THE ASTEROID N°4

[ Interview with Eric Harms from The Asteroid Nº4 by Diego Centurión. Photoghaps: Kari Devereaux. ]

OUT OF THIS WORLD: THE ASTEROID NO.4 ON THEIR NEW LP

The name of the band seems stellar to me, and if we listen to their music, the sensation of floating in psychedelic universes increases and that invitation to expand our senses becomes more real. With more than two decades of experience, they have just released their tenth album called "Northern Songs" and we will talk about this and the band. From California I present to you The Asteroid N° 4. .

Hi Eric, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

And to start I would like to know how they cope with this pandemic that has changed the course of this 2020?

Well it’s been difficult to say the least, but we’re taking this opportunity to focus on writing and recording, we only have time on our side at the moment. With no means of performing live for the foreseeable future, we feel the best thing we can do is put out as much music as possible, and if / when the time comes that we can perform again, we can look forward to having a great amount of new songs that we’ll be able to share with our audiences.

Tell us about the name of the band that relates you to astronomy.

We named the group way back in the mid-90’s after one of our biggest influences, Spacemen 3. Our music comes from an ethereal place, and Vesta, the brightest star in the universe, is a good home.

And thinking about Vesta and space, I think his music has a lot of this, space psychedelia. How much do you think your music has changed in these years?

We’ve changed so much over the 20+ years we’ve been doing this. But for the last 4 albums I think we’re in a place that we can call our own, where we’re not trying to be someone else, we are using our influences as colors in the final picture. When we first started, Pink Floyd was our main road map. Introducing… was the result. Then, after gaining some notoriety in the neo-psych/ shoegaze scene, where you are supposed to make a great followup, we made a failed right turn trying to do a Kinks-inspired thing, then another one after that into country music. Those two are not good and you should ignore them and they should go away. Needless to say, things fell apart after that, and we took a bit of a hiatus. Picking up the pieces some time later, we found a space in an old abandoned brewery in Philadelphia where we ended up recording An Amazing Dream. From that point on our journey’s purpose was to try and be more true to who we are, and not try to be something we are not. Our trajectory since An Amazing has been a pretty straight path to realizing to what you hear on Northern Songs.

You started this project more than two decades ago, what is it like to have a project for so long? Although it is true that many musicians have

passed through these years, they have maintained a structure.

We’ve had so many ups and downs over the years, so many band members that have come and gone. We’ve gone through many trying times creatively, personally and band/touring related, and I can’t say we’ve all not said “I’m fucking done I quit” more than a handful of times. But we’d step back, take a break, and soon enough we’d be back at it - because this is a passion for us, and when things are good, it’s really fun, and that’s what’s kept us going. If it’s not fun, then we don’t want to be doing it. Performing is like a drug, you’re always looking for the next high, and connecting with an audience is one of the best feelings in the world. We really miss playing live and touring, and we miss the connection with the audience. It's what it’s all about.

In 1998 they released their first album… What do you think has changed in the band in so many years of recordings?

Change has been a constant theme in the band’s history, and I think it’s been healthy. We’ve lost count as to how many members have passed through the lineup, and stylistically, we’ve tried many different things. But ultimately, as we’ve come to realize who we are, we’ve stuck to it, and we’ll always pick from a variety of influences on every album. The Bryds, Ride, Slowdive, Spacemen 3, Beatles, Floyd and Kinks will always be part of who we are. But we don’t want to imitate them, because what fun is that? Doing cover songs is

great, there’s a lot to learn and we do it often. But there are so many “psych” bands out today that only have so many levels of influence they can turn to, and it all just sounds the same. There’s no longevity in that.

His career is so extensive that it is difficult to cover it in a single interview, but if you had to guide readers who still do not know The Asteroid N ° 4, why album should they begin to know them?

An Amazing Dream or These Flowers are a good start to know who we are today. Amazing Dream sounds like “us”. Introducing… is still us, but we’ve learned so much since that album I feel it’s not really representative of who we are, today. We still play a number of songs from that album, as well as some singles from that era like “90 Colors” that came out as a 7” before Introducing… was released. Collide was a good progression but I think with Northern Songs we’ve really hit our stride.

How does it feel to make a new album release now in this strange moment?

It’s absolutely strange, and it’s unfortunate that we can’t tour to support the album. But I think you have to look at it as just another weird era in music history and accept and challenges. Like when there was no internet and we had to do our PR by fax machine, and you had to actually make phone calls to get radio people to play your songs. It’s not going to be this way forever; we will get out of this at some point. We just need to make due with what we have – which is mostly time - and the opportunities

we’re given and creating, to adjust.

I am thinking about these difficult times that we have to live in and although the virtual world is moving, much of the real world seems to have stopped. How do you carry out a plan to disseminate your new work without concerts and tours?

During this time our goal is to rehearse, record and release as much music as possible. We have a studio here in San Rafael, and we’ve outfitted it with a mounted video camera in plans to do some virtual concerts. Releasing new music will be absolutely necessary to stay afloat. We understand we’re not going to sell a crazy amount of albums up front, but once it’s out in the wild, it’s there forever. People will find it as they are introduced to us via another artist, friends, internet radio, YouTube, etc. It’s hard enough to be relevant because the internet is just full of so much noise, but I feel continuity and persistence is the key to wading the waters of this storm, and staying in contact with our current and potential audiences.

What differences do you find between the previous album "Collide" (2018) and "Northern Songs" (2020)?

Collide we recorded in a studio that should be a museum of recording equipment. The place had every Fender amp you could imagine, an amazing Calrec console, every old vintage compressor, EQ, mic pre, microphone, effects, keyboards, you could think of. It was a little overwhelming, as we’ve never worked with a lot of that equipment before, hands on. I recorded, mixed and mastered Northern Songs, and the extent of my gear was 2 Neumann U87 clones I built, 11 API 312 mic pre clones that I built, our 1” 16 track tape machine and ProTools with some nice plugins, but no outboard gear. What I lacked in gear, I could try and match sonically because of the experience we had in that studio with Collide. We also did everything for Northern Songs in our studio, which gave us the time we needed to work, versus paying for studio time on the studio’s schedule. In our studio we can have a weekly schedule, so we can continue an idea that’s fresh in our heads. With Collide, we were only able to work on it maybe 2-4 days a month, with what we could afford. So even though coming back with fresh ears can be beneficial, losing that vibe you might have had the last time is a drag.

Song-wise, they are pretty similar; we see them as a “collection” of songs, an approach we’ve been keyed into since 2014. Our lead singer and fellow founding A4 member Scott (I am the other founding member still in the group) says they could have together been one long double LP. But they do sound pretty different, at least to us. We had a fifth member with us for Collide as well, so that had an effect on the writing process. Northern Songs is more in line of our genetic make-up, and focuses in on more of the UK shoegaze and dream pop of the late 80’s / early 90’s stuff we grew up on when we were in our late teens and early 20s. We feel it’s the best representation thus far on who we are as musicians.

And speaking of the album, how was the writing and recording process for this new album?

It was enjoyable, as we all brought songs to the table, and we all have

our different processes. In having 3 songwriters in the group, Scott, our bass player Matty and myself, there are always different ways things come to light.

Just as with any band, something will come together in rehearsal. “Paint it Green” was brought in by Matty, it was a guitar line that he was playing in rehearsal and we made it into a song. He has a solo record with another version of the song that is completely different. Myself, I’ll usually record everything at home, guitar, bass, keys along with a simple drum machine loop. I’ll do all the arrangement, and bring it if for everyone to hear, and for Scott to have something to inspire him for lyrics and melody. The songs usually change once every else brings their ideas in, which is awesome. My idea gets transformed into something I would have never thought of doing. Scott’s approach, he’ll come up with an acoustic idea with a melody, bring it in and we’ll jam on it and build the structure. Once we have a structure we’ll then start with a demo recording so we can iron things out, fix the arrangements, pull things out, make space, add harmonies and other instrumentation. Once we feel we’re ready we’ll hit record for real. But sometimes the demos work!

"Northern Songs" has been released by Little Cloud Records / Cardinal Fuzz, tell us what is it like to work with these record companies?

It’s been one of the best experiences, I feel, as I’m usually the one that communicates with the label we’re working with. Working in a partnership between these guys I feel is the best way to release an album, as Little Cloud is in the US and Cardinal Fuzz is in the UK.

Just having the two locations for shipping records to fans is a bonus,

because shipping an LP from San Francisco to the UK can be astronomically expensive. Northern Songs is $25US, and to ship it to the UK is $26, plus any UK import taxes they might have to pay to receive merchandise. These guys are also splitting costs, so that makes it easier to make decisions, and to make a more quality product.

But just having a team behind you that are truly into what you are doing makes is SO much easier for us to do what we need to do. We all have to make sacrifices, and if one part of the puzzle isn’t cooperating, then it really brings down moral. It has to be all systems go, move forward, especially with how difficult it is to release and promote music these days. Mike (LC) and Dave (CF) couldn’t be two nicer people to work with either. It’s very refreshing to be working with enthusiastic, honest, organized and motivated individuals.

How does the plan continue in the remainder of this strange 2020?

As I’ve said in the continuing theme of this interview, our goal is to do as much writing, recording and rehearsing as much as possible. We’re trying to keep a positive outlook on things, but with the situation in our country, it’s pretty difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially with the people driving the train here. Hopefully things change for the better come November 3, I’m sure there won’t be a solution to the Covid crisis, but I’m hoping to see a change in the guard that will help bring us back together, set a better example for everyone around the world watching, and help lead us to a solution for getting us out of quarantine.

In closing and thanking you for this opportunity to ask you these questions ... Do you want to say something that I did not ask you?

We just hope that everyone enjoys Northern Songs as much as we did making it. We hope to someday after all this Covid mess is cleaned up we can come down and perform for you guys in South America! Thanks for giving us the opportunity to chat with you! Thanks Eric! Cheers! A4