Recently I was lucky enough to score a phone interview with the delightful Mette Lindberg from Danish band, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. While not everyone will have heard of the band before, many people would instantly recognise two of their songs. “Around The Bend” was soundtrack to Apple’s internationally-aired iPod Touch commercial in 2008, while “The Golden Age” was used to launch Myer’s Summer range in 2009.
The band consists of Mette Lindberg and Lars Iversen. Mette recalled how they had known each other and played together for years before starting The Asteroids Galaxy Tour and recording in his apartment in Copenhagen. From these early recording sessions came MySpace demos that lead to their first gig – opening for Amy Winehouse in Copenhagen. “We said ‘ah, what are we gonna do?’, so we gathered a band from our good friends, we rehearsed one or two times and then played the live show, and I don’t remember anything because it was kind of mental.”
Following this whirlwind burst on to the scene, the duo got back into Lars’ Copenhagen apartment to record their debut release, Fruit. “It was in the summer of 2007, and it was warm and we only had one room with a balcony and a kitchen. We had like 8 or 10 sketches. So we would start with one of them, work on it, try again and then when we had done it Lars would sit down and try to finish it while I was cooking dinner. Then we would sit down and record some more, have some beers on the balcony and would continue for many days, just eat a little bit, sleep a little bit and then work. Working, eating, working, drinking, eating, working.”
This intimacy and control over the production of the album was important to Lars and Mette as they didn’t “have anyone to tell us it should be like this, or only have one week in the studio”. But as you would expect, things have changed somewhat for The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, as they are now in a professional studio recording their next album which they hope to finish in 2010 for a possible 2011 release.
Their new music still has the same The Asteroids Galaxy Tour sound according to Mette “but we used a new twist, with going in another direction. It might change again later, as usual when we work on it again. You never know what it ends up being like exactly because we like to change it and keep it fresh until we master the album. But we are playing some of the songs live, ones we’ve already recorded for a tour last year. There are three new songs and if you look carefully on the internet you can find some really bad versions. But of course that’s not how it exactly how it sounds recorded.”
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour is a good vibes band, they sound like they’re having fun and there’s a real party feel to their music. I asked Mette whether this was a conscious decision on the band’s part or if it just comes naturally. “Of course there’s some let loose and kick away energy in it, and some chill out groovy songs. But we have a lot of songs that are kind of miserable and the vibe to it is kind of searching for something, feeling alone, being afraid or something like that. Even though the music might go to you as a good feeling, it’s not all songs that are happy. But people can take from it what they want, you know sometimes you listen to something that is sad, but it makes you good inside and gives you a warm feeling. People react differently to things. So, I don’t feel with are ‘happy go lucky happy happy happy’ because we’re not, we’re definitely from the cold north. But I am happy, I like to have crazy times and (screams).”
The band has been on a busy tour schedule over the last two years. They have played in New York a few times, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Austria to name few. The tour experience is another aspect of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour that gives away their underlying excitement and genuine pleasure in playing as a live band “It’s really nice when we travel because we’ve got a tour bus where we all live together. It can be really funny to live like that, just one big family and you know all the jokes and you tell all the same jokes over again. And you go to a city and you live outside the venue in the bus, and then you play, and then you go in your bus. Everyone should try that.”
While they haven’t been able to get out to Australia and have no plans for a tour at the moment, Mette assures me they’d love to come. With Mette and Lars as the main core, they have their friends joining them on stage to make up a total of 6 people. There’s a horn section and members swap instruments during the live show. Mette described the dynamic nature of a The Asteroids Galaxy Tour show saying “It’s very right here and right now and that’s what I like about live music. It’s something else; it will never be the same. It’s a onetime experience.”
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s debut album ‘Fruit’ is available now on Small Giants Records.