Why is God an Astronaut?
Everybody likes to read into the name, but for us there is nothing to read into apart from the fact that we grew up watching a lot of old b-movies, sci-fi movies and horror movies, the name was inspired by all of that. From time to time we get a few irate emails from religious nuts who seem to have a big problem with the theory it represents, but I always say that god can be anything, everything and nothing.
God is an Astronaut's history is pretty interesting. Essentially, the first album, "The End of the Beginning," was created out of a bunch of instrumental tracks created through an electronica project Niels and yourself had at the time (Super AD?). From there the band has taken off considerably, as you are now a name recognizable in many countries outside of your native Ireland. Did you ever think your music would catch on the way that it has?
We are very pleased with the progress we've made. When we began we had little expectation, we just wanted to make something we really liked before calling it quits. The internet has enabled us to release our music worldwide without the help of the ever illusive major record deal.
Typically, recording techniques between electronic artists and rock bands differ considerably, and there was a jump between The End of the Beginning" and "All is Violent, All is Bright" where recording was a big focus, as it took over a year to finish. How was "Far from Refuge" recorded? This was the first album where you actually had a drummer involved with recording, did that make you guys rethink the strategy?
"The End of the Beginning" was made with very limited recording equipment, there was no recording device as such, just a sampler and keyboard sequencer. The first part of recording "All is Violent, All is Bright" we were in between drummers which we had incorporated in our live shows, so a lot of the material had more or less been written before Lloyd joined the group. On "Far From Refuge" Lloyd was there from the beginning and throughout. It was much more of a band effort this time around relying less on programming an sequencing and more on live performances. For example the first track on the new album "Radau" was created when Lloyd was playing his hi-tom with a whammy pedal (pitchshifter), a lot of the electronic sounding stuff on this record was played live, miking keyboards through amplifiers, we even used and electric mandolin with a e-bow to generate some of the unusual sounds.
How long did it take to write and record "Far From Refuge"? With your own recording studio, you have a seemingly endless amount of time to record, where do you draw the line and say that a record is finished?
The album took us about six months to write and record, we were just more focused this time around. For us an album is finished when have a collection of songs we are happy with and sit together well. We wrote about 16 tracks and whittled that down to the best 9 songs.
As a listener, a noticeable change in the band's sound from "All is Violent, All is Bright" to "Far From Refuge" is the decreasing role of the synth in your compositions. The former very much dominated by the synth's presence and the latter presents a more even mix that allows various textures to be incorporated into the fold, which inevitably gives the album more depth and variety and allows the melodies to have a more poignant role. Was this a conscious decision that arose prior to recording the material or something that was changed during the mixing stages?
It was a conscious decision to keep this record more live and organic. We wanted to keep the electronics more as background textures and keep the live performances to the fore. We wanted the bass guitar to play a much bigger role than it did on our previous releases as well. We felt that live performances added more depth and humanization, we wanted that prevalent on this album.
During the release of "All if Violent, All is Bright," the band commented that the goal of the album was to write something that conveyed real emotions. What was the motivating force behind "Far from Refuge"?
It was the same as "All is Violent, All is Bright" from that point of view, although we didn't think about it as much, it has just become part of our writing style now. I think we got a better mix of light and shade on this record.
God is an Astronaut is often labeled as a post-rock band, even though you have origins in the electronica world, and there's not much overlap between your music and most post-rock other than the fact that they are highly instrumental. What do you think of this generalization? Do you guys listen to much post-rock or electronica?
We don't listen to much post-rock but are aware of the other groups. Our background is rock and electronica. Things we have been listening to while making this record was Pink Floyd "Live at Pompeii", early Led Zeppelin and AC/DC "Back in Black". We don't mind if the folks want to label us post-rock, shoe-gaze or prog-rock etc... we just make music that we like.
There's always been a lot of piano involved throughout the band's work, is someone classically trained on the instrument? Have you ever considered bringing in other classical instruments to the recording studio or opening the band up to new members who might bring something new to the sound?
I am self taught on the piano. We always feel that piano adds a strong variety to the records we make, it always makes a good contrast to the guitar led tracks. We were toying with the idea of using a string quartet but we decided to leave it a bit more rock. We did however used some different musicians on this record, Lloyd's father Chris played rhythm guitar on the record for some of the songs. His style was uniquely seventies and psychedelic and added a different dimension to the sound. Tommy our father who also played music in the late 60's and 70's with a psychedelic rock group also helped write some of the bass lines.
Last year God is an Astronaut played some shows with Tracer AMC, another excellent Irish instrumental band. How was that experience?
They played two shows with us last year. We normally never play with other instrumental acts but we made an exception, we all liked their music and they are a good live band, decent guys, it was a pleasure to have them on the bill. Both shows went down very well.
"All is Violent, All is Bright" was picked up by Rocket Girl in the UK, are there any plans to distribute "Far From Refuge" outside of Ireland? Certainly this would open up the possibilities to playing overseas?
There are potential licensing opportunities for the new record, but I am not sure if it necessarily increases are chances of playing abroad. Getting a record into the shops worldwide is very different than getting a live booking agent on board. We are surprised and disappointed that we haven't got an international booking agent thus far, we are treated like an unknown band by the agents who inform us that their roster is full. Yet they represent some smaller groups than us, it is like trying to get a record deal as far as we are concerned. We do want to play live in the U.S., Japan and Europe, we will keep trying to make this a reality.
How important is the visual component of your live show?
We think it helps to create a more interesting atmosphere, extra entertainment for our headline shows.
What is on the band's agenda for the rest of the year? Any large touring plans or any smaller releases tentatively set?
We hope to play as many gigs as we can get. There will be some live shows in Portugal and possibly Spain in June. We are also going to tape our show in Dublin in April to make a DVD. There will be some music videos made for some of the new songs too.
What does God is an Astronaut do when you guys aren't working on the band/touring?
Myself and Niels run our own recording studio, we are kept quite busy with that. Lloyd works as an mechanical engineer in Dublin. We all of course would prefer to do this full time.
On a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being they are the best band ever, 0 being they are the best band of our lifetime) how much are you guys in love with U2?
U2 are a great band, they have lasted the test of time, nothing left to prove as far as we are concerned.
What's the finest Irish beer?
A pint of Murphy's down in Cork is hard to beat.
The Silent Ballet thanks Torsten and God is an Astronaut for the interview. You can purchase Far From Refuge straight from the band, and for those unfamiliar with the band, do not hesitate to listen to some tracks.