With the debut of "Pieces of Time" in 1988, Atheist has made a name for themselves with their distinct sound, often labeled as Techno Death Metal. The band consists of Kelly Shaefer (guitar/vocals), Steve Flynn (drums), Rand Burkey (guitar), and Tony Choy (bass) (Tony became a member after Roger Patterson passed away in a tragic car accident in 1990 during the bands first tour in the States with Candlemass). The band produced two more albums, "Unquestionable Presence" in 1991 (labeled to be one of the top death metal albums of all time from a UK magazine called "Terrorizer") and "Elements" in 1993 before calling it quits. Kelly is still involved in a band called Neurotica. Atheist recently re-issued the entire back catalogue of all the Atheist albums (remastered with other perks). I had the rare opportunity to see them live, as well as obtain the last guitar pick from the final tour in the States..This was a huge honor for me!! They are amazing, and here is Kelly Shaefer to give us a little info on the Atheist experience!

ADRENALIN: When did you start playing music?

KELLY: I started when I was 14 playing guitar, and never looked back. it was the very best thing I have done in my life besides the birth of my little girl.

ADRENALIN: Can you tell us your inspirations when writing the music?

KELLY:  Well we were always inspired by good players, jazz musicians, as well as progressive artists such as Zappa, Chick Corea etc. But truthfully we smoked a lot of weed and just wrote crazy tunes literally right in front of 50 people most times, we had a rehearsal storage place that was legendary and people would come to sit and drink and smoke and watch us fight and write songs

hahaha. We were sort of on the spot a lot of times and I think it fueled our process.

ADRENALIN: Can you tell us about the transition of "Oblivion" to "R.A.V.A.G.E" and finally to "Atheist"?

KELLY: Well it's not very glamorous and sort of an old story, but basically, me and Steve started the band as Oblivion, and then changed it to ravage.  Then there was another band who had a deal called ravage, so we then changed ravage to an acronym Raging Atheists Vowing a Gory End...pretty death metal right? hahaha But we shortly there after changed it to just Atheist.

ADRENALIN: Can you tell us more about your current band Neurotica?

KELLY:  Neurotica is a straight up rock band with some big riffs in the spirit of Kyuss, Sabbath, but with huge hooks and lots of harmony vocals. For me it was a chance to sing rather than sing, and to write tunes that were a bit easier to get on and ride the first time you hear them. We had a lot of success, played the 2002 Ozzfest signed a big deal with Smackdown records, and then split in 2003, I went on to audition and almost got the Velvet Revolver gig, also formed another new band called Unheard www.myspace.com/unheard and also did a project with Brian Johnson from AC/DC called Big Machine www.myspace.com/bigmachine Neurotica can be heard at www.myspace.com/neuroticarocks 

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