Young Astronaut
... were formed in 2012 by brothers Chris & Pete Boakes. Since then they’ve toured across the UK covering almost the entirety of London’s backroom venues (The Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, The Garage, Underbelly, Dublin Castle, etc.) and internationally in Beijing, Chengdu and Hong Kong.
Their previous two full length albums, folk driven 'Fawn' and rockier 'A Gold Frontier', earned the band national radio play on BBC 6 Music. They were featured on the BBC introducing podcast and appeared on Canadian film Clara (starring Patrick J. Adams and Troian Bellisario).
“Hellions” is the second single from Young Astronaut's forthcoming 2022 EP “Pirouette & Fall”. "Pirouette & Fall" was started before the pandemic and finished in between lockdowns in studios and bedrooms. It was produced, engineered and mixed by ex-bandmate, Niko Battistini (Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek), and was mastered by Robin Schmidt (The 1975, Liam Gallagher).
Hellions
Nach ihrer letzten Veröffentlichung "Hope" war bzw. wartete ich schon gespannt auf ihre nächste Single. Heute ist es soweit, Young Astronaut melden sich zurück und das eindrucksvoll. "Hellions" ist der Name ihres neuesten Tracks der mit heute, am Freitag, erscheint. Das Thema, eine "Coming-of-Age-Geschichte", Dinge und Umstände mit denen man aufgewachsen ist, in Frage zu stellen zu hinterfragen. Ängste der Zurückweisung, den Idealen oder den Erwartungen nicht zu entsprechen. Eine lyrische Selbstbeobachtung des Seins.
Musikalisch liefert die Band aus London großartigen Indie Pop/Rock, indem insbesondere der Refrain herausragt. Das Arrangement perfekt gelungen, Synthie-Sounds sorgen in der Strophe für reichlich Abwechslung, um dann zusammen mit dem Bass, Fahrt aufzunehmen. Die Fahrt geht Richtung Chorus, welcher dadurch einen guten Druck entwickelt, den wiederum die Vocals gekonnt für ihre Entfaltung nutzen. Young Astronaut eine Band die zweifelsohne am richtigen Weg ist!
Q&A
What's the story behind your latest song "Hellions", respectively what was your inspiration?
Hellions has an evocative chorus melody which, from the early demo stage, stood out as being one of the catchiest parts we had written for our upcoming EP ‘Pirouette & Fall’.
Despite it being one of our shortest songs, we feel it is one our most impactful to date. Lyrically, it’s a Salinger inspired coming of age story about being young and challenging the concepts and beliefs you grew up accepting.
What's the most time intensive part concerning songwriting (from the idea to the final version)?
We usually work off of either a vocal melody idea or a guitar/keys idea. Sometimes getting the rest of the track to sound how we want it to can take a while.
One of the other tracks off of the EP, “No Vacancy” had a strong guitar hook which had been floating around in various songwriting sessions for a while but it took about a year to write the final chorus melody.
The "Mix & Master" part, how much are you involved in this process?
Our ex-bandmate Niko Battistini produced and mixed the EP. He’s extremely talented at what he does so we leave him to it and just make tweaks here and there but it’s usually sounding fantastic on the first pass.
In terms of mastering, we send it over to Germany where Robin Schmidt at 24-96 mastering always does an excellent job.
If you are looking back to "Fawn (Album)" in 2011, what is the most significant difference between then and now (concerning songwriting, recording, ...)?
Fawn was written entirely on two acoustics and padded out with other instruments later on. We didn’t even have a bassist at the time so had a session musician come in and lay down 10 tracks in a couple of sessions.
Now we have a full band so are able to spend more time getting the arrangements right and working off of stronger demos. We’ve moved away from 2 guitars to 1 guitar and 1 piano/synth.
After all those years, what are your favorite songs on "Fawn" and "A Gold Frontier"?
For me (Chris)
from Fawn - “Sugar Is Sweeter Than Gold” and “Dust”. Sugar Is Sweeter Than Gold was the first song we ever wrote so will always be a special one.
From A Gold Frontier - “Ink” and “King Of The Animals” are both fun to play live.
Are there any plans for a tour or gigs?
Definitely, we’ll be planning shows for the summer!
What’s next for you?
Looking forward to getting the EP out and playing it live.
NenesButler presents - Music Blog - Submit your Music
.jpg)