Billy Atwell "The Secret of Redgate" Original Soundtrack

Ask Billy Atwell where he's from and you're likely to get a number of responses, mostly theorizing he arrived in New York from West Virginia via the west Texas town of El Paso (to paraphrase Marty Robbins, one of Atwell's influences and heroes.) Although mostly recognized as an explosive and dynamic drummer, Atwell actually started his musical career delving into aspects of guitar with various punk rock cover bands in junior high school. Later as a junior in high school he would sneak into college bars to hook up with similar bands composed of English, Business and Law Majors. "There's a indescribable irony covering Dead Kennedys tunes with a drummer who's an ROTC," he muses. After becoming the drummer by default as a member of th' Inbred, Atwell played in every kind of venue from abandoned gas stations to rock and roll clubs. He describes this period as the beginning of "getting in the van," a phrase popularized and defined in the published journals of former Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins. A brief side trip to Texas in 1989 saw him playing a kind of reunion with hardcore stalwarts Rhythm Pigs. After befriending the Pigs while sharing bills with th' Inbred, the solidarity of the tours turned to a full-fledged membership when Pigs' bassist Ed Ivey phoned on three days notice requesting that Atwell replace their pneumonia-ridden drummer and finish their 1987 European tour. "We went onstage in front of 500 drunken, moshing, mohawk-sporting German kids completely unrehearsed. That was awesome." Journeying back east to New York City in 1991, Atwell signed on for a second patrol of Europe with legendary Alternative Tentacles act False Prophets, a band he describes as "a left wing activist punk band." This collaboration was highlighted by performances with late Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and for the St. Mark's wake of painter, filmmaker and archivist Harry Smith. Over the next few years Atwell earned his chops working the Lower East Side composing for student films and freelancing his drum skills before becoming a member of Shirley Temple of Doom in 1997. Since covering the Bee Gee's "Night Fever" in a Methodist church talent show ("Yeah, it's true," he confesses. "The things you'll do for prize money at age 10...") Atwell has continued to play nearly every genre of music. This laundry list includes performing country music in desperate Southwestern honky tonks, rhythm and blues in New York/New Jersey roadhouses, and while in Rhode Island, dance hall reggae and cocktail jazz at colleges and yacht clubs. Atwell has also explored musical venues for the stage, from Shakespeare to New York revivals of the musicals HAIR (1998) and GODSPELL (2000) with significant side trips into the eclectic and avant-garde. He has also accompanied poet/performance artist Jose Torres Tama and produced a CD of his spoken word pieces. Currently, he is seeking to expand his presence into the venue of choreography and dance hoping to find more projects as inventive as SAFFRON, a recent collaboration performed at Lincoln Center in association with the Juilliard School. To enhance his scoring efforts, Atwell has studied Music for Film and Video at New York University with Bob Garardi and is privately studying orchestration and arrangement with Edgar David Grana, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. Atwell has also studied frame drums with virtuoso Glen Velez and is presently receiving drum lessons from Joan Osbourne/Yoko Ono drummer Billy Ward. All of this contributes to honing his ever-growing body of experience. Atwell has a deep concern for musical roots, and is constantly seeking the foundations of music genres often reaching back to those performers no longer remembered by the general public. While he admits Kiss, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin were catalysts in his wanting to play music (Kiss Alive! was his "Beatles on Ed Sullivan experience"), Atwell also adds that it's not uncommon for him to be rotating the likes of Godflesh, Beethoven, Blind Willie Johnson, Patsy Cline or Miles Davis at any given moment. "I've never been limited by labels or genres. It's always been about the most intense voice and the reckless pursuit of the true Sound Innovators."

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