Q&A: Tim Atlas on Music Theory, World Building in Songwriting & Staying Unapologetically Oneself on New EP ‘Le Soir’
KNOWN FOR HIS UNIQUE BRAND OF DOWNTEMPO R&B AND NEO-SOUL — the Oakland-born, Brooklyn-based Tim Atlas broke through the noise in 2018 with his EP, All Talk! His sound is likened to artists such as Toro y Moi and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, for their creative production and catchy hits. Atlas’ vibrant indie pop married with jazz influences shines through on his 2019 record, Together Lonely, with his hit song “Tangerine.” The singer-songwriter has since amassed over 40M streams across various platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and more.
Luna had the privilege of speaking with Atlas about his new experimental project, Le Soir, out today. The EP’s soundscape is that of an industrial grittiness, scraping the perfect mix of notes and tempos into listeners’ ears. Although Atlas’ demeanor is warm and inviting, Le Soir highlights darker tones in structure and enticing themes in his writing.
The artist recalls his favorite memory growing up in the Bay Area, how music theory can be another tool in songwriting, what the term “le soir” means to him, and what he’s looking forward to with his upcoming releases. Read the interview below.
ATLAS: This is so funny, because I did a spread for the Luna Collective, like, years ago.
LUNA: No way!
ATLAS: Should I meet up with you guys again and talk shop?
LUNA: Yeah, truly. Wow, this is a full-circle instance.
ATLAS: (Laughs) Yeah.
LUNA: That's really cool! Okay, so I saw that you grew up in Oakland. What was it like growing up there?
ATLAS: I was born in Oakland. I spent most of my life in [San] Jose, being in the Bay Area. It was overall really great. There are so many different walks of life. I grew up around a lot of Vietnamese food and Mexican food. I think I was surrounded by music in a lot of different ways. My dad would sing songs at church, and then my mom was … sort of a natural singer. She was always on karaoke and enjoyed that. I found a love for music when I started playing in the school band.
I eventually started my own bands and played drums a lot. My neighbor hated me — so did my family, actually. I don't know what they did in a past life to birth a drummer, but I don't wish that upon anybody. I think growing up in the Bay Area, there's a lot of tech, and my dad and my mom were part of that world, but it was cool because there was still room for creativity. And I think I knew early on that I wanted to write songs. It was a well-rounded upbringing.
LUNA: That’s awesome. Do you have a favorite memory growing up?
ATLAS: My god, it's been so long. Let me think, let me think. There’s one that was kind of awesome. I was in the school drum line, and then my band director got a phone call and said, “Hey, Shania Twain is going to be in town, and they're looking for a drum line.” So my high school drum line went over to the stadium and they taught us the parts. It was really simple. I think it was more for a fun visual thing for the audience.
I remember it being a huge moment for me. I invited my mom, and I love seeing her at certain things where she can sort of equate it to an “Oh my god” moment. We performed in a stadium with thousands of people. We were just doing, like, twos and fours. That was super fun. I kept that little Ticketmaster ticket in my wallet for years. I think I still have it somewhere.
LUNA: Yeah, I'm sentimental like that, too — keeping stubs of impactful things. I guess I'm like, “Oh, I’ll remember this for a long time. I have to keep something like that,” especially with tickets. And you said you were on drum line. That's part of marching band, right?
ATLAS: Yeah.
LUNA: How long did you do that for? Your whole high school career?
ATLAS: Yeah, I did that in high school, a little bit in middle school. I actually moved away in middle school and was part of a band program. I moved away to this town [in] Northern California called Stockton, and the thing about that town is [that] there's nothing to do there. Because no one has anything to do, the band programs are really good. I ended up moving back to San Jose and was just a little bit better than everyone else. That sort of elevated me as a musician. It further instilled my love for drum line and music.
LUNA: Yeah, absolutely. And did they teach you any kind of music theory in marching band? Did you have to read sheet music?
ATLAS: Yeah, you do. So for drums, it's sort of one, three, to four notes — it's more rhythmic. It wasn't so much sight-reading and scales and stuff like that. The thing is, I was playing drums for so long that I wanted to write songs. I picked up my grandpa's old guitar. It was an acoustic guitar just lying around the house. No one was using it, and … I just kind of became obsessed with learning chords, and I really picked it up as a tool to write songs.
LUNA: That leads me to my other question. What are your thoughts on music theory? Do you think it's a necessary thing to know when pursuing music, or how much do you think it adds to the songwriting process?
ATLAS: My thing with music theory is [that] it doesn't hurt to know technicalities … it's really [about] how you apply it. You don't want to be in a writing session and thinking of so [many] formulas and calculations, right? You want to internalize all that theory, and those chords become like shapes and colors, where you can just sort of translate that into motion rather than doing math. You know what I mean?
LUNA: Yeah, definitely. And you eventually moved to LA to pursue your solo career in music, right?
ATLAS: Yeah, so at that time I was producing for a lot of local artists in the Bay Area. I just figured that was how I could pay the rent. I think the end goal was always to do my career as a singer-songwriter, but the grind was producing in LA. I was hitting up so many people just to produce songs for pennies, really, and all of that kind of fed into my artistic career — it made me better at what I do.
LUNA: Yeah, absolutely. Now you’re based in Brooklyn — that's awesome. How do you think the location change has affected your creativity?
ATLAS: I think it makes such a big difference. I feel like … personally, I'm very much a product of my environment. Anywhere I go, I just feel like I'm sort of soaking that in. I think that's what a lot of artists do — writing retreats, [getting] Airbnbs in the woods, and stuff like that — because it just changes your mentality.
When I came to New York, I just felt like, “Oh yeah, everyone does what they want here.” They can just wear what they want, shamelessly. They believe in what they believe in. I think for me, I took that in a sonic sense. I don't think I set out to make an album … I was just like, “I'm just going to make stuff that makes me happy, and hopefully if I trust myself enough that will be the thread that goes through these songs — maybe it's an album.”
This EP that we have coming out is sort of a product of that. It's a little more experimental, [it has] some very different sounds, some darker, grittier textures. I think people can see it as a shift in my artistry and definitely make a case for that.
LUNA: I think from what I read, it was also described as industrial, which I think is a direct correlation with New York because [it has] lots of buildings and that industrial steel feel. And I like how it coincides with how you described the project. Speaking of which, were there any particular artists you might have been listening to while you were creating Le Soir?
ATLAS: Yeah, there were a few. I think some artists [who] are always in the rotation are going to be Tame Impala, where … there [are] a little more of those psychedelic pop elements. I was listening to a lot of Pharrell's old productions. Some of The Neptunes’ productions were really inspiring for me during this time. Steve Lacey was a big one.
I think I'm just constantly sort of looking for what represents me the most, and on this record, I feel like I was kind of in a balancing act, because I feel like I'm always sort of dipping my toes into a bunch of different things. I try to keep some of the soulful, R&B elements in the music while still putting some distortion in it at times.
LUNA: Very cool. Listening to the title track, there’s a breakdown that starts 30 seconds into the song. I think it almost sounds like there's tin cans being hit, which creates this piercing, metallic sound. Like you had mentioned earlier, the EP carries a lot more grittiness. What other ways do you think you've accomplished that gritty sound in terms of production?
ATLAS: A lot of [the] stuff I've put out under the Tim Atlas moniker [has had] a lot of drum machines: vintage drum machines and programming drums. When I got to New York, I rented out the studio in Williamsburg and they had everything [music equipment] laid out. So all I had to do was plug in my computer. There was an engineer there, so if I wanted to hop on the drums, I could hop on the drums. If I wanted to play guitar through an amp, I could do that. Everything was at my fingertips.
I think I didn't lose my love for the drums, but I just didn't have that available for me since high school. Having those drums there, I was like, “Yeah, I want to fucking play those because I know how.” And not to say that I haven't used those skills since then, but it was really fun to hop on. That shaped a lot of the songs on the record, like the knocking on “Attractive.”
LUNA: You also mentioned that “le soir” means “at night” in French. I was wondering if there was a particular stylistic or creative choice behind using a French term versus something else from a different language.
ATLAS: Last year, one of my friends from back home sent me an invitation to his wedding. He was marrying a French woman, and they were getting married in Paris. I decided to download Duolingo, and I was just … on my French grind, because it's a really cool language.
I started immersing myself a little more into French new wave film. I think when you're making a record, you're world building. I just found it really romantic and interesting. I don't think I'm necessarily looking at that culture and building my interpretation of it. I think it's almost like I'm infusing a lot of those locations where I have lived and where I'm from, like that Disney movie Big Hero Six. They called the city San Fransokyo. That's sort of what I want to do with this record. Building into the full-length album, I just want to [create] a soundscape that has everything from San Francisco to LA to New York, to places that inspire me.
LUNA: That's gorgeous. What's your favorite aspect of the upcoming record? Was it production? The songwriting process? Was there a favorite lyric you had written?
ATLAS: I think it was how unapologetic I was about it. I didn't put music out for, like, a year and a half or something since I moved to New York in 2021. I mean, I did some features and stuff like that. I didn’t put anything out that was part of my own catalog. In the past, I feel like I've operated under the fact that people expect a sound from me, and I think that's great. I think artists that do that can make so much money and that’s amazing, but I felt like this was the truest version of myself.
That mindset trickles down to the production and the songwriting and the subject matter. It was just so fun to make. So if it does well for the world, that's awesome. I really did this record for me, and that's the most important part.
LUNA: Last question to close everything out: What are you most excited about with your fans listening to Le Soir for the first time?
ATLAS: I'm excited for their listening experience. I think it's going to be a wild ride. There are a lot of different vibes, but they feel so married. I'm really excited for people to listen to these six songs all the way through, and [I] look forward to the next thing, because we have so much music coming out this year and next.
