Sea Of Tranquility recently caughht up with ATHEIST frontman Kelly Shaefer. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

SoT: Please take us back to 1993, to the release of Elements and the subsequent break-up of the band. What prompted the band to split then, just when the creative juices seemed to be flying so high?

Kelly: "I think a part of it was, just tired of being sort of misplaced, and lost from a stylistic side. And on the last tour we did in Europe, Rand and I were fighting constantly.We had a headlining tour in Europe planned with WARGASM, and upon returning home from the BENEDICTION tour Rand decided to wait till two days prior to hitting Europe to say he was not doing the tour, so the promoter lost ticket and promotion money etc... not cool so..that was it! That's not fun, so I ventured headfirst into NEUROTICA."

SoT: Fast forward to 2006, and the reunion shows. Can you talk about what prompted you getting the band back together, and how those shows went?

Kelly: "It initially came as a re-issue situation, and that led to shows, and clearly this is a different time, with a ripe forest of people who love well played, interesting metal..as well as Atheist... and after 4 years of shows, we thought to just get in a room and see what happens, and we did, and it was still magic..it still moved us, and we decided to dig in, and take our time, just fun, no pressure, and it came out way better than we could have hoped after such a hiatus."

SoT: It's been documented that during your years with Neurotica you developed tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and you currently are not playing guitar with Atheist. How is your condition today?

Kelly: "I still play guitar everyday, and wrote a lot of riffs on Jupiter. It's a bit of an inflated tale at this point. I do have CTS in my right hand, and in a live situation, my hand falls asleep if I stand while playing. If sitting I can play for hours. So naturally I am not going to sit down during an Atheist performance, so that became a new dynamic for Atheist in terms of how we present this madness in a live setting. Me not being stuck to a mic stand brings a portal to the front of the stage to connect with people. We want it to be a visual ride as well as a sonic one. It has proved to be a quality decision in my opinion in terms of the live performance of this music "

Go to this location for the complete interview. Check out BW&BK;'s recent interview with Shaefer conducted by Tim Henderson here.