One of Portugal’s finest heavy psych export’s Astrodome have
been quiet of late. Hopefully it’s a sign that the instrumentalists are hidden
away some place, jamming out new music. Let’s find out…..
Q. So how is the Covid-19 lockdown and social isolation
working for Astrodome and you as individuals? What restrictions are holding you
back right now?
It's been a tough time for everybody. As a band, we had to
stop jamming and rehearsing like we normally do and started adopting some other
ways of being productive. We also had a show cancelled in our hometown that we
were really excited about, since the last time we played there was quite some
time ago! As individuals, since we are not full time musicians, we try to work
from home as much as we can.
Q. Astrodome have been quiet over the last few months. Does
this mean that you are in the studio or in the writing process for album number
three?
That's right, we are mostly focused on the writing process
of the next album, for this album we decided to not rush things and take our
time, maybe for a next year release, we hope...
Q. How do the 4 members go about writing songs? Do you all
come to the table with ideas or do you just jam it out for hours, feel the flow
and let the music write itself?
We don't have a particular way of writing songs. In the
beginning, we definitely used a lot the classic "jam and let's see what
happens" formula, but that way of making music can sometimes lead to
monotony and repetition, and we are trying to not fall in the mistake of
releasing the same album over and over again. As we get more maturity and
responsibility as a band, we think it's important to start adopting some other
ways of thinking and composing, so, it's not impossible that if someone brings
an awesome and fully structured song to the rehearsal or if the drummer creates
a cool guitar riff, it won't end up being an Astrodome song! There's no
rules...
Q. Do you have “Jam Room” so that you can get the right vibe
when recording?
We do have a rehearsing space or if you wanna call it, a jam
room. It doesn't have the most inspiring vibe ever since it's located in a
basement but it gets the job done... we guess! (haha)
Q. It has been well documented with the mess your previous
record label left you with at the release point for Astrodome II. Did you ever
get all the legal stuff sorted? And on a better note, do you think we will ever
see the record available to buy as it deserves a proper release.
Oh man! That still haunt us to this day! We have sorted most
of the stuff, except for the streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music,
we still couldn't get control over that unfortunately. We also still get
contacted by people who are not aware of the problem and think that we scammed
them. Nightmare...
About the record, we would like to release a new edition of
it and the previous one also, maybe at the same time we release of our third
album? Maybe sooner? Let's see!
Q. Can you tell us a bit about the cool artwork for “II”?
We started working with talented artist Clara Pessanha on
the cover artwork, discussing references for illustration style even before
finishing the album. In a certain way at some point the music, artwork and the
concept of the album were mutually developed, and they're deeply related with
each other.
It represents something like how our perspective on things
changes as we move through space and time. We see a mirage of the Sun, which we
forget as we get into the landscape. As we move forward, we realize the Sun is
there and it is real, so we celebrate it. On the back cover it turns out that,
although it is there, the Sun doesn’t hold itself as we thought, and there is a
titan raising it. It has to do with subjects of curiosity and illusion, scepticism,
belief, devotion, ending with deception, the final surprise revealing that the
truth is different from everything we thought before. This is related to what
happens throughout the music, like its tonality, or root note changes.
Q. “II” was released, like the first album, on cassette. You
must be a fan of the format and enjoy seeing it make a small comeback?
Actually, those releases were just something that happened
naturally. We have a friend, Jonas that had just started a small label and
booking agency called Ya Ya Yeah! and he wanted to start releasing some bands
that he likes on cassette, so he just asked if we wanted to be the first band
and "test the waters". We guess that tape and analogue stuff is one
of those "fetishes" that every band must have, and a cassette is an
awesome piece of memorabilia you can get from a band, so it was a cool thing to
do!
Q. Have other labels approached you to re-release “II” or
release a new record?
When we announced all those problems with our ex-label, we
got contacted by a couple of labels who shared their interest in working with
us but none of them actually said something definitive, we also didn't want to
rush things and end up being in a bad situation again so we decided to let the
things cool down for a while and think about all the possibilities sometime later
when we have our next album...
Q. Can you ever see Astrodome having vocals on a new track
or a song that has a verse/chorus verse/chorus structure to it?
We can't say we don’t see that as a possibility. We try to
impose ourselves less and less on what we can or should do, and we let things
evolve in ways that are not necessarily the same as what we've done so far. We
work on every new track based on an idea that is being built, and the structure
develops accordingly. Someday an idea may justify having vocals, or having
verse / chorus verse / chorus structure, or both. We don't have anything
against that kind of structure.
We think our live shows are a completely different thing
from our studio albums, at least we try to make it that way and honestly that
is the exciting part of seeing a live concert from a band that you like. When
we have the right conditions, we try to set up a mood that makes it more like
an experience rather than a musical concert, we use lights, drones and sound
effects for an uninterrupted show. Hope we can meet you at one of our concerts
in the future!
Q. Once the world starts to get back to normal, will
Astrodome be hitting the road again to tour?
Unfortunately we are not full time musicians so we have to
carefully manage our time between our jobs, making music, playing live and taking
care of the band’s "office" side. Playing live and doing a good show
requires a lot of practice and planning and we agreed that while working on the
new album, we would play less shows and that's what we are trying to do. We are
really focused on making a good album. We might still play here and there but
we don't think we will hit the road very soon for another big tour.
Q. With festivals like Sonic Blast hosting some awesome
line-ups over the last few years, the psych/stoner music scene in Portugal
looks to be getting bigger. What other Portuguese bands should we all be
checking out?
Sonic Blast is our favorite festival to play and to be as a
fan, and it definitely helped the "scene" getting stronger and we
even risk to say that it influenced many new bands being created! About the
bands suggestion, it's going to be hard to list them all because there's a lot
of amazing stuff happening in the heavy and psych scene, and we are friends
with almost everyone! We recommend the "classic" ones like Black
Bombaim, 10000 Russos, Solar Corona, Stone Dead, Kilimanjaro, Big Red Panda, Black
Wizards, and some of the newer stuff like Jesus the Snake, Fuzzil… There's a
lot happening and we could stay here for days listing them all, and that's
great!
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