Watch Me Burn
ATREYU are a band in the truest sense of the word: five friends who come together to create music for themselves, for each other, and for the thriving community that has forged around it.
They are bonds born of time; of joy and sadness; of success and hardship. But most importantly, they are born of an openness that allows five unique creative personalities to unite in something far stronger and far bigger than the sum of its talented parts. It’s what makes ATREYU – frontman Brandon Saller, guitarists Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel, bassist Porter McKnight and drummer Kyle Rosa – one of the most respected names and potent forces in heavy music, and their live show one of the most heralded on the touring circuit.
“We draw strength from each other and give each other the space and support to be the best, most creative person we can be,” Dan Jacobs explains. “And together, right now, that makes us the best band we’ve ever been.”
He’s not wrong. With a 20-year career and eight acclaimed albums in the rear-view mirror, ATREYU in 2023 are focused only on the present and the future, and a mission to continue shaping and defining the rock and metal scene, just as they have always done since their emergence from Huntington Beach in Southern California.
It’s a journey that has seen them hit stages in the furthest corners of the globe on tour, collect multiple RIAA-certified Gold records, amass over one billion streams and unite millions of fans through their social channels…and they’re only just getting started.
Arriving at this point hasn’t been without growing pains expected of any decades’ long relationship. But ask the band and they will tell you that through adversity comes strength, and that the journey has seen them arrive at a destination with sunnier climes than they could ever have imagined.
“It has allowed us to reach a point where we finally feel like we found ourselves,” is Jacobs’ summation. “Everything that we have put out to this point has built to this moment. Something special is happening with ATREYU right now. We can feel the creativity and collaboration when the five of us get in the studio. We can feel the confidence we all give each other when we stand on stage together. And we can see it in the audience when they’re losing their minds. They’re having as good a time as we are ourselves.”
Where once the band were heralded as the early innovators of the nascent metalcore scene, their place in heavy music’s diverse and boundary-breaking scene has never felt more relevant, with inspirations of pop-punk, hardcore, thrash, ‘80s rock and more melding into a unique and varied sound that has never felt more relevant than in today’s increasingly genreless world.
“It feels like the world has been catching up with the diversity of influences and sounds that we’ve been putting into ATREYU for some time now,” Saller says. “There are no limitations, no barriers.”
“These songs are the culmination of our entire artistic endeavours,” McKnight attests. “It’s everything we’ve learned as humans, everything we’ve ingested as musicians, and everything we’ve experienced in this lifetime. It is ATREYU unleashed.”
Produced by long-time collaborator John Feldmann, “Watch Me Burn” is the phoenix rising from life’s trial-by-fire – a call to arms to let renewed hope emerge from smouldering embers and ash.
“To me it’s a song about being cleansed by fire,” explains McKnight. “Whatever it is that’s bringing you down and holding you back, burn it down. Use it, learn from it, move on and grow. That thing does not deserve you and you don’t deserve it.”
“It’s very relatable to all of us individually,” adds Saller, who leads the track’s anthemic, hooky chorus with a defiant cry of ‘Even when flames grow higher / I’ll be fighting ’til I’m dead.’ “But it’s also incredibly pertinent to the journey of this band.”