After reconnecting through Facebook in 2011, Rheesa Tran and Brittany Ibarra began to jam again and started the punk band Atomafox in November of 2011, but became whole around February 2012.
Guitarist Rheesa paralegal studies major and drummer Brittany have been best friends since middle school and had an all-female band back then but lost touch after sophomore year of high school. When they reconnected they began jamming once again at Holloway Production studios in Santa Fe Springs.
That’s when they found their bassist Ana Cabezas, engineering major who worked at the studio and was suggested to them by the owner of the studio. “They’re practicing and my boss asked [them] ‘hey do you guys need another member…I know someone who pretty much plays all the instruments, so here’s her number, give her a call.’
“And a couple days afterwards I received a call from my guitarist Rheesa, she sent me a few songs to learn and was like ‘hey if you can learn these come on over, we’ll jam out,’ and I did, I showed up [and] we played the songs and it clicked ever since,” Cabezas said.
Being an all-female band there is always criticism towards them. Tran says, “Any time we walk into a bar or venue before a performance, we get a lot of negative criticism. The moment people see us walking in and setting up our equipment the, comments begin.
“We’ve overheard people mocking us and making dismissive comments. People just don’t take us seriously, we’re always underestimated. From the audience to the staff, it’s not until after we play, that we get a different response, positive feedback, and compliments.”
Other common problems they deal with according to Cabezas, “Technical difficulties, transportation and a lot of the times, which is sad it comes down to the promoters, it’s either ‘pay to play’ or just straight up ‘if you don’t bring in a crowd you’re either going last or going first’.”
Either way Destiny Shaw, Cabezas girlfriend thinks their music is fun, catchy and outgoing. “I think it’s got a hint of “raunchy” as well, which is something that helps them stick out in my view. Their live shows are good and it seems the crowd can tell they really enjoy playing. It’s admirable,” says Shaw.
Aside from that, Atomafox released an album on May 5, 2014 called “Out of the Woods,” which is available on iTunes and Spotify. They don’t have a specific theme when it comes to writing but they tend to write about stories based on personal experiences or inspired by movies and comic books.
“Our music and lyrics are really just all over the place, it’s mostly fictional stories. There’s a song in there called ‘Witchy’ and it’s about witches, there’s another song called ‘Gotham City Sirens’ [based on the Batman villians], we have a song ‘Project 51’ that’s about aliens. So it’s really fictional, there’s some stuff about love but not really, I mean the most love song that we have is called ‘Echo’ and it’s about Greek mythology,” says Cabezas.
They’re in the process of writing new material but it’s a bit harsh to get together due to their schedules. Besides that their music might be going in a different direction meaning they’ll still be in the punk area but they might get slower or heavier or even darker.
Tran adds, “Following our second album, which we plan to release next year, we [also] plan to go on a small tour […] we have a few upcoming shows. This Sunday, we’ll be playing at The Slidebar in Fullerton for Battle of the Bands Warped Tour. It’s 21 and over and a free show.
“We’d really appreciate the support from who can attend, it starts at 8 p.m. We’ll also be playing the first Southern California Women’s Mini Music Festival on Sep. 26.”
For more information on Atomafox you can check out their Facebook page or follow them on Instagram or twitter @atomafox.
