Kris Roe
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Kristopher Lee Roe (born January 12, 1978 in Anderson, Indiana) is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter of the American rock group The Ataris, who formed in 1994. He currently resides in Indiana, after moving back there following his recent divorce. He is also left-handed and known for playing an upside-down, right-handed guitar, which many wrongly believe is similar to a style made famous by guitarist Jimi Hendrix. This, however, is not true, as Hendrix strung the guitar to be correct for a left-handed guitarist, and Roe leaves the strings upside down.
Roe founded The Ataris when he gave a demo tape to The Vandals bass player Joe Escalante, who was so impressed by Roe's material that he asked Roe to put together a full band. In response, Roe dropped out of high school and moved to California in search of band members.
Roe has one daughter, Starla, from his first marriage, about whom he wrote "The Saddest Song," in which he and former Ataris bass player Mike Davenport send apologetic pleas to their children to forgive them for not being around as they grow up. Roe's second wife, Denice, was a frequent topic of his songs up until The Ataris' last release so long, astoria. Roe & Denice recently divorced for reasons which were written about in the Welcome the Night tracks "When All Else Fails", "Whatever Lies Will Help You Rest" and "New Year's Day."
Most recently Kris Roe has begun to address himself as Kristopher. Evidence of this is shown on the blogs that are posted on The Ataris Myspace page. This change could suggest a feeling of maturity that has developed from Kristopher which is very apparent on the upcoming album Welcome the Night.
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[edit] References to Popular Culture
Roe is also known for the level of maturity with which he writes and delivers lyrics. "In a lot of my lyrics," Kris reveals, "I like to encode a lot of hidden messages... I like our fans to read into things...our fans are smart and I don't want to give them just a bunch of surface lyrics that you can take at face value."
[edit] Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits
San Dimas High School Football Rules - The song was inspired by the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. At one point in the film, a character who has run out of things to say in an impromptu speech yells "San Dimas High School football rules!" in front of the entire school (San Dimas High School).
My Hotel Year - direct reference to the short story My Hotel Year in Douglas Coupland's novel Life After God.
[edit] End Is Forever
If You Really Want To Hear About It... - direct reference to J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher In The Rye. The title of the track is borrowed directly from the novel's first sentence. The last lyrics in the song are: "Don't ever tell anyone anything or else you'll wind up missing everybody". This closely resembles the last lines of the novel, (which read as: "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.")
Fast Times at Drop-Out High - The lyric "I never had any closer friends than the ones I had when I was young" is the last words said by The Writer in the movie Stand By Me (The film Stand By Me is also referenced in the lyrics of "San Dimas High School Football Rules" on previous albums). The song also contains a clip from the movie Good Will Hunting and the title plays off the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Additionally, the song is the first part of the story of Roe's childhood. He continues the story in Welcome the Night's song "Secret Handshakes."
Bad Case Of Broken Heart - The ending quote "Y'know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude, but not all of them bring you lasagne at work. Most of them just cheat on you" is a sample from Kevin Smith's film Clerks, the only line spoken by Smith's character Silent Bob.
[edit] so long, astoria
so long, astoria - this song contains many references to the movie The Goonies. The title itself is yelled by one of the characters in an early scene.
Takeoffs and Landings - the lyric "this fasten seatbelt sign just needs to go out" references the final moments of the movie Say Anything.
My Reply - considered to be one of Roe's most heartfelt songs. It was written in reply to a girl from Australia with an eating disorder, who wrote Roe a letter telling him that although his music had helped her through her disease she had a relapse. The song is considered to be the reply to the letter, but actually Kris did reply to her in a letter.
Unopened Letter To The World - the title is a direct reference to an Emily Dickinson poem of the same name. The song is about her secluded life, her letters with Thomas Wentworth Higginson and her immortality which came with post-mortem fame.
All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know - the title is a line from the novel Go Now by Richard Hell. "And all you can ever learn is what you already know. What is left is a bruise."
Eight of Nine - the final moments of this song include an edited reading of part of the last paragraph of the novel Go Now by Richard Hell.
[edit] Welcome the Night
Begin Again From The Beginning - the title may be a reference to a line from Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. It may also be a refrerence to the "Noise and Silence" scene form the movie Waking Life, which ends with this line.
Secret Handshakes - refers to the Freemasons. The secret handshake for a local Freemason jurisdiction ("Move your hand across your neck and drop your arms back to your sides") is mentioned as well as a practice of sacrificing the first-born child. Roe has also recently alluded to the fact that the Freemasons burned down his house. The song expands on the story told in "Fast Times at Dropout High" from the band's "End is Forever" album.
Welcome The Night: The first line of the song says, "Can we understand life and live it at the same time?" this could be a reference from the bridge scene in the movie Waking Life, in which "Speed" Levy tells the main character about the idea that one cannot live life and understand it at the same time, to which he adds that he does not agree entirely but rather thinks that "life understood, is life lived.".
Act Five, Scene Four; and So It Ends Like It Began - this song also references Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the title and more subtly in the actual lyrics of the song - Romeo and Juliet finishes at Act Five, Scene Three: a churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets.
[edit] Trivia
- was once interviewed by Jay Leno as part of Leno's Street-talk segment.
- is seen in the video for Me First & The Gimme Gimmes cover of R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly.
- produced Antifreeze's first album "Four Letter Words" and did backing vocals on a few songs.
- sang backing vocals on a song on MxPx's album Before Everything & After.
- has an older brother who was given up for adoption before Kris was born.
- nearly died overdosing on PCP in Berlin, Germany in 2004.
- has the cd cover art of "broken hearts next 12 exits" tattooed on his left arm
| The Ataris |
| Kristopher Roe | John Collura | Paul Carabello | Angus Cooke | Bob Hoag | Sean Hansen | Shane Chickeles |
| Previous Members |
|---|
| Jasin Thomason | Marko 72 | Derrick Plourde | Patrick Riley | Marco Peña | Mike Davenport | Chris Knapp |
| Discography |
| Studio Albums & EPs: Anywhere but Here | Look Forward To Failure | Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits | Let It Burn | End is Forever | All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know | so long, astoria | Welcome The Night |
| Live Albums: Live At The Metro |
| Singles: San Dimas High School Football Rules | Teenage Riot | Summer Wind Was Always Our Song | In This Diary | The Boys of Summer | The Saddest Song |
| DVDs: Live At Capitol Milling |
| Record Labels |
| Columbia Records | Kung Fu Records | Fat Wreck Chords |
