Atticus/Austin Origin Story
Where best friends come from.
May 2019. A matter of weeks left in my senior year of college. Handed in my thesis, ready to party, and setting the gigs and route for my first national tour, The Garage Tour, seen here in this mildly delirious promotional video after our gig in DC. Everything was running smoothly until a master snag of world-ending magnitude bit my ankle like an over-eager garter snake: no drummer. My usual drummer and college-best-friend Alasdair was leaving to embark on his own tour with his great Boston band Hush Club. I wouldn’t say I panicked per se, but there was less than a month before our first show in NY and between Scott’s unknown whereabouts (in Cuba) and my hectic senior bonanza (less sleep than a newborn at the jackhammer convention) we were in no position to…rehearse. I called the best drummer I knew in LA for advice or a reccomendation : Henry Was of the inimitable Thumpasaurus.
Here’s a fun fact you might not know. If you saw us on that original Garage Tour (hoping to do another one soon…) you may remember the large U-Haul trailer we pulled behind us. In addition to our musical gear, it also carried our entire lives. I booked the tour to start on the east coast and end in Los Angeles. Figured if I was moving there anyway, I might as well do it on tour. So we packed up our entire dorm room, furniture and all, alongside our guitars and amps and hit the road as the world’s first combined touring band/moving company.
But I digress. The point is I was moving to LA and figured I might as well find a drummer out there who could tour. So I called Henry, and he immediately recommended the one and only Atticus Reynolds. A small aside: I had always assumed they were thick as thieves—why else would you recommend anyone for a month-long tour with no prep—until only last year when, talking some shit with Henry, I learned that they had just met as well! He had just gotten a good vibe and that was enough. Atticus and I got a good vibe, too, and it turns out that was enough as well. A few weeks later he showed up in New York with his snare drum and cymbals and, after playing through each song once at my parent’s house, we hit the stage at the Mercury Lounge having just met, very literally, that morning.
I knew that anyone willing to fly across the country to tour with people they’d never met in a band they’d never heard of must be my kind of guy, and we quickly bonded over our love of music, food, and just being good people. We’ve wanted to collaborate ever since, and I’m so excited to share “banter” with you all on Friday.
We’ve got a few more things coming up this year, not to mention Specific Northwest, so stay tuned.
More to come—love you all,
aw