The following is an e-mail interview with Atom and His Package conducted in January 2003 by Christopher. Make sure to catch Atom when he plays at the Che Cafe in San Diego on March 1 with Sixty Stories and the BiPeDs! If you've never seen Atom before, make sure to check out this show, you won't be disappointed.

Christopher: So Atom I know that you originally worked with Bloodlink in terms of releasing records and stuff, how did that come about? Is it a Philly-love connection?
Atom: It's not a philly love connection. Bloodlink wanted to put out a record, and it was at the beginning of the Atom and His Package-ness, and so 		Atom and His Package
sure... why not? I guess Beibin (the fellow who runs the label) saw me play a show or two at the very beginning and liked the stuff I did, so we did the record. That's all. No love involved.

When did Hopeless get in touch with you, and how did it happen that you started to work with them? How did you feel when a somewhat bigger label wanted to release your stuff?
The folks at Hopeless and I have a few mutual friends, one of whom told me that they liked the stuff I did. So, we got to talking, and they're really nice folks and really hard workers, so we decided to do a few records together.
It's nice to have a bigger label do a lot of the work that they are able to do whether it's because of the (wo)manpower they have. It definitely makes a difference, but I've really enjoyed putting out records with the smaller labels that are made up of friends of mine too. It's also been nice to work with the Hopeless folks, and I now consider them to be friends now too.

Now lets talk about touring...Do you like it? Do you get lonely? Do you ever bring friends along? How many tours have you been on with the package...and how do they compare to eachother?
I do enjoy touring. It's interesting to get to see new places all the time, and meet lots of people. I've made some great friends while touring, and gotten to see parts of the world that I would have otherwise not had the chance to see. It's a different way of seeing places, as opposed to seeing them as a tourist.
Sometimes I do get lonely. I do travel and tour a lot, and while sometimes friends come along, sometimes it's not possible and I have to travel alone, which can still be fun. Certainly at the beginning, touring alone was really interesting and fun. It was really weird to go to Japan by myself, but also really exciting. I have been on too many tours to count as Atom and His Package....
Most have been really fun. I do like the ones that friends can come along better than the solo ones these days. Japan was amazing. New Zealand and Australia were great, and the tours of Europe were really amazing too. But I also do love driving all over the U.S.
So, while they're different, they've all been really fun....

Being that you're coming to San Diego soon, and that most of the people that read this are from SD...it is always interesting to hear what outsiders think of our town...what are some things you have noticed in coming here as compared to other cities?
I actually spent a summer in San Diego when I was very young. I went to that Gateways program in La Jolla, and have been back to San Diego many times.
I like San Diego. Especially on days like today, when the high is 15 degrees in Philadelphia. The weather in San Diego is wonderful. I like the zoo, and have been to a number of cool record stores, and I like Deadbolt.

If we were to come out there, to Philadelphia, what would you suggest that punk/indie/emo/hc/rocker/artsy/book nerd/DIY kids do?
There are tons of great things to do in Philadelphia. There are a lot of interesting folks doing tons of things. There are excellent food places (vegan and not). Excellent record stores. Cheap baseball games in a crappy stadium. Cheap matinee movies, and lots of city bike riding.
What's the best place to shop for records or books?
There are a few used books stores that are excellent... one called the Book Trader, and one called Big Jar books. For indie stuff, Spaceboy Records is great. For punk stuff, Repo records is good. For used stuff the Philadelphia Record Exchange is great. There's a great anarchist bookstore called the Wooden Shoe that also has some excellent stuff.
What good veggie places are there to eat?
There are vegetarian Chinese/Indian food places, and even vegan cheesesteaks here.
Who are some good bands from there who don't get the recognition they deserve?
There's a band called Need New Body from Philadelphia that's jaw droppingly amazing. I also like AMFM, Sola, Aspera and The Rabblerousers a lot.
Where would we see shows run by the kids?
There's an all ages space in the basement of a church that people have been doing all ages shows for the last couple of years.

Besides writing songs and recording and touring...(as if that isn't enough)...what do you do outside your music life? Do you have a job?
I do not have a job. It says musician on my tax return, which always makes me giggle. I do ride my bike a lot when I'm home, and take care of all the business aspects of this stuff.
Are you an activist?
I suppose it depends on how you define activist. I have lots of strong opinions about lots of things, and I try to act on them....
Do you make films?
No.
What does Atom DO?
I write songs, ride my bike, hang out with my friends and family, and buy too many records.

How do you feel about the rampant decline of sincerity within the music of the "underground" community?
I'm not aware of the decline of sincerity within the music of the underground community. Any large group of humans, I'm pretty certain will always have some boners, and underground music is no different. There are tons of shitty bands and a few that are great, and a ton in between. I think it's always been like that and always will. I just try and concentrate on the ones that I think are great.
It is becoming painstakingly clear (no pun intended, ha) that kids are recycling the same sad kid stuff over and over, and that everyone is in an "emo" band...and that "hardcore" bands don't really have a whole lot to say.
I think it's really hard to generalize so much. Sure, there are tons of crappy emo and hardcore bands too. But there are good bands around too. As far as I can remember, the majority has always been lousy, boring, regurgitating bands. I just try and avoid buying their records.
And it seems that the kids in these bands don't have the courage or compassion to actually get involved with progressive organizations, or even do direct action work?
There are some that do. I'm not exactly an optimistic person, so I don't expect most folks to be the kind of people I really admire, so it doesn't surprise me. However, I don't think it's getting worse, as far as I can tell. I'm sure there are tons of folks who were involved to a degree in the hippy movement or part of cool punk stuff earlier who may no longer be progressive.
Is there hope for our community, or are we going to continue to let capitalism buy us up and sell us off as another facet of the machine?
Again, I really think it's hard to generalize. There are a ton of amazing people who do amazing things, and behave in a responsible way to other human beings, and those people can't be written off because there are jackasses involved in punk/whatever you want to call it stuff. Also, it's important I think, to realize who the truly evil folks and organizations are. I think too often 'punx' can be hyper critical about folks involved in their own subculture, and be very quick to label a band or a label as an enemy because they charge $1 too much for their records or something. Know what I mean?

On a sidenote of that, here's some dichotomous "this band" or "that band" questions for fun...

1.) Dashboard Confessional or Bright Eyes?
I met Connor from Bright Eyes once, and he seemed really nice. Also, there's something on one of his records... a fake radio interview that's really funny.

2.) Bane or American Nothing (Nightmare)?
I've played with both of them, and no one kicked the shit out of anyone when Bane played, so I'll choose them.

3.) The Hives or International Noise Conspiracy?
Strangely I'm not too familiar with either one, but anyone who has the endurance to live in northern Sweden has my admiration.

4.) SUM 41 or New Found Glory?
Honestly, I don't even know either of these bands' hits.... so I can't say.

5.) AVRIL or Brittany?
I think Avril's last name is really Levine or something. I like that.

And how about Hot Topic...any feelings? Good/Bad? Scale of 1-10? I feel we should shut em down, or at least just stop selling ourselves to them...but that's just the idealist in me...what do you think?
I've actually never been in one, so I don't know. From what I understand, they're sort of chain mall (not chain mail) 'punk'-ish stores? It's hard for me to have an opinion because I'm not too familiar with them. Do they have unfair trade practices? Are they mean to their employees? What's so horrible about them? Please let me know what your thoughts are.

On a political note, I recently read some of your thoughts about the state of the nation and Iraq in AMP magazine, and am curious about where you think we are headed?
Shit... nowhere good. The players involved are certainly not folks that I have confidence in finding a peaceful solution. The state of the world is a very disturbing thing right now.

What should we be doing to stop the war...what are our realistic alternatives?
Quite honestly, I don't know. What I do know is that I certainly don't trust the Bush administration to take the consequences of going to war into account and make good decisions. But, on the other hand. Iraq is certainly NOT the country that it's OK to allow them to make chemical and nuclear weapons, and I think that something has to be done about that... not saying that Bush is handling it well, but it certainly is a scary thought.

Does it upset you that the democrats in this country have posed no real fight against the republican war agenda, and furthermore that they have not come up with a single idea as to what else can be done besides destroying an entire country and its' people?
It's tough for me to answer this in couple sentences, but certainly, I'm disappointed that the democratic party hasn't put up more of a stink about a lot of things that Bush has done. He has done nothing to make this country less oil dependent. He has done things that economically and environmentally will be disastrous to our country, I think. He just added a tax incentive for small businesses that BUY S.U.V.s.!!! How has that not caused an uproar? Affirmative action is something the administration is against, but what about people getting into college because of legacy (relatives who attended the college)? No problem with that. Very very scary.

Any plans for the future that aren't top secret? (music or otherwise)
A new record comes out in a few weeks called Attention! Blah Blah Blah on Hopeless Records. Lots of touring. Maybe I'll have a baby soon. I don't know.

Thanks ATOM can't wait to see you in SAN DIEGO!
Thanks for doing the interview Chris. Let me know if you have any follow up questions. Atom.

http://www.atomandhispackage.com | P.O. Box 39720 | Philadelphia, PA 19106 USA
http://www.hopelessrecords.com

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