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The Airborne Toxic Event
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
"When I write a song," says Mikel Jollett, co-founder and creative driver of the Californian five-piece The Airborne Toxic Event, "I'm trying to get down an emotion, a scene or a setting. Everything important that happens after that happens between the music and the listener; the rest of it is all mythology. The collective interpretation of it is way more important than what I think."
There's no reason to doubt the truth of that statement. Except that Jollett does do a lot of thinking (or over-thinking, as he himself would put it), and what he does, the way he spends his days, matters to him deeply. Besides, he's had a lot to think about in the two years since the band's 300,000 plus, UK Top 20 debut album ambushed and enraptured fans with its captivating blend of literate, visceral indie rock and propulsive, anthemic choruses. That self-titled album found Jollett addressing the break-up of a relationship with a candor that was sometimes uncomfortable but always compelling. Two years on, Jollett's priorities have shifted. On TATE's stunning new album, All At Once, he and the band have a new urgency, a tighter cohesion and a fearlessness that is thrilling. Mortality, loss, the battle between the comfort of complacency and the need for change, the issues – both personal and political – that continue to draw individuals and nations into conflict the world over: these are big subjects, but Jollett doesn't just dip his toe in the water. He dives right in.