Review Fix Exclusive: Attik Door’s Tim Shrayber Talks ‘Never in Agreement’

Review Fix chats with Attik Door’s Tim Shrayber, who discusses the band’s new album, “Never in Agreement.”

With sound easily described as a Mad Scientist’s concoction of awesome alternative rock- part DeVinyls, with some Disturbed, a nice-sized chunk of No Doubt and a side of Fly Leaf, as well as some Red Hot Chili Peppers, Attik Door have a sound that changes from song to song, but it’s always catchy.

Because of that, Attik Door will immediately catch your ears.

Review Fix: How did the band come together?

Tim Shrayber: The band was founded by Alex Shrayber and the former drummer Steve Shames. They played together in another project prior to that, so when it dismantled, they decided to form a new band. They invited Margarita, who played bass with them in the previous project, then Tim, who played at friends’ band. During that time, there was another vocalist in the band, however, due to conflict of creative interests and personalities, she was replaced by Liana. At that point, Attik Door was formed in its first functional lineup.

Review Fix: What are the band’s influences and how do they incorporate themselves into your sound?

Shrayber: The influences of the band vary quite a bit, since most of the members come from different backgrounds. Some of us grew up listening to hip-hop and R&B while others did so with hard rock and thrash metal, with a dose of punk rock, funk and nu metal thrown in the mix. The broad range of influences shows in variations of our music style, from metal-inspired songs like ‘Cyber World’ and ‘Bleed’, to hard rock-themed songs like ‘California’ and ‘Snorting Headlines’, punk rock overtones in ‘Moody’ and bits of disco in ‘Kosmos’.

Review Fix: What’s the band’s creative process like?

Shrayber:Everyone contributes to writing music. It can happen during a rehearsal jam, but usually everyone writes their material separately, polishes it and presents it to the rest of the band. If the sketch catches on with the rest of the band, then people begin building on top of it. On the other hand, writing lyrics is exclusively Margarita’s domain.

Review Fix: How was “Bleed” written? Is there a story behind it?

Shrayber: We really went outside our comfort zone with Bleed as it was our first experiment with rap. Liana did some collaborations with rap artists in St Petersburg so we knew she had it in her, we just never tried it within the group. When Liana was trying out the different vocal lines afterwards, rapping was the only version that sounded aggressive enough to fit the music. The lyrics were written overnight by Margarita after the Elliot Rodger mass killings in Santa Barbara, California, going along with Alex’s original working title “Bleed.”

Review Fix: What song do you think is most indicative of what the band stands for musically?

Shrayber: There probably isn’t one. The songs we play come from different personalities and reflect different aspects of the band members’ lives. Some songs deal with politics, others tackle social issues, while some songs describe interactions of personalities. Every lyrical theme and melody is precious in its own way.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this album special?

Shrayber: It is our first full-length album. Also, unlike with our debut EP, we had almost a year to come up with songs, so there was a lot of time for pre-production work. We had a great opportunity to polish melodies and song compositions, as well as experiment with styles, as we did in the chorus to ‘Kosmos’ or intro to ‘Time’. Overall, the amount of thought and effort that was put into writing the songs for this album is incomparably larger than that of the debut EP.

Review Fix: What have you learned about yourselves through this album?

Shrayber: We realized that we can work in more musical styles than any of us ever suspected. None of us expected that we would come up with songs like Kosmos, Moody or California, but it happened very naturally, much to everyone’s surprise.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Shrayber: As a great rock band from San Francisco.

Review Fix: What are your goals as a band for 2015?

Shrayber: We would like to play more in California, especially in Sacramento and Los Angeles. If things go especially well, we might make it to neighboring states.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Shrayber: Lots and lots of hard work.