Athletic Automaton are two guys who dress up in gym shorts and sweat bands before pulverizing the crowd with their pulsing noise rock. It's amazing and INTENSE. They wear those clothes not as a gimmick, but out of practicality. The sweat just pours off of these guys during their show. Ryan McLaren, after listening in awe to some blistering MP3's from the band's website, sent off some questions to the guitarist Stephen Mattos (ex-Arab on Radar) and waited humbly for his reply.

STEPHEN, THIS IS THE FIRST PROJECT YOU GOT INVOLVED IN AFTER ARAB ON RADER SPLIT, CORRECT?
What is it that you're doing now that you couldn't get done in Arab on Radar? Yes, this is the first project since AOR. There are a couple of things that I can accomplish now that I couldn't when I was in AOR. First, since AA is a two peice, the creative output is concentrated on just the two of us, which opens up more opportunities for my own ideas. Secondly, we do mostly instrumentals, which I have always wanted to do. I like how instrumentals give the musician more freedom compositionally. And lastly, on the other end, we do vocals as well, which I have never attempted before until now and I am enjoying.

THERE'S BEEN A LOT OF INTERESTING DUOS LATELY, LIKE LIGHTNING BOLT AND DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979. WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON DUOS?
How limiting and how freeing is it? Well, you know, ever since Hall and Oates, Loggins and Messina, and Ashford and Simpson, there have been extremely creative duos. We feel that we are also contributing to that tradition. As for the second question, duos are only limited by the musicians themselves.

YOU GUYS USE A LAP-STEEL GUITAR AND DRUMS. WHAT THE FUCK?
We will use any instrumentation that will allow us to create the music that we want to make.

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR SONGS FROM DROWNING IN TREBLE? OR DO YOU? DO YOU MISS THE BASS?
We feel that we have nice balance of treble and bass.

I HEAR YOU GUYS ARE HUGE IN TURKEY. IS THAT TRUE?
No, we heard we were huge in Canada???

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SPORT? TO WATCH OR TO PLAY.
Pat loves to watch football. Steve likes to play basketball.

LET'S SAY THAT, ON YOUR WAY INTO CANADA, THERE'S SOME HUGE MIX UP AND YOU GET STOPPED AT THE BORDER. DURING THAT MIX UP, YOU'RE SOMEHOW CONFUSED WITH A MASS MURDERER FROM TEXAS AND YOU'RE SENT TO DEATH ROW. WHAT WOULD YOUR LAST MEAL BE?
We didn't kill ANYONE... I don't care what those Canadians say.

DO YOU GUYS WEAR THE SAME SWEATY GYM CLOTHES FOR EVERY SHOW?
The sweatbands are the worst part...

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF AUCTIONING OFF THOSE SWEATY AA CLOTHES ON eBAY?
Yeah, Pat was going to auction off his jock-strap.

LAST QUESTION: WHAT'S THE MEANING OF LIFE?
We're just jocks, this is way to heavy for us.