For the past 15 years, there have been a ton of bands starting in and around Providence turning up their amps, micing the drums and letting their music rip with sheer emphasis. These talented acts create a memorable experience every time they perform.

With Eric Aguiar on bass and vocals, Dan Tanner on guitar and vocals, and Mark “Ref” Ferrara on drums, Atlantic Thrills is all this and more. They have a new full-length album titled “III” that’s due out on June 6 via the Brooklyn based label Almost Ready Records.

To celebrate the release, they’re putting on a hometown party at AS220 in Providence with fellow garage rock acts Ravi Shavi and Gymshorts along with Cranston native and singer-songwriter Malyssa BellsRossa kicking things off a little after 7pm.

I talked with Aguiar and Tanner about how the album came together, their artistic vision during the recording process, and how the release show has a commemorative meaning behind it.

Rob Duguay: For the making of “III”, did you guys go into a studio to work with a producer or did you handle the recording process yourselves?

Eric Aguiar: We recorded it ourselves, just like our other two albums. It was at our house in the basement with all the equipment that we’ve built up over the past 15 years, using both analog and digital recording techniques.

Dan Tanner: We’re pretty much DIY, it’s basically everything that we’re doing at this point, so everything is written and recorded ourselves.

EA: Mixed and mastered as well.

DT: Yeah, from the song idea to the finished product, we’re doing it all ourselves.

RD: In terms of approach and technique for the songwriting and recording, did you guys do anything different this time around? You just mentioned that you had a bunch of gear you worked with, so did you make it a priority to use certain pieces of equipment?

EA: For the recording, Dan has a new Fender model amp that has direct input capabilities. We always record everything live at the same time minus the vocals. The vocals happen later. We were able to record the drums, the guitar and the bass in the same room without getting any bleed because both the bass and the guitar were coming in directly with no sound coming out of the actual speaker. For previous recordings, we had to build baffling around the drums and there would be a bunch of guitar and bass that would get into the drum microphones. This time around, we were able to get a slightly cleaner sound. It’s still dirty because it is Atlantic Thrills. It’s gotta be dirty, (laughs) but it was easier to mix because there was less interference from the other instruments.

DT: I’ll add that the concept behind this album was to be more of a live and raw thing. We wanted to record it live, but as a three piece where the songs can all be represented regardless of any overdubs or anything else that we’re doing. That’s the whole idea, us being recorded live as a three piece with the album being more of a representation of our live shows.

RD: A lot of bands, the third full-length album usually signifies the reaching of a sonic apex while also hinting at the future in terms of experimentation and the overall progression of their sound. In the timeline and evolution of Atlantic Thrills, what does “III” represent for you guys?

EA: Well technically, this is the third album we’re putting out, but it’s actually the fourth album we’ve recorded because there’s another album waiting on the backburner that we made between our second full-length “Vices” and this one. We decided to release this one only because it represents where we’re at right now. It’s a little bit more ‘70s punk influenced, and the one that’s on the backburner definitely experiments more with a lot of different types of vibes and sounds. Each song on the unreleased album is completely different where this one has a sound throughout the whole thing from beginning to end. It’s threaded with a vibe, for sure.

DT: It goes back to the idea I mentioned, this was recorded with more of our live sound. The album that Eric is talking about, COVID definitely sidelined a lot of that and it’s more of a studio album where we experimented with different instruments and different forms of recording. It was way more of a studio album where this album is definitely more of a push forward in the live sense.

EA: We didn’t scrutinize every little, tiny thing on this album, we just wanted to get the energy and the vibe. That was the most important thing on this one, we didn’t add a billion things to every song, each song is basically two guitars, drums, bass and that’s it. 

DT: We tried breaking it down to its core elements.

RD: What do you guys aim to accomplish with the listener when they tune into the album? Is there any sort of message you want to get across?

EA: I want them to know what it’s like to go to an Atlantic Thrills live show because that’s what the album really wants to get across. We’re a live band. We’re not just a studio band and we’ve never been just a studio band. From the very beginning, we’ve always tried to show what the experience of seeing us live is like through our recordings. What you hear on this album it’s how we sound on stage, minus the exploding pinatas, of course.

DT: We’re just trying to get to the meat of it. What we want to represent and what we want to say is that we’re a live rock & roll band who embraces classic rock & roll and we love it.

RD: I totally get that. Are there any surprises in store for the upcoming album release show at AS220? Eric, you just mentioned exploding pinatas, so can we expect some of those being thrown from the stage?

EA: I don’t want to give too many spoilers because you want to leave a little there for anticipation, but there will be a pinata or two showing up. For anyone who came to our very first album release back in 2014, this is actually the original lineup for that show minus Littlefoot. Gymshorts, Ravi Shavi and us is the same show we had at Dusk, which used to be on Harris Avenue in Providence, for our debut record. We just wanted to pay tribute to that, it’s a little over a 10-year anniversary for us as far as releasing music goes. We want to continue to do that and bring all the energy we always bring, but we’ve matured a bit too.

We don’t get as wasted on stage anymore, we try to definitely deliver a good show without losing any of the energy and wildness that we bring.

DT: Also, it is a record release, so there is a new record that will be available that can be purchased anywhere, especially at the show. We have a whole new line of new merch, awesome imagery, and again, everything is DIY so all the artwork and everything we have is done in-house. There’s not just music; there’s also art and all of these other things involved that’s all going to be at the show while carrying the image of what’s happening. We’re always going to bring a good show, but there’s always some debauchery to be had, so we’ll see what happens.

To give Atlantic Thrills’ “III” a listen when it comes out on June 6, log onto atlanticthrills.bandcamp.com. To keep tabs on future announcements and everything else, follow the band on Instagram at instagram.com/atlanticthrills and on Facebook at facebook.com/AtlanticThrills.

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