ATLVS // Gippsland Boys Making Noise

Jul 19, 2018 / WORDS Audrey Gerrard / “This is what we really want to do.”

Emerging from Victoria’s own Gippsland region, ATLVS are a rapidly accelerating five-piece metalcore band that is set to take the Australian music scene by storm.

After two hard-hitting singles in less than a year, ATLVS are set to unleash their third offering, and are fast approaching their debut release.

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As to which part of Gippsland ATLVS represents, drummer Nick Clavarino informs us, “Were kind of spread out, we have some from Sale, some from Newborough, and some from Traralgon.”

Although only formed in mid 2017, ATLVS have already released two singles, Epiphany and Insinuate, skyrocketing the band’s popularity, as vocalist Francis King recounts, “Pretty decent response [to the singles], like locally too, we got a couple of shows out of it, so it’s been really good, just meeting lots of people, having a good time really, getting stuff done as well.”

ATLVS dropped their third single, intriguingly titled Love, this week. As to the story behind this, King explains, “Basically, I started writing this when I was a bit younger, to, I guess, deal with a pretty shit breakup at the time. The more the song developed, the more the band developed, the more I developed, it grew …”

So the song is very much a catharsis! Is this an approach to songwriting that ATLVS embrace more generally? “Yeah, we sort of approached it with the writing style of expressing different aspects of us and different stories and stuff that has affected us, like the first song, Epiphany was dealing with drug abuse and stuff, and vices not under your control and addictions, and the second song was written primarily by our drummer [Nick Clavarino], and its sort of him dealing with being booted from his old band and the fallout after that, just yeah experiential writing and learning I guess.”

Probably most memorable gig for me personally, and probably for the band, was when we played The Workers’ Club with Drown This City and Rumours
[ Nick Clavarino ]

Writing from experience certainly makes ATLVS’ songs relatable. “I hope so, I certainly don’t want people to feel crap,” King laughs, “but sometimes we all do, and so there’s something they can gain from it.”

Love is accompanied by brand new video clip, featuring guitarists Steve Ljiljak and Nick Fitzgerald. “Our manager Ionei Heckenberg from Ocean Sleeper, was like, ‘oh do you want to just make this into a video?’ Ljiljak states, “And we were like, yeah sure. [laughs]” Musically, however, Love represents ATLVS as a whole, as Fitzgerald adds, “I think the main riff is pretty much an amalgamation of my writing style and Steve’s writing style and like everyone inputting ideas. Its probably one of my favourite songs for that reason.”

In the wake of their successful singles, ATLVS are preparing for their debut release, and EP scheduled for some time this year. “Its in the air at the minute,” drummer Fitzgerald explains, “trying to get some of the side prepared, in terms of more shows, and just trying to make sure that we’re 100% happy with the final product. All of us are constantly writing, everyday.”

As to what we can expect on this highly anticipated debut, King offers, “the approach has been pretty similar for each of the songs but I’d say that there is a pretty fair spread, it’s all under the metalcore umbrella but there are a few different styles thrown in.”

ATLVS have played a number of shows around Melbourne, and are gearing up for Takedown Fest this August in support of Pridelands and Windwaker in the lead up to their EP release. What has been their best experience of playing live so far? “Probably most memorable gig for me personally, and probably for the band, was when we played The Workers’ Club with Drown This City and Rumours,” recalls Clavarino. “As a band after playing that show we were a lot closer as a group and just tighter in music and we just looked at each other that night, like, this is really what we want to do.”