Atom Willard: The Cream Interview

Whether you know it or not, you've probably heard Atom Willard play drums. He joined Rocket From the Crypt in 1990 when he was just 16 years old, and he's been behind the kit ever since, drumming for and touring with several notable punk and rock acts, including The Offspring, Angels & Airwaves, theHELL (a duo with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba), Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur, The Special Goodness (led by Patrick Wilson of Weezer), Social Distortion and, most recently, Against Me!

In 2013, when Willard joined AM! on a temporary basis, the band was in the middle of a very tumultuous time. After singer Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender and began her very public transition, both the band's drummer and bassist left within six months of each other, leaving Grace to wonder if Against Me! could continue to exist. They did, partly because of Willard. After hitting it off with Grace while filling in on a tour, Willard was invited to join the group full time, and he's been a permanent member ever since. The band's current line up is Grace, Willard, long-time guitarist James Bowman and Inge Johansson, formerly of The (International) Noise Conspiracy.

Willard hopped on the phone with the Scene while the band was on the road to talk about joining the seminal punk act in the midst of chaos, dish on who is most difficult to work with in the studio and share some wisdom on how he's able to work with so many different kinds of artists and personalities. 

Against Me! will play The Cannery Ballroom this Friday, Oct. 20, with Bleached and The Dirty Nil. Tickets are available here.

You were originally brought into Against Me! to help fulfill some tour dates during the lineup shakeups, right? It wasn't necessarily going to be a full-time thing?

Yeah, there was this Australian tour that they had booked and their drummer [Jay Weinberg] had left unexpectedly, and it was like, "OK, I'm a huge fan of Against Me!, I would love to go see Australia and play shows with you. Of course I'll do this.” We had a good time and saw how we each work out there in the world, what it's like to tour with [each other], and during that Laura [Jane Grace] said, "Would you be interested in playing on this record?" I'm like, "Absolutely." I love these new songs and I obviously love all the old songs, so I'd love to contribute. It was just such an easy decision, but I had other things going on, commitments throughout that year. But after [recording Transgender Dysphoria Blues] I was like, "This was really fun, she and I work really well together, I think we can make this a thing. Let's go steady.”

“Will you be my full-time drummer?” And then you each wear a little pin on your jackets or something.

Exactly. I gave her a drumstick and she gave me a pick [laughs].

So it was a pretty pivotal time for the band when you joined. Laura had recently come out as trans and the band’s lineup was shaky. It even sounded like she was talking about doing something new entirely. So what was the vibe like when you joined? Was their a purposeful reinvention happening musically? Was there talk of starting a new project?

I was blissfully unaware of so many of those elements. I dipped in as a total outsider for this tour, just full of life and optimism and happiness. I was just like, "Ahh, this is awesome!” And to be honest, I didn't even know how tumultuous it was until I read her book [Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout]. I was like, "Oh my God." Because we weren't in close contact, we don't live in the same city, still, and we never really talked about it. And I actually think that that attitude helped her focus on the positives of what was going on and what was happening, because it was unbridled optimism and confidence in what was happening. I just didn't know. I was like, "Oh shit, Andrew [Seward]’s quitting? What a dumbass. Well, I guess we just got to find a bass player. No big deal.” I think I brought some levity to the situation in a way. I felt really stupid — reading the book I was like, "Wow, I missed that."

So politically speaking, obviously, a lot is happening right now.

I hadn't noticed.

Have you not? You're sitting behind a drum set not seeing the news?

Yeah, I actually live under a rock.

I bet it's great under there. Can we all join you?

Yeah. It's much nicer. [laughs]

You're touring in a punk rock band, especially one with such an important and clear message right now. How is it going?

I have to think that everybody that comes to our shows is pretty like-minded. People who are in the crowds, whoever has paid to come out is thinking on the same lines as we are. So we haven't really experienced anything where you get pro-Trump people in the crowd booing.

There's not a sea of MAGA hats being thrown around?

Yeah. We've seen very little of people being outside the venues or that kind of thing. We have fallen into this cool zone where our shows are this safe space for everybody. You can come and be punk, you can come and be queer, you can come and just have the time of your life and everybody's just cool with it. It's just an unspoken thing. It's really neat to have seen the evolution into that and how our fans have adopted that mentality towards the people around them — maybe you've got these longtime Against Me! fans that have no friends that are outside the binary, and they're suddenly thrown into this room with people of every designation. So it's a really cool thing to see. And it's amazing to be a part of.

How old were you when you joined Rocket From the Crypt — like, 12?

I was actually in the womb. Obviously, my mom drove me to practice because I was still in there. [laughs] I just turned 16.

So have you been a full time musician your whole life then? No side pizza delivery jobs or anything?

No. And it's crazy. It's insane that somebody that only has my skill set has been able to have this many chances and do this. Not as day goes by where I'm not aware of how lucky I am.

So at this point, you could play Six Degrees From Atom Willard, because you've been in basically every punk rock band or a member of a band affiliated with another. You're the Kevin Bacon of punk rock, is what I'm saying. Is there anybody that you've really wanted to play with but haven't gotten the chance to yet?

Touring with Green Day was awesome. I think Billie Joe's an amazing songwriter. It'd be fun to do something with him. He's rad. He's really got that “thing,” and his energy for what he's doing and his fire, whatever you want to call it, it's pretty inspiring. He gives it his all the way we give it our all. And that was fun to see. I feel like if Fugazi were to do a reunion and I could play with Brendan Canty. I don't want to replace him, but if I could just be there, playing a shaker. I love Jimmy Eat World. I would love to work with those guys. And there's just different things out there that would always be fun to do, but who knows. I was almost in Queens of the Stone Age and it's like, I kind of wish I was in Queens of the Stone Age. That would be really fun for a tour. I love to play the drums so there's no shortage of interest in doing that with different people.

So with all of the people you have played with, either on tour or in the studio, who's been the biggest pain in the ass?

Definitely Laura. [laughs] Mike Ness [of Social Distortion] is a very particular guy. He's got a lot of musical experience and he definitely knows what he wants to hear, but doesn't always have the words together to tell you what to do. So it was a little bit tough, sometimes, to read him. It was good time to do Social D for a year or so, but ultimately I don't think we had that deeper musical connection where I just am intuitive about what it is you're looking for. A lot of times songwriters don't have a specific thing in mind, but he always did.

I've talked to a number of songwriters who know what they want, they're particular, but they admit that having the vocabulary or the ability to vocalize what they want is a big challenge in the studio. You must be pretty adaptable to be able to work with so many different artists with different visions.

I think what you have to do is listen to what people mean more than what they're saying, because a lot of times they will just say a certain word that means something totally different to you than it does to them. That one thing can put you off in the wrong direction, so I think it's important to just quiet your mind when people are talking to you about that stuff and just absorb the overall message. Like, "Well, they said ‘shuffle’ three sentences ago and I'm still thinking ‘shuffle’ and now he's talking about this ‘straight ahead’ thing.” You get these potentially conflicting messages. And I'm not saying that it's totally a different language, but these are very nuanced, specific things that we're talking about. The feel comes from the small [inflections] in your playing and this stuff is sometimes difficult to describe. Everybody plays the same beat a little bit differently. Just the way you can tell how someone walks down the street — it's like, "Oh, I know that person.” Even if you can't really see their face, you can just tell by their walk and how they're moving. It's the same thing with playing the drums. These small, little things that are unique to everybody.

And I'm sure that was a skill that took awhile to pick up — you've worked with so many different artists at this point.

I can't wait to pick that up. I think it'll be a really good day for me. [laughs]

You'll get there someday. Seems like you've got it pretty figured out.

I'm hoping. Here's to hoping.