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UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
PARSONS ROCKET PROJECT AND I'LL BE LAUGHING FROM THE MOON
[ Interview with Parsons Rocket Project by BenjamÃn York ]
AND I'LL BE LAUGHING FROM THE MOON
The Parsons Rocket Project quintet is from Atlanta, Georgia (USA) and under the label New Texture Records. They will launch their eponymous debut album on 11 August 2017. After hearing this album several times we have been able to contact them and meet them through an interview where they tell us everything about the band and its debut. Hello Parsons Rocket Project for giving us the opportunity of this interview. Although you are a new band always we like to go a little deeper in the genesis of the projects. And to begin with his name has a lot of occultism, but also, if one looks at the naked eye the "Parsons Project" reminds us of Alan Parson Project. But we know of John Parsons. Anyway, is there some kind of game with both names? The band was inspired by Jack Parsons who was a really interesting, really degenerate character. The band name was sort of an in-joke with us with the link to Alan Parsons Project. When I associated the "mad scientist" I still had not heard this record. And I thought, will the music be related to the name of the band? But on hearing it I think it has more to do with the Parsons lunar crater than with the occult. How would you describe your music? The lunar crater is referenced in the track "solar flare." there is a line that says "...and I'll be laughing from the moon" that is about how there is a crater (on the dark side of course) of the moon that was named after Parsons. He was into a lot of weird things and made a lot of enemies, that line referenced him getting the last laugh. We would describe our music as dream-gaze. There are some links to shoegaze, but we don't think it sounds very much like classic shoegaze. But we are heavily inspired by that stuff. In addition to the name of the aerospace engineer, Parsons, what do they have to do with him? Jody wrote the lyrics, a large portion of them are somehow linked to Jack Parsons and his rocketry work and his life choices; "Exit Launch" and "Solar Flare" in particular.
The band was formed in 2015. What were the first steps? Were there not previous recordings to this work that will be published soon? Jody had some lyrics and a few sketches of the tunes. We brought those into Ben Price's studio and began recording. We put a lot of work in those sessions and it took a while to get the right vocalist. We brought K Michelle on and she came in and just nailed those songs quickly. The next things to come out from us will all be brand new material, and we are very excited about that. I have read that they have had setbacks in these early years. In a way, was this recording the step to survive as a band? Yes. After all of the tracking was done, Ben was involved in a horrible accident in which he was hit by a car at a very high rate of speed while riding his bicycle. He was in a coma for a while and is still undergoing physical therapy. Combine that with marriage issues and drug addiction battles in some of the other’s lives and it felt like a recipe for disaster. It ended up creating something beautiful. There were some rough patches for sure, but the completion and eventual release of the recording was the goal all along and helped to cement things in place. Ben mixed the record while confined to bed and somehow his post production ended up being another instrument. It made the record better for sure. How are you today after these difficult moments? Do you feel safer with the release of this first album? Some of those difficulties are still around unfortunately. But we're stoked to have the record coming out and looking forward to playing some shows in support of it. We feel safer knowing that those same difficulties have created a backlog of material that the next record has a good chance of blowing the doors off of this one. I always think that the first album of a band is always a "Greatest Hits" of the early years of the band; how to create the base, the ground, and then build a career starting from the first album. Are some of the songs the first ones written? Some were written a long time ago, some were written within an hour or less more recently. Fortunately we have a group of people that all have the same inte-
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rest of creating a good record rather than concern for being contemporary. What are the plans of the band for this year? We’re real pleased with the recording and we want to make sure it gets heard, so we're working hard on that, also getting ready to do some shows and we're in the process of writing new material that is very exciting.
I read that Jody has said that "Exit Lunch" is an allegory based on the fall of Lucifer. We would like to know what they can tell us about each track. A "Track By Track". Exit Launch Exit Launch was inspired by the description of Lucifer in Ezekiel 28 and the prevalence of cocaine associated with materialistic industries. Interlude I An instrumental track that came out of a piece that Jeff, Paul, and Jody had played ages ago in another band. We updated it with the synth bass sound, which reminds me of Ulrich Schnauss. I think of this one as like taking psychedelics-the mood is determined by your mind-this one could be dark and moody or it could be bright and hopeful sounding depending on your mind frame. Burn – Losing the battle to drugs one night and resolving to be OK with it. One Moor Call – The original title was One More Call; it’s an obscure reference to Dog of the South by Charles Portis from his character Dr. Reo Symes. The title comes from the fictional book within the book called The Collected Works of John Selmer Dix: “The good salesman must make one more call, Dix said, before stopping the day.” Solar Flare – Reincarnation and coming back synthetically better the next time around. It’s also a reference to Parsons’ contribution to rocketry and space exploration. Interlude II This is another track written by Jeff, Paul and Jody in another band a long time ago, like Interlude I. we found an old cassette of a recording of it and brought it back to life, it’s been completely updated from when we had originally came up with it. It’s really emotive at the start, very pensive sounding and quite sad. But, this hopeful sounding, ethereal female vocals come in (Anne, Michelle and Jenn) then the track breaks down and then takes off for hyperspace. Ben Price put a ton of texture sounds in that part; there is a guitar part that if you listen closely sounds like someone singing "keep going." so it starts off uncertain but ends very hopeful. There is a happy ending!
5 What are your biggest aspirations for this year, beyond what is planned? Obviously the question is aimed at expectations and desires. To support the record with some live shows and start tracking new material. Where can our readers find Parsons Rocket Project? https://www.instagram.com/parsonsrocketproject/ https://www.facebook.com/parsonsrocketproject/ https://twitter.com/parsonsrocket https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWyloOvwXR7mM7YAIA5tXsA https://soundcloud.com/parsonsrocketproject To finish this interview, I leave this space for you to express what you want to our readers. We wrote the music to be enjoyed and are humbled by the interest. We really appreciate you guys checking it out! Thank you!
The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA