Songwriter Tobias Lipski discusses ATMIG’s myriad influences, new EP “Avec Muscles”

Tobias Lipski is the singer/songwriter leading the versatile local indie-rock group ATMIG. We spoke with him in anticipation of the group’s newest release, Avec Muscles, which they’ll celebrate with a release party on Saturday at the Parliament Room in Ferndale.

ATMIG stands for After The Money Is Gone, a reference to a lyric from the Talking Heads song “Once In A Lifetime;” that sentiment of pondering what really matters at the end of the day is something that resonates deeply with Lipski. Lipski finds a profound resonance (and inspiration) from music and musicians of a wide variety of genres, from post-grunge to emo, folk music from the ’70s and the ’90s, and a especially more nuanced subgenre known as shoegaze, which includes dazzling curtains of distortion and delay effects from the guitars during potent crescendos.

Listen: Tobias Lipski discusses ATMIG’s myriad influences and the making of Avec Muscles.

ATMIG’s new EP Avec Muscles was produced at Tempermill Studios in Ferndale and Soundscape Studios in Royal Oak, featuring the skillful contributions of guitarist Dan Clark, bassist Drew Borowsky and drummer David Jackowicz. And, speaking of shoegaze, this new album had a guest cameo from bassist Hobey Echlin from a seminal Detroit-based shoegaze band Majesty Crush. Hobie’s nickname in Majesty Crush was “muscles,” and as Lipski tells us, that helped inspire the title of the EP and its title track, “Avec Muscles” (or with muscles, written in improper French), referring to Echlin. You can hear parts of ATMIG’s epic 7-minute title track playing in the background of our chat. And Echlin is not only guest starring in the forthcoming music video for this same song, but he’ll also be at the release party this Saturday at the Parliament Room, performing with ATMIG (and even doing a few Majesty Crush covers). The release show, produced by Audiotree Presents, will also feature Weeknight Motion, Dirt Room and Mystery Math.