Like so many things I’m privileged to be able to write about here, getting to chat with a member of Alkaline Trio was equal parts thrilling and daunting. Since the very early 2000’s, Alkaline Trio has been a consistent presence in my musical rotation. Goddamnit was a clarion call for the band. Maybe I’ll Catch Fire is a genuine masterpiece. And until Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs, I would have said From Here To Infirmary was the perfect encapsulation of what made Alkaline Trio who they were at the time. Dark, clever, and catchy, their particular brand of self-aware and self-critical songwriting has appealed to me from the first time I heard it.
Right now, the band feels like it’s on the cusp again, evolving and reintroducing themselves - shedding a skin maybe they didn’t know needed to be shed. I asked what that’s been like for Atom Willard, drummer for Alkaline Trio.
“I mean it’s been fantastic. We just got back from Europe, we spent a month over there. We were playing a similar set over there, playing the new stuff - and you want to play all of it, but you realize that not everyone has had as much time with the new record as you have. And you try to be conscious of that,” he tells me with genuine excitement.
“And you gotta give the people what they want. It’s just a balance, you know? The set will evolve through the weeks. It’ll be like, ‘You know, I think we should do this here. Or I think we should change this one to that one.’”
Willard, who officially joined the band last year, is no stranger to creating memorable, important music. During his career, he’s performed with Rocket from the Crypt and The Offspring, he founded Angels & Airwaves with Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge (and, of course, Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba would join Blink-182 in DeLonge’s place for a time), played with Laura Jane Grace in Against Me!, and currently plays with one of my favorite acts of the 2020’s, Worriers.
Not to worry, though - Alkaline Trio is where he’s focusing all of his attention right now. “I mean, honestly, this has really become my main priority. This is just what is taking precedence over everything. For the most part, this is what I’m doing, what I’m focused on,” Willard says.
“Alkaline Trio is a band that I’ve had a connection with for literally decades, which sounds terrible - it definitely dates me. I’ve been friends with these guys for a long time. This was the one that got away - I could have joined the band in 2000, but I didn’t,” he tells me. And, well, this was news to me, but makes total sense given the close orbit Willard and Alkaline Trio would often find themselves in. Of the tour, and his experience so far, he says,”It seems like you would have it all figured out, but it’s a forever evolving process. It’s really a fun situation, a fun environment where we just kinda go with what happens. Yeah, we have a script, but we don’t always stick to it.”
Oh, if you didn’t know, Willard recorded some music with Matt Skiba and AFI’s Hunter Bergen, called Lektron - a garage punk project more than a band, so I’m told. Asian Man Records put out the 2-song 12” earlier this year. Considering the pedigree, though, this one’s long since sold out. You can still snag it digitally, though, on Bandcamp.
In 2023 I was fortunate to catch Willard during a relatively early performance with the band at Ohio Is For Lovers. Since then, Alkaline Trio would go on to release what I think is the best album of their long and storied career, Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs. Though he didn’t play on the record, being able to join at a point in Alkaline Trio’s timeline where he could jump in and really grab onto such strong material was a boon, more than a challenge. “It really just felt like a situation that would be fun. It was just the right thing.”
In talking about the tour itself, I get the sense that what the band has been building together since he joined is actually something sustainable, and maybe, quite special. Willard tells me “Well, I sound like a simple person when I say this, but I’m having the time of my life. It’s just so fun to be able to play most nights of the week. There’s people that are super excited to see it, and we’ve got a really great crew and they’re all stoked to be here. Everybody’s just like… there’s no drama, we’re all just having fun.”
After the release of 2003’s Good Mourning, the next several records would take them on a journey I’m hard-pressed to imagine the band ever considered a possibility. A far cry from parking lot shows with Piebald at a New Jersey college, I would get to watch them catch the attention of many, many more ears, moving from small venues playing with AFI - who were also on the cusp of breaking through at the time - to headlining spaces like the Roseland Ballroom and beyond. Admittedly, it had been years since I’d seen them live and was finally able to catch them at last year’s Ohio Is For Lovers Festival, but even after checking out most of their post-Good Mourning releases and not quite connecting the same way I used to, I’ve remained a fan all the same. Just recently, the inimitable Mike Park and his label Asian Man Records repressed Alkaline Trio’s cover of “Halloween” to glow-in-the-dark vinyl - it arrived at my house just days before I would get to chat with Willard.
With Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs, though, something shifted and I’m not entirely sure what. While it would ultimately be longtime drummer Derek Grant’s last recording with the band, Alkaline Trio feel nonetheless more focused, more sure of themselves. Again, just about as perfect a time for Willard to join as one could hope for. “It’s nice when people are receptive and encouraging, and genuinely feel excited about it,” he says. “I think there’s just a certain amount of fans and music lovers that are very loyal to whatever band, and they put out a new record and they’re excited about it. But I feel like Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs takes it beyond that base obligation that true fans have. I mean, people have really connected with this one.” I, for one, feel the same.
Having spent the last 20+ years honing their craft and creating a fascinating and distressingly catchy mix of macabre imagery and insanely potent earworms, they also spent a good amount of time working their way through iterations of melodic pop punk and punk rock, toying with 80’s-inspired dark wave and more straightforward rock and pop. With Blood, Sweat, and Eyeballs, the band has landed in a (bitter)sweet spot that’s as refreshing as it’s nostalgic. That same vibe comes with the surprise release of two new singles, “The Sacrifice” and “At Sickness,” which is a continuation of what they put together with the full-length. I, for one, will take all of this era of Alkaline Trio that I can get.
What’s really special about my conversation with Willard is hearing how much he seems to recognize the relatively singular and profound experience being in a band like Alkaline Trio is and can be. “When we do get the opportunity to hang out with people and talk to people after the shows it’s very evident it means something to them, too. It feeds itself,” he says.
“All those stories all add to the greater experience, and ultimately, this singular goal of connecting and having a great time. Using the music as a sort of catharsis, which, I think we all need.” This is especially poignant given Willard’s 2022 motorcycle crash, and the multiple and sundry injuries he sustained. “For me, it’s like tenfold. Just recovering from my accident and thinking, “Wow, I really didn’t think I would get to do this again.” And here we are,” he says, with absolute sincerity.
When the band arrives in Newport at MegaCorp Pavilion on Sunday, it’ll be the last date of their current run of shows celebrating the album's release. “I think that everyone’s just got this newfound appreciation for the things that we are allowed to do in this life, and I feel like that just resonates and it’s just rippling out across the whole tour,” he tells me. The vibes seem, as the kids might say, immaculate.
Willard also tells me to let you all know, “Get there early, both opening bands are awesome. Slomosa’s really awesome, they’re from Norway. Spanish Love Songs are so great. And it’s my wedding anniversary on that day, so, you know, LET’S GO!”
Alkaline Trio headlines MegaCorp Pavilion on Sunday, Sept. 29 with Slomosa opening the show and Spanish Love Songs as direct support. You’ll find me in the back, singing along, loudly and key.
