STARCRAWLER

ASTROSAUR “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,” INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST EIRIK KRÅKENES ADDISON HERRON-WHEELER Kråkenes says. “This time, we had about one-and-a-half to two years to write muA name like Astrosaur may make you are a band who are all about curiosity. “This album is, in many ways, a record sic, and bounce ideas back and forth. We curious. What is an Astrosaur, and Their new album, Obscuroscope, out now about curiosity,” says Eirik Kråkenes, the also toured much more than we had prior is the name a reference to astronomy, on Pelagic Records, delves deeper into band’s guitarist. “Thematically, each song to the previous album.” paleontology, or both? Luckily, Astrosaur that concept. relates to stories of exploration, and of discovering the unknown. We don’t really The experience of having written and have lyrics, we play instrumental music. toured on an album allowed them to grow So, we’re using song titles, artwork, and and expand their sound. sets of coordinates and dates to form a narrative that, at the same time, is open “After living with a record over a longer for personal interpretation.” period of time, combined with performing that material live, you’re getting a feeling of “I personally find curiosity one of the more what you want to try to do differently next interesting human traits,” he continues. “[I] time around. For example, we were not keep getting fascinated and inspired by afraid of tracking instrument-by-instrument people that let curiosity drive them in crefor the parts that demanded that, while ating and doing spectacular things. Also, I still recording some parts live. This method, think curiosity and open-mindedness are ironically, resulted in a sound [that is] more key to challenging the presumptions and true to how we sound live.” prejudices we all have, to some extent, and I think we could use more of that Keep an eye on Astrosaur for tour perspective right now.” announcements in 2020, and check out the band members’ other projects, While this experimentation is something that Dreamarcher, Einar Stray Orchestra, has always been a signature part of Astroand Heig Chief. Make sure to pick up PHOTO BY WANDA NORDSTROM saur’s sound and energy, this new record also represents a fresh focus for the band. Obsuroscope to get caught up on the band’s discography. �� UNE MISERE INTERVIEW WITH VOCALIST JÓN MÁR ÁSBJÖRNSSON BY MARIKA ZORZI 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,” Ásbjörnsson says. “It’s both beautiful and mysterious. It’s kind of sad in a way, because the golden color [is] a celebratory U ne Misère is not a band that is easily defined. With their full-length debut, Iceland lit the tenacious fire that led the band to produce this album. The result is a record that sounds like a personal journal. color, but then you have these dark, reddish, blackish tones that symbolize hurt and pain.” 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,” Ásbjörnsson says. lost a good friend to anxiety and addiction,” preoccupied [with] everything that is nice, “We have about nine months of darkness Ásbjörnsson explains. “‘Overlooked - Disand none of the things that are going bad,” “A sermon, to us, is more of a celebration,” throughout the year. That really can mess regarded’ is written from a state of mind he continues. “You only see the Instagram vocalist Jón Már Ásbjörnsson explains. with your mind. When you get into the that I had put myself into while still on drugs, side of life, if you know what I mean. You “That’s what this album is. It’s a celebration routine of waking up in the morning and in which I hated my family. I made myself only see the person wearing the fur coat, of misery, of anger, of sadness, and of the it’s total darkness, then you go to work believe that I hated my family. After I quit you don’t want to see how it’s made. You general feeling of feeling bad. Instead and it’s still total darkness, then when you doing drugs, I realized that that was just the only see the guy ordering a ham sub at of taking sadness and general shittiness get off work it’s total darkness again, and drugs talking. It’s quite the journal, actually, Subway, but you don’t want to know where and sweeping it under the rug, you should then you go to sleep in total darkness, that when you say it like that.” the ham is from. People don’t want to feel celebrate the fact that you’re actually can really affect your mind in a bad way. bad, and I can understand that, but it’s a feeling. Through my experience, it’s better It becomes harder and harder to wake up. The album artwork, created by Niklas Sunpart of life. It really is a part of life. I think to hurt than [to] feel nothing at all.” So yeah, that definitely affects our music.” din (Dark Tranquility), shows a woman in a people kind of have to get with it.” �� �� ��

“All the lyrics and all the riffs that we write come from a very honest place, and my past experience,” Ásbjörnsson continues. “I talk about my addiction to drugs and alcohol, and world issues such as veganism. This album really means a lot to us and to me, so it can get really emotional on stage. Like, super emotional. We also bring our problems to the stage and we don’t take them with us off the stage. So, it’s kind of therapy for us, the fact that we take it onstage and we leave it there.”

Beginning their journey just a few years ago in 2016, Une Misère is the culmination of familiar friendships, musical devotion, hardening tragedy, addiction, and the fusing of bandmates from wildly different musical styles. The desire to escape the tragic and beautiful poison that is One benefit to the band members being isolated in Iceland is the consistency of the writing process. Someone comes up with a riff, they meet, discuss, sound it out, and the lyrics and music develop around it.

“When you’re going through such turmoil and the ocean has such huge waves, it’s so easy to respond to them,” Ásbjörnsson admits. “You have to write these things down in order to understand them fully yourself. For me, I was going through withdrawals from addiction, and I was fixing a lot of problems that I had created with drugs and alcohol. I still am. The whole process of writing this record was quite difficult, because we’ve all been going through shit for the past three or four years, and we just kind of put everything that we have to give into the music.”