“It costs too much to care:” Stand Atlantic’s Bonnie Fraser on her trusted gear and breathing life back into music
Bonnie Fraser was bored with the music she was hearing. “I just feel like so many things have the same samples and the same everything, like everything is perfect into the grid,” the Stand Atlantic vocalist and guitarist says.
“I just felt like I personally was missing that natural and more organic feel in at least genres like ours because it’s rock music at the end of the day, and it’s supposed to be about how the fuck you’re feeling.”
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It’s an unexpected place to start a new record, but that’s how she began thinking about what would become Stand Atlantic’s fifth album, Godbreath, out on October 23. Following the pop-punk roots of 2018 debut album Skinny Dipping, Stand Atlantic’s next three albums – 2020’s Pink Elephant, 2022’s F.e.a.r. and 2024’s Was Here – were extremely experimental, drawing from pop, electronic and hip-hop influences. But the experimentation took a different form this time around: tracking live.
Instead of the typical method of recording one instrument and one portion of a song at a time, all four members of Stand Atlantic – including bassist Miki Rich, guitarist David Potter and drummer Jonno Panichi – recorded in the room together, playing each song the whole way through, with Fraser recording vocals separately. “At first, we were like, ‘This might sound horrible, guys!’” Fraser recalls. “’We might do the wrong thing here.’ But I feel like it was a great challenge, and it turned out to be a lot of fun.”
Tracking live does make it harder to get a take where everyone is playing everything perfectly. But that was kind of the point. And it fits with the mentality of a band who has always rolled with whatever life has thrown at them. “It costs too much to care,” Fraser says.
Professionals
Fraser tends to write on guitar – if she has one on hand when she’s working on an idea. “I’ll find a couple chords that I like, start humming some melodies, and then I’ll try and see what words are coming out,” she explains. “I think sometimes that helps me build what I’m trying to say without me even knowing.”
Fraser is known for her concise, vulnerable and visceral lyrics. “I feel like I’m always just trying to make it not cheesy,” she laughs. “Every single thing I’m doing, I’m like, ‘What’s not cheeseball, please?’ I feel like that’s my guide a lot of the time.”
When it was time to record the album, Fraser mostly turned to the guitar she plays onstage. “We wanted to be able to recreate the sound properly in a live setting,” she says. She and Potter play Fender American Professionals. “I have a Seymour Duncan in the bridge now, and no other pickups,” Fraser says. “And then, literally, just [an] on-off switch. It’s so sick. Super simple, Tom DeLonge-style vibes, and it’s my sewer green Strat.”
They also stuck with an equally tried-and-tested amp: Fraser’s father’s Marshall Mark II, which has made an appearance on every Stand Atlantic album to date. “I’m so lucky,” Fraser says. “My dad was a musician back in the day, and he has kept all his gear since then. I don’t really fuck with the guitars in there because I’m like, ‘I know I’ll break this. I don’t want to be responsible for doing anything wrong to this guitar,’ because he has so many little babies in there.”
When Fraser speaks, Stand Atlantic have just wrapped up a string of dates in Europe and are about to play a few shows in the UK. They’ll start an Australian headlining run when Godbreath comes out, before opening for Silverstein and Story of the Year on their North American tour in November and December. For a band from Sydney, Australia, it’s impressive – but it limits their touring rig.
“It needs to be flyable so we can’t unfortunately bring like ten million guitars for different things,” she explains. “We need to keep it as simple as possible, so me and [Potter] both have our own regular guitars that we all use, and then we have one spare guitar, which is also an American Professional Strat.”
For the set’s softer moments, the rig includes a Fender Acoustasonic. “That’s super light and super easy to travel with instead of a big bulky acoustic,” Fraser adds. “But one day I would love to be able to tour with a proper big acoustic guitar and seven other guitars that we can change out when we want.”
Image: Press
Breath Of The Wild
Godbreath stands out from Stand Atlantic’s last two darker and more aggressive albums. The new record’s sun-soaked vibe was down to changes in Fraser’s headspace and personal life, namely being in a healthy relationship. But she had to overcome her initial hesitation about writing from a more positive place. “I wanted to accept the fact that it’s okay for an album to be like that, even though the world is fucked right now, and we all know it, and we all know who and why,” she says.
With Godbreath, Fraser wanted to capture, “the feeling you get when it’s a beautiful day and you’re driving down the highway with your best friend, your dog, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your mum, your dad, whatever, and blasting your favourite songs.”
Godbreath, with its decidedly warmer feel, will be out in time for spring in Australia, which happens to be autumn for Northern-hemisphere listeners. “I was like, ‘Fuck, most of our fans are going to get this in spooky season,’” Fraser laughs. “It’s the most non-spooky fucking album ever! Should have called it Halloween Breath.”
Fraser had come up with the title Godbreath before she had written a single song – which has been the case for most Stand Atlantic albums. There was a title track at one point, but it didn’t make it onto Godbreath, although the name stuck.
“I thought, conceptually, it was interesting because you could take it two ways,” she reflects. “Is Godbreath when you’re full of ego and talking out your ass, and you think you’re fucking God’s gift to the world, or is it something that you also feel when you’re actually feeling really secure and self-assured, and you feel on top of the world in a more positive way?”
But she does have second thoughts about the title. “I did and still do wish that I called it Dogbreath, to be honest,” she admits. “It’s so funny. I should have done it. Should have fucking done it!”
Godbreath is out 23 October on Virgin Music
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