Lower Than Atlantis frontman Mike Duce and guitarist Ben Sansom say the band are in a better place since inking a deal with Sony.
They signed earlier this year following a turbulent period with Island and released one album, 2012’s Changing Tune. But the relationship soured when they discovered they didn’t have the label’s full backing – and they say their old manager wasn’t a good fit for the band.
Duce tells Music Radar: “Our manager had a meeting with Island to find out the budget for our next album. It became clear it would be minimum marketing spend, minimum album costs – less than we would spend ourselves. Essentially, we had just been dropped.
“We had a manager that was telling us we were going to be the next Beatles. He used to say, ‘If you want to throw a fucking chair through a window, throw the fucking chair through the window. I’ll pick up the pieces – that’s what I’m here for.’ He was encouraging us to be massive dickheads.”
Sansom adds: “We thought everything we touched would turn to gold. There wasn’t a rigorous quality control. But that’s also the label’s job to say no. There are two sides to the story. I guess we should have maybe worked harder.”
Following their departure from Island, they say they had a crisis of confidence and didn’t know if they should continue or break up.
Duce adds: “We’d parted ways with our label, and our manager jumped ship. We just felt alone. It felt like, ‘Do we want to carry on doing it and would anyone care if we did?’”
But since inking a deal with Sony and releasing their self-titled fourth album last month, the band say the situation in the group has never been better.
Duce says: “Morale has never been higher. We’ve learned from our mistakes and the ball is very much in our court now.”
Sansom adds: “I feel we were always chasing stuff up before, saying, ‘Why hasn’t this happened?’ and having stuff go wrong. With the team we’ve got now, I don’t feel that way at all because we’re working with people we trust, and our manager and our label are so ahead of us.”
Lower Than Atlantis hit the road this month for a run of seven UK dates.
Tour dates
Nov 12: Portsmouth Guildhall
Nov 14: Plymouth Pavilions
Nov 15: Brighton Centre
Nov 16: Leeds O2 Academy
Nov 21: Sheffield O2 Academy
Nov 23: Newcastle O2 Academy
Dec 08: London Koko
