A audição dos alemães do Astral Tide é uma poderosa viagem ruidosa com tonalidades cinzentas e ambiências perturbadores.
Pos punk com art noise e shoegazer sem pender para nenhum dos lados, o Astral Tide fica exatamente na linha tênue que os três estilos podem se encontrar.
O Astral Tide é desses pérolas escondidas no submundo dos bons sons que precisam ser acompanhas de perto. O resultado é intenso.
***** Interview with Astral Tide *****
MP: Jonas moved from Copenhagen to London a few years ago to join a band I was in, and we ended up moving to Berlin to set up a studio and start something new. After a year of writing but generally failing to get our shit together we miraculously found everyone else in a two-week period over Christmas ‘14, then we started to work quite quickly.
"From Under the Cloud” was recorded before we met the others, we drafted in our friend Nacho on guitar, Jonas wrote the synth line and we had our friend Michael chipping in on backing vocals. It was a bit of a last minute scramble to make the most of a studio booking but I think it worked out.
MM: For me, when I contacted them and we had our first rehearsal I discovered that I wasn't the only new member, but there were another two. At the beginning it was a bit weird, ‘cause it seemed like we’d played together for years, really good vibes. It was like as if we’d found each other in the right moment at the right place. We immediately understood that it could work between us, it was really intense and simple.
MP: Recorded on a similarly tight schedule a couple of weeks after we’d met Mark, Stephan and Martino, "Glimpses" and "Haunt You” were the first songs we put down as a five piece. We’ve only played a couple of shows so far.
Q: Who are your influences?
JD: Hüsker Dü, Lifelover, Zappa, Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, AR Kane, Swirlies, Lightning Bolt, anything from doom-lounge to erotic speedcore. The list is endless. I always try to embrace all kinds of different music and not think too much of genres. It’s all the same anyway, just different wrappings.
MP: It’s tough to say what exactly influences us, but I love Wire, The Cure, The Fall, Mark Lanegan’s voice, The Wave Pictures’ storytelling, David Thomas Broughton’s vocabulary, John Maus, Bowie, Zounds, Penny Rimbaud…
MM: My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, Swans, Pixies.
Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
MP: This is the toughest question! These are probably the albums we’ve listened to together the most.
Unwound – Leaves Turn Inside You
Talk Talk – Laughing Stock (and Spirit of Eden)
The Chameleons – The Script of the Bridge
Slint – Spiderland
The Cure – Disintegration
Q. How do you feel playing live?
MY: Playing live is really important to us, one of the best ways to expose new people to our music. Aside from that it's a great release of pent up energy and frustration. It's tribal.
MM: It's like sharing a moment where each member can add a different layer of sound in order to keep our music on a higher level.
JD: I like the shamanic experience of playing live, two become one. It’s best when it is complete chaos.
MP: I’m in a bit of a trance most of the time, I should probably open my eyes a little more.
Q. How do you describe Astral Tide’s sounds?
JD: Too much of everything!
MP: Jonas calls our sound dream-punk, which I quite like.
MM: The wall of sound we create gives me the idea it's like a wave that never stops, that hides many different shades.
MY: Like a psychedelic, sonic wave crashing down over the beach of your soul.
MP: This is going to sound pretentious but to me it’s like a soundtrack to the end of the world, that’s where the band name comes from anyway. It almost feels we’re at a tipping point in time and a massive global shift is inevitable, whether it be climate change, war, revolutions, meteor showers! It’s definitely apocalyptic music.
Songs in the set like “Wrongfoot” and “Blissful Agony” are eerier, darker and more sinister than what we’ve put out so far, and much more interesting for it I think. The EP we’re about to record will be a much better portrayal of the band, as we’ve played together for six months now.
MM: I don't think it's different from other bands. We work a lot on the material we have and when we really feel that the song is ready we record it in the studio.
MP: We recorded the drums and bass together first then layered the rest, and kept a lot of the guide guitars. We’re really picky about our sound so the mixing and mastering process took a while, especially with “Glimpses" and "Haunt You" as there’s so much going on with all five of us. There was a lot to deal with.
We’ve recorded everything so far at Golden Retriever in Kreuzberg with Felix-Florian Tödtloff (from the black metal band Sun Worship) engineering and mixing, and we’ve been mastering with Freddy Knop at Listeners.
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
JD: Fat White Family.
MP: Sleaford Mods too. What excites me most are artists that hold a mirror up to society which can’t be ignored as there’s so much truth in it. I think it’s easy to be angry, but it’s not so easy to do it in an original way and hit the nail on the head. Regardless of ‘genre’ that’s pure punk to me. Sleaford Mods would definitely hate us though, and I’d expect nothing less!
Also Fumaça Preta, The Limiñanas, Pinkshinyultrablast, BATALJ, Land Observations, Grumbling Fur, Diät, Warm Graves, Cozmik Onion Express 2.91414.
MM: Viet Cong.
MY: Physics House Band, Goat, Alarmist.
JD: Also Dorias Baracca, really intense and beautiful shoegaze hailing from Denmark, and Blaue Blume, friends of mine and one of the most interesting new Scandinavian bands.
Q: Which band would you love to make a cover version of?
JD: Mr Mister – Broken Wings.
MM: I don't know, I've never been so fond of covering other bands songs.
MP: I’m not into doing covers either, except on my own with a guitar or ukulele. It would have to be something that has nothing to do with our sound so we could flip on its head and make it our own. I don’t think I’d ever want to cover something I actually like.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
MM: Play a lot, record an EP and start touring.
MY: Record, gig, tour, enjoy being alive.
MP: There’s our first headline show at Tiefgrund in Berlin on 7th August, and we've got a couple of things ready to put out; the video for “Glimpses” which was made by audiovisual artist (and our live VJ) Dafne Narvaez, and the third song "Haunt You". We’re recording our debut EP at the end of the summer, trying to get that out on a decent label and hopefully a tour of some sort in the autumn.
Q: Any parting words?
MP: Thanks for reading this far. Look out for our new releases and check out some of the bands we mentioned if you don’t know them already. Peace x
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Thanks
https://soundcloud.com/astral-tide
https://www.facebook.com/astraltideband
