1.Growing Up
Music played a rather large role in my whole family; there was always music playing [when I was growing up]. My father with his old soul and R&B, my mother with folk and rock, but it was my older brother who really shaped my tastes. I was listening to The Smiths and The Clash at eight years old, and he is the one who eventually lead me to rap music, by the way of a dubbed tape of Lord Finesse’s album Return Of The Funky Man. That tape changed my life.
2.Inspirations
The first time I heard my favourite band, Rachel’s, I was lying naked in bed with a girl I was madly in love with. That was probably 15 years ago… That girl and I are no longer together, but I still listen to Rachel’s almost every single day.
3.Your Crew
I don’t have a crew in the traditional hip hop sense, but I am rather lucky to have a really amazing circle of friends that I get to work on music with. Amazing folks like Bon Iver, P.O.S, Tegan and Sara, members of PoliНa, Radical Face, Doomtree, The Paper Chase. Tons of great folks in my life. And I am very proud to say that, after years of shit jobs, music is my only job now.
4.The Music You Make
I am not very good at describing my own music – it is sort of all over the place. Rap is the foundation of it all, but there are elements of folk, indie, punk, dance, classical… I sort of cram it all in there. But my show? That is easy. My show is like an old southern Baptist church revival… but with way more whisky and way less God.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
I think this is the most exciting time in the history of the world to be a musician. The terrible old oligarchy of huge labels has toppled and the playing field has levelled. It is now possible to write, record, and release an album all from your room for next to nothing. And thanks to the internet, it is possible to target tiny pockets of fans all over the world that support whatever weird folk-indie-punk-dance-classical-rap you want to make.
Astronautalis plays with Empire Rising, Deadbeat & Hazy, Broken Thought Theory at Brighton Up Bar on Saturday January 25.
