Aug. 10, 2026

Atarka at Bloodstock: Metal to the Masses Winners Share Festival Debut and Musical Journey

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of The Adventures of Pipeman on W4CY Radio, Pipeman sits down with Adam from Atarka at Bloodstock Festival. The conversation covers the band's merch experiments, the thrill of playing Bloodstock—especially as first-timers, their recent successes, the meaning behind their song "Human Again," how the Atarka sound is crafted, and the necessity of evolution in music. The episode is packed with stories of personal growth, insight into songwriting, and an open reflection on the importance of community and experimentation in the music world.Main Topics Covered

Atarka’s first performance and impressions of Bloodstock Festival
Merch prototypes and audience engagement
Winning Metal to the Masses and band growth
Community and atmosphere at Bloodstock
Songwriting process and inspiration for "Human Again"
Concept of "Atarkifying" music
Reflections on favorite mythological and historical characters
The importance of musical evolution and change
How fans can connect with and support Atarka

Key Discussions & StoriesAtarka at Bloodstock

Both members share their excitement about performing at Bloodstock, marking a milestone after years of attending or wanting to attend the festival 01:05.
Adam describes how being approached by fans wearing Atarka merch for the first time is both surreal and fulfilling 02:29.

Merch Creativity

The band is experimenting with merch ideas, including dog tag necklaces as prototypes, with plans to introduce them to their store in the future 00:42.

New Music and Life Updates

Atarka’s drummer is expecting a baby, prompting some behind-the-scenes work and new songwriting 03:15.
They recently released the single "Human Again," with another track ready for upcoming release 03:31.

The Story behind "Human Again"

Adam explains the personal loss that inspired the lyrics and themes of "Human Again," focusing on empathy, remembrance, and the question of when society will start acting human again 03:52.
The band’s vocalist, Jay, further developed the concept by "Atarkifying" it, a term the band uses for making ideas authentically their own 04:27.

Defining the Atarka Sound

The band avoids genre pigeonholes, instead describing their music as “fast, heavy, melodic, catchy, meaningful—with a touch of mythology” 05:16.

Personal and Mythological Influences

Adam shares the influence of Resident Evil’s Nemesis and a love for mythology, especially Egyptian and Greek 05:35.
Another member remarks on Uhtred of Bebbanburg from "The Last Kingdom," blending historical and mythological inspiration 06:09.
Pipeman draws a parallel to Batman as an everyman hero, emphasizing relatability 06:36.

Evolution in Music

Adam and Pipeman discuss the necessity of evolving as musicians, referencing bands like Rush, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles for their experimental and ever-changing styles 08:38.
Musical progression is linked to personal growth and a willingness to try new things 09:41.

Engagement & Socials

Fans are encouraged to follow Atarka at @AtarkaOfficial on all major platforms, check out their discography, and attend shows across the UK 07:15.

Notable Quotes

“Atarkifying is just kind of like putting our fingerprint on it to kind of make it sound like it is an Atarka song and something that we can all enjoy playing.” 04:59
“Fast, heavy, melodic, catchy, meaningful.” 05:16
“Experimenting and finding, you know, things you want to do and not being bored because you're doing the same shit all the time.” 09:31
“I feel like natural evolution is also the way forward for a band to progress.” 08:47
“Come get a Tarkified. It is the only way.” 08:00

Resources & Links Mentioned

Atarka Official Socials: @AtarkaOfficial (Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms) 07:21
Check out Atarka’s current and upcoming singles, including "Human Again" 03:31
Catch Atarka at live gigs across the UK

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Hy you love then too, censure for wow, for you

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your This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures

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pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here

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with a taka nice here at Bloodstock.

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Hell yeah.

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First of all, I want to talk about merch for

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a second because I love that right there. It's like

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kind of like a dog tag necklace. Yeah, and it's cool.

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Yeah, yeah, And we just kind of experimented with some

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ideas at the moment, like these aren't for sale, but

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we just got some kind of prototypes of agency had

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the turnout, and the turn out really well, so.

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I think they're cool. They definitely should go into your

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merch store for sure.

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Yeah, that's the planet thing.

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And they can't listen listen to my show and let's

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say buy your merch. So have you played Bloodstock before?

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No, Adam has been to Bloodstock many times, but this

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is my very very first time here in general.

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So you've been here many times. How does it feel

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to be an artist now?

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I mean it's crazy. I first came here in twenty

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ten and just to look at the stages and just

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to think that now I'm going to be playing on

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one of them. It's just like I don't know, twenty

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ten meters would not believe that this is happening right now.

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So it's really cool, right And how about you your

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first experience, like we're a big family here. This is

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like no other festival in my opinion, How you feel

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in your first experience and you're playing.

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It, it's amazing, honestly, to be honest, I feel like

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I should have gone to Bloodstock years ago. I just

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never really had the finances or the opportunity to. But

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now is the perfect time. I mean, we won't metal

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to the masses in Birmingham. That's how we're here.

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At no how can I understand you? Then?

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To be fair, where we're from, I don't feel like

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I have the accent, But you know, it feels like

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the right time, you know, twenty fifth anniversary. It's very

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sentimental and I've really enjoyed it. Adam's always said to me,

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you know, we need to go to Bloodstock. One of

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the days. I'll take you there. I'll show you everything.

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But the fact that we're playing kids just a lot

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more wholesome. It feels like the community's taking us in

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with open arms. It's been really welcoming, and honestly, I

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just can't wait to get on stage, the five of

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us and just show what we've got.

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To offer, and you'll be amazed at how many fucking

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people be out there for you.

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Well, we've already I got up early while these guys

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were resting.

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They're on the pop.

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But I was walking around early and I'm seeing people

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wearing an merch who I don't personally know, and I'm

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not used to that. I'm going over and asking them, I, so,

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where did you see us? And they're telling us what

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gigs and whatnot.

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I'm not used all.

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Usually when I've played places like the festivals or big gigs,

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you usually expect family members, friends, random people. Though that's

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an accomplishment in my opinion.

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And even from like last year, they had a whole

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dedication wall that people were signing for AZZI. Yeah, like,

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it's just such a community atmosphere here it is. And

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so now how you tap this what you're doing for

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the rest of the year.

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Well, drummer is expecting a child at the end of

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the year.

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Oh cool, right to him.

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Yeah, Yeah, We're going to do a bit of beyond

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the scenes stuff, go back to some writing really, like

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get some new new tracks ready, for the studio probably

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next year. We've just released a new single called Human Again,

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and we have another one ready to go. We just

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need to finalize when it'll be released.

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I'm waiting for all the people in the world, especially

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in my country, to become human again.

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That's what the song's all about, right.

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I figured that because it's like fucking crazy out there,

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like it's fucking mental. Well.

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I originally wrote the song because.

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I had a very important person in my life pass

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away under mysterious circumstances.

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I'm that's okay, but like we're not spoken in years.

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I went to check on how she was doing all

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of a sudden, No, she's passed away, and nobody told me,

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and there was nothing on.

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About it online.

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I had to deep dive to people who knew and say, like,

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what's happened?

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And then when I found out that, it.

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Just annoyed me a little bit, as like, why doesn't

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anybody care that this person's passed on? When are we

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going to start acting human again? And that's what it

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was originally about. And our vocalist Jay took the concept

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and kind of a tarkified it, so to speak, and.

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Therefied, Yeah, that's how we write. That's how we usually write.

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If I come up with a concept or had comes

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up with a concept, we'll hand it over to our

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vocalist Neil kind of again tarkify it.

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So now you brought that up to find a tarcify.

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A tarkify.

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So sometimes we'll have riffs and well, thing that doesn't

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sound quite a Tara. It might sound a bit too thrash,

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she might sound a bit too metalk or so tarkifying

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is just kind of like putting our fingerprints on it

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to kind of make you sound like it is an

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atarka song and something that we can all enjoy playing.

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And so how would you not use a genre because

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I hate when ardits are bugs in genre? How would

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you describe the atarica sound?

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Fast, heavy, melodic, catchy, meaningful, nice with a touch of

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mythology here and.

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There and that makes it fun too, right, absolutely? So

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who would be your well, what is your favorite story

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or favorite character in mythology? Both?

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I've always I'm a huge resident evil fan. Nemesis still

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scares the hell out of me from resid Eval Free.

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When I found out it.

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Was the Goddess of vengeance. I feel like that's always

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been my personal favorites. I also love Egyptian mythology, getting

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into stuff like Tom Read when I was a kid,

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The Mummy.

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I used to love that film and Greek mythology.

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I had to pick one, though, if somebody said, right,

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name one person, I'd have to say Nemesis.

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How about you?

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I mean, can I use somebody that is technically an

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old school guy, but he was kind of.

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You could use whatever the fuck you want.

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There's a guy who tred with Beben Burgh, who is

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like the main character in that show The Last Kingdom,

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and I looked into like he's past and he's like

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totally different from.

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The actual story. But I think the story makes a good.

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Job of making him a cool hero, but it's just

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interesting to his life who's actually quite normal in comparison.

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So I don't know, I like history. I just even

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the most boring of things can be really interesting.

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Well. It's kind of like my radio personality as parent

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after Dark Knight, you know. And one of the things

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I think about Batman Dark Knight that is super cool

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because I like all superheroes. Not an alien, no superpowers,

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no metahuman powers, no multi universe powers, just some dude

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that went through some bad shit and it turned him

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into this superhero. Yeah.

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I think think a lot of people can relate to that,

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to be.

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Fair, exactly exactly because there's a lot of us out there.

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But that is the case for sure. What else do

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you want the listeners to know about you guys and

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tell them how they can reach out to you on socials,

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buy your merge, all that good stuff.

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So we have got all of our socials. Are at

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Tarko Official, at a Tarkar Official. We're on Spotify, We're

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on Apple Music, all the good.

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Place you can get music.

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Check out check out our discography because I think people

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are quite I wouldn't say shocked, surprised, the surprise to

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see how our sound has evolved into what it is today.

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I think it's a big jump and I think it's

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interesting to do that with bands anyway.

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I think it's important.

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Yeah, yeah, I would say just go back, listen to

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our discography and if you.

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Like it, give us a follow.

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And if you see us doing any gigs or in

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the UK, sh will always und the UK doing gigs,

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come to show, come say hi, we won't buy it.

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I think they should come and get a tour.

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Yeah, come' Getta tarkified. It is the only way.

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Right right, and you know it's true what you said.

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I think all musicians should evolve. Yeah, Like I think

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fans sometimes, especially the original fans, they don't get it.

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Like you don't want to stay where you were in

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the beginning where you didn't even really know what you

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were doing or know what you wanted to be. You know,

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you get that from doing it and evolving, And I

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think that's the only where you really have the longevity

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because if you just stay what you were in the beginning,

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there's nowhere to go one hundred percent.

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Like I joined the band three years ago and I

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didn't mean for this to happen, but I feel like

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naturally the sound changed with some new blood being injected

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into the bands, and I feel like natural evolution is

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the also the way forward for a band who progress.

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Like I'm a huge Rush fan, my dad's a huge

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Rush fan, and this every single album is just different

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and well, I.

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Was just talking about another interview, because it's like, if

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you take the original album twenty one twelve, Moving Pictures Signals,

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you could go on and on. They're like they could

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all be considered basically different genres.

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Yes, that's what was so great about them.

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They did They always knew what they were doing from

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the get go, whether it was blues, slash, heavy metal, loaws,

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synth orientated music.

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Take all the greatest bands, Zeppelin, the Beatles, all those bands.

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They didn't just do one thing. They experimented. To me,

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that's what being a musician is, experimenting and finding, you know,

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things you want to do and not being bored because

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you're doing the same shit all the time.

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I think it's much like life, gentlemen.

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You experiment with things in life, whether it's just like

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your daily routine or something, and you grow as a person.

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We grow as musicians, we grow as a band. Yeah,

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and with that, the sound of bolves with us, and

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I think it's natural and I feel like that's the

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only way that you can let everything to learning curve

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as you're doing.

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It absolutely a million percent. Well, I'm so glad you

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guys are here at Bloodstock. You fucking rock and thanks

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for being on the Adventures of pipe Man.

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No problem, Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you

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very much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of

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pipe Man.

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I'm wf CUI Radio

Atarka at Bloodstock: Metal to the Masses Winners Share Festival Debut and Musical Journey

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