New Interview: Martin Atkins

I don’t know if you know this; but I do a lot of research before most of my interviews. I like going in prepared, knowing the history behind the band and with a solid set of questions under my belt. This was not the case with my interview with Martin Atkins, author of the Tour Smart text book – a comprehensive guide on how to survive the touring world, and drummer for acts such as Public Image Ltd. (with Johnny Rotten), Ministry, Pigface, Nine Inch Nail and Killing Joke. On top of that, he also teaches at Columbia College in Chicago – a job he got accidentally by the way.

Instead this interview happened organically. We were introduced to one another as we were driving to the rehearsal day of the 2010 Vans Warped Tour and had an entertaining conversation about music, selling out, soccer and butter ads for a twenty minute car ride and then went our separate ways. An hour or so later, as I hung around backstage with Lanny at the Home Depot Centre in Carson, California, we saw Martin strolling the venue and filming it all for prosperity’s sake. Lanny and I turned to another and decided to see if Martin would be interested in doing an actual interview – touch on some of the topics we previously discussed in the car ride over and more about his ideas on touring. He graciously agreed and we dove into an interview that quickly turned into an organic conversation about the music industry and so much more.

We talked about Twitter, the miracle of the fax machine, Amanda Palmer playing mandolin at Dublin’s International Airport, pay-what-you-want salad, brewing companies, soccer, the ultimate cover band, 56 unreleased PiL recordings, Johnny Rotten, U2… oh, and his book about touring too. Martin Atkins is a DIY guru and his words ring true; if more bands followed his advice, they’d have a much longer career.

Read the interview here.