The debut album from Atwas.
ACT 0
Atwas’ originally began making music on YouTube with copyright free country music instrumentals, which they did for fun.
They began doing this with a song called “Cryin’ In My Beer!” Which was a cover of the “Mushroom Country Song” by sister streamers Spellwoods and Rosealeena. The cover had over 100 views on YouTube before being taken down, and was well received by their friends, leading them to begin writing their own, original country songs.
During their country era they released over five country songs, including one featuring their friend, twitch streamer Dlicy. After enjoying writing lyrics so much for the country songs they eventually decided to begin making their own music, leading into their self titled “ACT I”
ACT I
ACT I was the self titled first act to Atwas’ music career. The act began in February 2022 and ended in February 2023. It consisted of seven songs released individually over the course of a year beginning with their most popular song “Say To You” released on Feb 14th, followed by a fan favourite “Tear Me Down” released on Apr 1st, then joined by “Papers On The Ground” “Night At The Opera” and “Alone On Christmas” all released at the end of the year on Oct 14th, Nov 2nd and Dec 5th. Finally they released “Shopping Cart” on Jan 20th then “Don’t Forget” on Feb 14th 2023
The act followed a repeated theme of “Growth” through the loss of a person and used seven stories with different point of views to join together into one story. As well as the theme of growth being told lyrically, Atwas also used their hair to represent how they were growing as a person, with their hair getting visibly longer in the cover with each release.
“Say To You” released February 14th 2022, told the story of a girl, named Ashley, who was obsessed with her boyfriend, who unfortunately broke up with her. The fast paced pop song follows Ashley as she plots and commits the murder of said ex-boyfriend, her using Arsenic laced cupcakes to kill him. The song was well recieved among Atwas’ audience and has the most streams out of all of Atwas’ songs, finding popularity among their listeners on twitch.
“Tear Me Down” released April 1st 2022, is about a friendship Atwas was in for over three years which ended abruptly because of an argument. The slow pop-rock song sees Atwas reflecting on the relationship and realising the faults it had too late after it ended. The song quickly grew in popularity, and while it never overtook Say To You, it became a fan favourite in their community.
“Papers On The Ground” released October 14th 2022, catches back up with the character Ashley post Say To You, after escaping police custody. Ashley is now on the run, and is living in a more toxic environment with a new boyfriend. After having enough of him, she snaps, killing him in a fire. The pop-punk song was written by Atwas, however they also made the song with members of their community via twitch streams, with the most prominent helping writer being their friend Vayabee.
“Night At The Opera” released November 2nd 2022, (Atwas’ birthday) follows a character they nicknamed Adrienne, a wealthy heiress, who is on a date at the opera with the love of her life. Unfortunately things take a turn and Adrienne is left alone, grieving the implied loss of her lover. The song is a slow pop ballad, which is completely different to the original demo, which saw the song being a rock song.
“Alone On Christmas” released December 5th, follows a man who has been cut out by his family. The song is a slow paced and sees the man attempting to reach out to his relatives over letter, but receiving no reply. Lyrically the song was one of Atwas’ favourites, however in their opinion, they could have done a better job with the instrumentals.
“Shopping Cart” released January 20th 2023, is a very tonally different song to the rest of the songs in Atwas’ discography. The song explored themes of sexual abuse through the perspective of someone being taken advantage of by someone much older than them. The song uses the metaphor of a store to symbolise a system that is used to harm others, the song stating that the store will be reopening to represent that despite some people getting justice, the system that causes the injustice is never removed. Despite being very different to other songs in their discography the song was very well received.
“Don’t Forget” released February 14th 2023, is a slow paced ballad, very reminiscent of “Night At The Opera”. the song was written by Atwas in early 2022, as they began talking to someone. The song is very personal to Atwas as it follows them discussing their fears about being in a relationship, and also their fears about the world.
Overall, the act of seven songs used the theme of growth to tell a consistent story, “Say To You” being about betrayal, “Tear Me Down” being about grief of that betrayal, “Papers On The Ground” being about wanted revenge after that betrayal, “Night At The Opera” being about taking the time to mourn the loss of the relationship, and accepting that you may never get closure, “Alone On Christmas” being about wanting to put yourself out there again but feeling trapped by the past, “Shopping Cart” being about breaking that cycle, then “Don’t Forget” being about reflecting on yourself, then putting yourself out there again, and letting yourself feel vulnerable again.Despite Atwas being incredibly proud of the story they told through the seven songs originally, the septet no longer fits the narrative that they will be telling through their albums, and therefore the singer has decided to slowly absorb the former singles into albums as they progress through their musical journey. The first to be absorbed into an album being “Tear Me Down”, which joined the Witchcraft track list after being re-composed and re-written to fit the more folkish style of the album.
Witchcraft is no longer available on streaming services.
Prelude
Witchcraft
Moonstone Visions
Blood Of A Virgin
Talking Board
Crossing The Threshold
Interlude
Will-O’-The-Wisp
The Wendigo
Tear Me Down
Even A Worm Will Turn
Burn The Witch
Postlude
I know you still come to the stone where I lay,
I know you still come, and you spit on my grave.