"Atomic Tom"
"Atomic Tom"
The story of Atomic Tom begins in Brooklyn. The record that is The Moment was recorded over four months in a tiny apartment with the band's close friend, Ben Romans as producer. Microphones were set up in the hallway, the bathtub and the kitchen; amps and empty guitar cases lined the walls, and the vocal booth was a repurposed utility closet. Despite noise complaints, one of them leading to a shutdown by “New York’s finest”, the LP left the studio dressed in larger-than-life sounds.
Lead vocalist Luke White began writing demos in 2006 with Philip Galitzine on bass, adding guitarist Eric Espiritu in 2007. By early 2009, drummer Tobias Smith completed the circle. "We knew we had the green light," says Luke.
After countless New York area shows, ATOMIC TOM started to hear their lyrics shouted back at them at shows, "We knew the time was right for a full-length record."
From the exhilarating electronica-meets-arena-rock shuffle of “Let Let Go”, the epic romanticism of "We Were Never Meant To Be", and the hauntingly delicate "Play That Dirty Girl", ATOMIC TOM’S debut LP demonstrates remarkable musical ability and diversity, married with an innate sense of how to connect with an audience on a grand scale. "It’s possible to reach each and every individual in an eighty thousand seat stadium," claims Philip. "You can make an enormous, towering sound and still say something deeply meaningful and musical.” They plan to do just that.
Nowhere is this philosophy more evident than on the title track. Says Eric, "whenever we play 'The Moment,' it feels like we somehow all stand up a little straighter. There’s something fresh about that particular tune, and yet it also connects to the music we loved growing up. There’s a lot of magic on that song.” Adds Philip, “'The Moment' took three entire days of pre-production, just kind of summoning the sounds we heard in our heads.”
The band's first single, “Take Me Out”, neatly summarizes the theme of the record: “It’s a vulnerable song. It’s about letting people into your life, letting people rescue you,” explains Luke. “Admitting that you need that, and then asking for it…that’s a very difficult task, though it’s something everyone goes through at some point.