Meet Atomga, this week's Rock & Rails headliner

This week's Rock & Rails headliner, Atomga, is bringing its signature mix of Afrobeat music infused with jazz, rock, hip hop and funk to Whistlestop Park June 9. The band was co-founded by tenor sax player Frank Roddy and guitarist Casey Hrdlicka who met when they were part of the nonprofit organization, Friends of Red Rocks.

Roddy brought a background as a Nashville-based songwriter to the band, while Hrdlicka, who also teaches music classes at Denver's Swallow Hill, brought a performance perspective to the band. Both of them are proficient in multiple instruments and passionate about what they do, which was clear as they talked about the upcoming concert.

Q: How are you feeling about playing Rock & Rails?

FR: I've been looking forward to it for a long time. We were actually asked to play last fall and we weren't really in a position where we could accept the gig. So, yeah, we're definitely looking forward to it. We've heard that it's a great event and there's a lot of people having fun at home and that's where it's all about.

CH: Our bass player drove past the show that you guys were doing last week. And he said it was packed to the gills. So hopefully we'll get a good turnout, and [we're] just real excited to play right now.

Q: What can the Rock & Rails audience expect to see?

CH: Our music is largely based in the style of afrobeats, basically kind of a funk fused with jazz elements, and, of course, poly rhythms based out of Western Africa. We've got a good structure to our songs, but we have a lot of improvisational soloists that get showcased too so you never really know exactly what to expect, except that it's going to be romping, good time.

Q: Who are some of your influences?

FR: I grew up in Detroit and so I have a rock background. It's hard for me to actually just say like, here's my major influence. I mean, if I went way back in time, Rush is one – what the three of those guys did musically was just amazing ... and I tried to really emulate some of that. As I got older, I think I got more into different rhythmic and polyrhythmic structures like Manu Chao, which is like a kind of a ska reggae World music type of band, and Dave Matthews Band when they started out.

CH: I've got a pretty wide array of influences as well. I often listen to the classical station and to the jazz station. I listen to a lot of thrash, brutal death metal. So it's all over the place.

Q: What other venues has Atomga performed at?

FR: We've played anything from small, little clubs to, you know, Boulder Theater, Fox, Gothic Ogden Bluebird Theaters. We started out at kind of our first first big shows at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in Denver, and we played there several times, obviously throughout the years. It's kind of home base.

Q: What do you love about performing?

FR: I really like to be able to share what we've created and I've been that way ever since I was a kid. If I wrote a new song. I just wanted to play it for people. I mean songs can change people's lives. You know, that's with Atomga, our lyrics are a kind of like uplifting and socially conscious. For example, in one of our songs the tag line is, you gotta write yourself off and it's kind of like, hey, if you're living life wrong then, right yourself, you know, so it's got a good message to it.

If that message went out to a huge group of people and one person in the audience, just like grabbed ahold of it and went and said, 'You know what, I got it right myself, man.' That's what it's all about.

Q: Ok, Casey. You've got to top that.

CH: Ok! Really, I just like playing music. I am fine playing to an empty room, though of course, it is better when people are listening.

I like to turn people on to new ideas, you know, or new different styles that maybe they weren't so familiar with, you know, that's kind of why I play the styles of music that I do. Performing wise is to like, oh, yeah, here's something that maybe you've never heard before. Plus afrobeat, you know, your average person doesn't really have any idea what the genre is.

Q: Last question, what was the last concert each of you went to that wasn't your own?

CH: I recently went to Yngwie Malmalmsteen. He's a Swedish guitarist known for neoclassical heavy metal guitar playing. He was amazing.

FR: I went to see Gary Clark Jr., at Red Rocks. Nothing short of amazing. My first time seeing him and I had heard so many great things about his music and his guitar playing that I wanted to go check him out. So it was a great show. His guitar playing is off the hook.