Leeds indie rock band Artio chat to Edward Burnett about their brand new single ‘Billionaire Nightmare’ which comes out today! They also talk through their favourite films as well as their plans for this year, touring and beyond! RNRR: Hey ARTIO! How are you guys doing? Would you do the honours of introducing each of yourselves to our readers and telling them a little bit about the style of music you make for those unfamiliar with your work? ARTIO: Hi, we’re ARTIO and we are doing good! I’m Hol, the main singer and kind of manager, Rob is our lead guitarist and Iewan is our drummer and producer. We produce all of our own music, we don’t require a studio. So we have that lovely cheeky advantage of being able to release music during the pandemic without dependence on a studio. Our style is alternative rock and alt-pop but we generally love making music that we would have loved listening to when we were growing up. RNRR: So my next question has to be how did you all meet? In addition to that, when did you all decide you wanted to pursue music professionally together? Did the two things coincide or were you friends before the band? ARTIO: We all met through gigging in the Leeds music scene in different bands for a few years. We had all supported each other’s bands and been at the same shows for years so naturally we all became friends and had loads in common. We’d all wanted to be professional musicians since our early teen years but had been in projects with musicians who just saw it as a fun hobby rather than a career, that’s one reason we gelled so we’ll, because we all had the same plan. So when ARTIO officially began, everyone was all balls in and ready to run with it until it went somewhere! RNRR: You mention that you all wanted to be musicians since your early teen years and what I’d like to know is what lit the spark for each of you? What inspirations drove you to that point of wanting to go full out professional? ARTIO: For Ieuan it was his love of edm and discovering artists like Avicci and Skrillex that really inspired him to getting into production. For me it was falling in love with bands like Pvris and Nothing But Thieves. Going to festivals and seeing badass women on stage inspired me to become one of them. Rob has played guitar from a young age, all of us grew up with music as a part of our home life. Going to music college and getting in bands was the starting point for Rob wanting music to be his career. RNRR: So let’s bring it right up to the present then now that you’ve had many successful songs released with your latest ‘Billionaire Nightmare’, coming out this very weekend! Would you talk us through the song and it’s themes now it’s out as well as the process behind it especially given the difficulties of mass lockdown in the UK? ARTIO: ‘Billionaire Nightmare’ was written very quickly and kinda came out of nowhere. We wanted to write something about the power of the consumer and the individual. At some point in our lives we have all felt like we don’t belong somewhere or in ourselves. We wanted to write a song for those people in those moments. Not fitting the mould can actually be a superpower. RNRR: Compared to your previous singles, how fun was this one in particular to make? Alongside this, the ‘Billionaire Nightmare’ single has a very green colour theme that the band have adopted in much of your press release on social media. This differs from the previous prominent red tones in the last releases. Is there any deep meaning to the colour change or is it purely to refresh? ARTIO: We like switching things up for every release we do as we want every step forward to have it’s own identity. Every new era of the band has different aspects and emotions behind each song, for example in 'SAADYD' (our last EP) was very angry and passionate and we thought it deserved red. But for ‘Billionaire’ onwards, the focus point is power and growth which we think suits green. Green is also a pretty colour. RNRR: Let’s move away from music altogether and talk about your spare time. Thanks to several lockdowns in our jointly native UK, we have found ourselves with more time on our hands than ever before. What have each of you done with the time other than music? Have you developed any new hobbies or interests? ARTIO: Each of our lives revolves around music, whether it’s part of the band or not. We’ve spent every lockdown working on brand new material thanks to our abilities to self produce, record, and mix our music. Aside from that, we all have gotten more into cooking, Ieuan and Rob play loads of video games, and I have continued to roller-skate. RNRR: Moving back to the field of entertainment but in the form of the movies rather than music, do you all have a favourite film and why? ARTIO: My favourite movie is the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. I have multiple LOTR tattoos and have been obsessed with the Tolkien universe for over half my life. Ieuan couldn’t name a favourite film to save his life but will easily admit that 'Twin Peaks' is his favourite TV show. Rob’s fave film is ‘Seven’ because it’s when Hollywood showed a more realistic storyline with a darker conclusion to compliment that. RNRR: So let’s bring this forward to the present and 2021. What are your hopes and plans professionally for the rest of the year following the release of ‘Billionaire Nightmare’ this weekend? You have a UK tour coming up don’t you? ARTIO: We are really hopeful to get back on tour in September and to release buttloads of new music this year. Considering we spent all of 2020 working on music, we just want to get it all our and to entertain all our fans who stuck with us through this difficult time. RNNR: Staying on the topic of band progression, where would you like to see yourselves in a couple of years time, realistically? ARTIO: We would love to be able to tour regularly and go to places we’ve never been before. Seeing a packed venue everywhere we go and being able to connect with so many new people would be a dream of ours. We have no plans on slowing down how much music we put out either. We just want to keep growing our community and keep growing as a band until we eventually take over the world [laughs]! RNRR: Finally, here on Rock N Roll Reports we always have to ask the same final question to all our Spotlight interviewees. You’re stranded for the rest of your days on a desert island, you can only take one album with you on the island to listen to ever again, what are you picking guys and why? ARTIO: Rob’s album (technically a mixtape but whatever) would be ‘crybaby’ by Lil Peep for sure. It was close between that and Iowa but he didn’t think slipknot would be fun in the desert. Mine would be ‘Sam’s Town’ by The Killers. I have been listening to this album since she was a child and it just never gets old. Ieuan would pick ‘Periphery II’ by Periphery. He’s a super prog nerd who could listen to this album over and over again. RNRR: Some varied picks there with perfect reasoning ARTIO! Thanks for coming onto Spotlight and best of luck with the release of new single ‘Billionaire Nightmare’ which is out on all platforms this weekend! If you would like to find out more about ARTIO and keep up to date with their latest releases, you can find the links to their socials below:
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