ASTROSAUR
INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST EIRIK KRĂ…KENES ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER
A
name like Astrosaur may make you curious. What is an Astrosaur, and is the name a reference to astronomy, paleontology, or both? Luckily, Astrosaur
are a band who are all about curiosity. “This album is, in many ways, a record Their new album, Obscuroscope, out now about curiosity,â€? says Eirik KrĂĽkenes, the on Pelagic Records, delves deeper into band’s guitarist. “Thematically, each song that concept. relates to stories of exploration, and of discovering the unknown. We don’t really have lyrics, we play instrumental music. So, we’re using song titles, artwork, and sets of coordinates and dates to form a narrative that, at the same time, is open for personal interpretation.â€? “I personally find curiosity one of the more interesting human traits,â€? he continues. “[I] keep getting fascinated and inspired by people that let curiosity drive them in creating and doing spectacular things. Also, I think curiosity and open-mindedness are key to challenging the presumptions and prejudices we all have, to some extent, and I think we could use more of that perspective right now.â€?
PHOTO BY WANDA NORDSTROM
While this experimentation is something that has always been a signature part of Astrosaur’s sound and energy, this new record also represents a fresh focus for the band.
UNE MISERE INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JĂ“N MĂ R Ă SBJĂ–RNSSON BY MARIKA ZORZI
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“On our first record, Fade In // Space Out, the material consisted of music we’d been working on since we started out three years before, so we basically went into the studio and recorded that set live,â€? KrĂĽkenes says. “This time, we had about one-and-a-half to two years to write music, and bounce ideas back and forth. We also toured much more than we had prior to the previous album.â€? The experience of having written and toured on an album allowed them to grow and expand their sound. “After living with a record over a longer period of time, combined with performing that material live, you’re getting a feeling of what you want to try to do differently next time around. For example, we were not afraid of tracking instrument-by-instrument for the parts that demanded that, while still recording some parts live. This method, ironically, resulted in a sound [that is] more true to how we sound live.â€? Keep an eye on Astrosaur for tour announcements in 2020, and check out the band members’ other projects, Dreamarcher, Einar Stray Orchestra, and Heig Chief. Make sure to pick up Obsuroscope to get caught up on the band’s discography. đ&#x;’Ł realm of muted flowers and soothing tones amidst a blackness, representing the timeless, yet modern existence of Une Misère. “When I look at that cover, I’m still finding new things,â€? Ă sbjĂśrnsson says. “It’s both beautiful and mysterious. It’s kind of sad in a way, because the golden color [is] a celebratory color, but then you have these dark, reddish, blackish tones that symbolize hurt and pain.â€?
The result is a record that sounds like a ne Misère is not a band that is easily Iceland lit the tenacious fire that led the personal journal. defined. With their full-length debut, band to produce this album. Sermon, out on Nov. 1, 2019, on Nuclear Blast Records, the band is seeking to per- “Depression is one of the most common “‘Damages’ was written a few days after I “I feel that modern day culture is way too form their darkened sermon for the world. things here in Iceland,â€? Ă sbjĂśrnsson says. lost a good friend to anxiety and addiction,â€? preoccupied [with] everything that is nice, Ă sbjĂśrnsson explains. “‘Overlooked - Dis- and none of the things that are going bad,â€? “We have about nine months of darkness he continues. “You only see the Instagram regarded’ is written from a state of mind “A sermon, to us, is more of a celebration,â€? throughout the year. That really can mess that I had put myself into while still on drugs, side of life, if you know what I mean. You vocalist JĂłn MĂĄr Ă sbjĂśrnsson explains. with your mind. When you get into the in which I hated my family. I made myself only see the person wearing the fur coat, “That’s what this album is. It’s a celebration routine of waking up in the morning and you don’t want to see how it’s made. You believe that I hated my family. After I quit of misery, of anger, of sadness, and of the it’s total darkness, then you go to work only see the guy ordering a ham sub at doing drugs, I realized that that was just the general feeling of feeling bad. Instead and it’s still total darkness, then when you drugs talking. It’s quite the journal, actually, Subway, but you don’t want to know where of taking sadness and general shittiness get off work it’s total darkness again, and the ham is from. People don’t want to feel when you say it like that.â€? and sweeping it under the rug, you should then you go to sleep in total darkness, that bad, and I can understand that, but it’s a celebrate the fact that you’re actually can really affect your mind in a bad way. feeling. Through my experience, it’s better It becomes harder and harder to wake up. The album artwork, created by Niklas Sun- part of life. It really is a part of life. I think people kind of have to get with it.â€? đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł đ&#x;’Ł to hurt than [to] feel nothing at all.â€? So yeah, that definitely affects our music.â€? din (Dark Tranquility), shows a woman in a “All the lyrics and all the riffs that we One benefit to the band members being write come from a very honest place, isolated in Iceland is the consistency of and my past experience,â€? Ă sbjĂśrnsson the writing process. Someone comes continues. “I talk about my addiction up with a riff, they meet, discuss, sound to drugs and alcohol, and world issues it out, and the lyrics and music develop such as veganism. This album really around it. means a lot to us and to me, so it can get really emotional on stage. Like, super “When you’re going through such turmoil emotional. We also bring our problems and the ocean has such huge waves, it’s to the stage and we don’t take them with so easy to respond to them,â€? Ă sbjĂśrnsson us off the stage. So, it’s kind of therapy admits. “You have to write these things for us, the fact that we take it onstage down in order to understand them fully and we leave it there.â€? yourself. For me, I was going through withdrawals from addiction, and I was fixing Beginning their journey just a few years a lot of problems that I had created with ago in 2016, Une Misère is the culmination drugs and alcohol. I still am. The whole of familiar friendships, musical devotion, process of writing this record was quite hardening tragedy, addiction, and the difficult, because we’ve all been going fusing of bandmates from wildly differ- through shit for the past three or four ent musical styles. The desire to escape years, and we just kind of put everything the tragic and beautiful poison that is that we have to give into the music.â€?
54 NEW NOISE
