Every Atlas was nice enough to answer a few questions for PropertyOfZack regarding their new EP, Big Bad Wolf, touring, and the recording of a new album this summer! Enjoy the read.

After having seen the release of and reaction to The Ghosts of Everyone, what was the writing process for Big Bad Wolf like? Did it change from the first record?
Actually, a few of the songs on the EP were written during The Ghosts of Everyone, but they didn’t really fit with the story of that record. The songs on the EP are a bit darker than the ones on Ghosts, so in that aspect they’re different. 

On newer demos Every Atlas’ sound seems to be clearer and slightly more folky, what were some of your influences while writing these new songs?
For this record we were more influenced by nature and the world around us. To us, it was just kind of natural for these songs to come out as they did. We don’t live in a big city. All we see are mountain ranges and fields and if we travel far enough, the ocean. We really wanted to encompass that in these songs. As far as musical influences, we listened to a lot of stuff like Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan, and Tallest Man On Earth while writing these songs.

Also, how do you feel the growth and expansion in sound happened? How do you think it reflects your intended effect of the newer material? 
It happened kind of naturally as well, just in the sense that these songs and what we wanted for this record really fit with the music. The newer material is more of a connection with nature and the world around you, rather than a connection with yourself like on the last record.

Jumping ahead of the EP release, you guys have most of a new album written that you’ll be recording this summer. Is the EP a preview to what we should expect with the release of your next album? 
No. There’s one song from the EP that is most likely going on the next record, but we’ll be recording it in a different way. The EP was kind of like, we have all these songs we really like and want to put them out, but they don’t really go with the new record. And since they didn’t fit with the old record either, it just made sense to put them out on their own.

Every Atlas recently became a part of a very small label, what advantages do you think this could serve for the band? 
Quote Your Pulse Records is the best thing to happen to us as a band so far. Jon (our manager) gets us all of our shows and will be helping us to make shirts and even professionally pressing our next record. I don’t know where we’d be without him.

Many Every Atlas songs use an explorer or adventurer as the focal character in a story. On Ghosts Of Everyone, there is a lot of sailing imagery, the demo,”I Was Born” handles a pioneer. What draws you to  these tales?
As a band, we’re definitely attracted to stories and story telling itself. That’s what folk music started as. A way for people to tell stories of things they’ve seen, things they’ve went through, things other people have went through… even things they’ve made up themselves, whether it be to inspire, to scare, or just to make you think. We try and write in a way that contains elements of our own life and experiences, but at the same time speak for the world around us.

There was a recurirng “Annabelle” character on Ghosts Of Everyone. Does the essence of her continue, and because your writing is very story-based, are there developed personas throughout your music?
There are definitely personas throughout the music. Annabelle doesn’t appear on this record at all, but I wouldn’t say we’re done with her either. This record is more about us as people and where we are in our lives, but at the same time the story-telling element is still very present throughout the songs.

Every Atlas has covered various artists recently, spanning from MGMT to Lydia. What gives you inspiration to make a a cover? What’s your favorite song to cover?
Inspiration to cover songs probably comes from a combination of boredom and feelings of inadequacy with our own music. Whenever we’re sick of our own songs, we just play someone else’s. We really like playing Manchester Orchestra songs… and Neutral Milk Hotel. That’s probably our two favorite bands to cover. The Lydia cover was really interesting to do, because we had no idea how to play the song and didn’t read tabs or anything. It turned out better than we hoped, and that (along with the T&S cover) got us a lot of plays/fans on myspace.

What shows do you guys have coming up? Is a summer tour in the realm of possibility?
A summer tour is definitely the goal. We’ve talked about it and really we just have to plan it when it gets closer to June/July. Right now we’re doing a mini-tour to support the Big Bad Wolf EP and we’re really excited . We get to play with a lot of bands we love.

In that vein, what next might we be able to expect?
Right now our live performance is just the two of us on acoustic guitars, but we really want to expand to a full band soon. It’s just a matter of finding the right people. We definitely want to be playing full band shows consistently by the start of next year.

Reality aside, if you could do anything at all with Every Atlas, what would it be?
There are so many things we would love to do. The biggest goal for us is to just be able to do this for a living. We don’t expect to be rich or super successful, but if we’re able to keep putting out records and effect people with our music on a larger scale, that’s really all we could ask for.

What are your biggest goals for the band going forward, having released the Big Bad Wolf EP and the recording of a new full-length this summer?
To keep growing as musicians and we definitely hope to gain more fans. If the reaction for the new record is the same or (hopefully) better than it was for the last one, we’ll feel like we’ve accomplished something.