Interview by Michael Goldberg
http://www.rocknews.com/

Athenaeum may have the most intellectual-sounding name in rock, but don't expect to hear lofty philosophizing or Latin words in their songs. The name means "literary club," and the Greensboro, N.C., quartet adopted it in honor of drummer Nic Brown's father, who belonged to such a club in high school, one that counted gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and poet Robert Penn Warren among its members.
The band is no dead poets society, though; singer-guitarist Mark Kano says he's more interested in verse and chorus than chapter and verse. "We like to combine things that people love to sing along," Kano says. People these days are singing along to their single "What I Didn't Know," which is about Kano's ex-girlfriend. RockNews.com talked with Kano and guitarist Grey Brewster about said relationship, their self-released 1995 album and their latest, Radiance. (Heather Muse)

The Way We Were
Mark Kano: ['What I Didn't Know'] is a culmination of a relationship I had. Many of the songs on this record are about a relationship I had with this one person. We went out for like three years and, to date, I would say she's probably the most amazing person I've ever met in my life. She just inspired me to write songs so it's, I guess, coming to grips with looking at the relationship as a whole and being happy and sad and realizing how stupid we acted and how great we were . . . It's been so easy for me to relate to everyone else through that song.
Grey Brewster: I hear a lot of people say things when Mark's not around. They're like, 'The lyrics are just so easy to relate to but they're not like reading from Dick and Jane Went to Dinner.
MK: That's what I think is, if you're writing a song and you're feeling it genuinely in your stomach and your heart, you know it's real, no matter what you say. I think so many people try to write songs about topics that have been used over and over again. Relationships and love are something that will always be talked about because that's something that everyone has to deal with.

Independent Thinkers
MK: There were eight songs on it [Athenaeum's self-titled indie debut] and we recorded it close to four years ago. We've sold around 7,000 copies of it. I guess I had been with the drummer, Nic [Brown], for two years before that and Alex [McKinney, bass] came along a year later and Grey just joined around the time that we had recorded the CD. And we just started playing a lot of clubs around North Carolina and that's how we got the attention of Atlantic and EMI Publishing.
We co-produced [Athenaeum] with . . . this guy named John Plymale, who's done so much stuff in North Carolina, and we had, like, two grand to do the record. It was really low budget, but it's actually a trip to go back and listen to some of those songs now because we sound so young.
GB: But it's cool. A lot of people come up and they say, 'Even for an independent, that sounds as good as some records that are out,' and they really like it and that's very cool.

Radiant Beginnings
MK: Four songs [from Athenaeum] made it on [Radiance] -- 'No One,' 'On My Mind,' 'Away' and 'Different Situation.' Those are some of our more popular songs back where we're from and we made really new improvements on them this time around.

Eight-Track Flashback
MK: We went in the studio with all the songs written. I don't think we're that type of band -- at least we haven't found that yet -- where we just sit around and jam and create a song that way. It's a little more of a deliberate process.
GB: Mark's the main songwriter and some of the parts that come, come in the shower, or at home watching the tube. Got no radio in my truck. How sad is that for a musician?
MK: Gotta have some peace and quiet sometime. And that's a good time to think . . . I'll come in with a song and show it to the guys and we change some arrangements around, try different things. I know Grey goes home and throws some things down on his eight-track [recorder]. I found even myself, having an eight-track, it's fun to go home and play around yourself because you're not worried about sucking in front of other people. And you come up with some cool guitar parts that way.

Southern Hospitality
MK: The camaraderie of bands [in Greensboro, N.C.] is something I really miss when we go to other places. It's almost like we take it for granted, but it's a healthy environment. We have a lot of friends that are in bands and we just kind of egg each other on. It's good for inspiration.