I’m always on the lookout for intriguing new music, so upon hearing The Drunk Astronomer’s song Every Body, I couldn’t help but be captivated! It’s a little experimental at times, but it’s definitely worth your time. After reading this interview, why not check the track out?
By Jane Howkins
How was your 2022?
It passed in a bit of a blur. I have two young sons and a full time job so between parenting and work, there was little time for anything else – other than somehow recording an EP.
You recently released your debut single titled Every Body. What can you tell us about the song?
At its core, it’s a mega simple song about the human body – almost nursery rhyme levels of simplicity – the lyrics read like an anatomy lesson. But built around it is a haze of cinematic synths and spacey guitars. It builds to something quite expansive and poignant. I had an amazing video made for it by a chap called Kris Boyle and he described it as the Pet Shop Boys eating the Divine Comedy for lunch. I liked that description. I think on first listen, people may think what the hell is this?! But I’m really happy with the concept and how it turned out.
How has the reception to Every Body been so far, and where can the song be purchased?
Generally pretty positive. It won’t be breaking any streaming records but it’s had some really nice reviews. I wasn’t expecting to be promoting the EP when I set out to make it. I was doing it for my own amusement and to have something to play to my sons. So to have some nice people write nice things about it is, nice. You can purchase the song from my Bandcamp page or listen on all main streaming services. Also check out the video on Youtube!
Do you plan to release any more singles soon?
I don’t plan to release any other singles before the EP comes out.
Your debut EP, Octopi, is coming out on February 9th. What can you tell us about the EP? I bet it feels like a real accomplishment?
It opens with a number called El Gato and the Multiverse. It was written for my son and the inspiration was a bedtime story I’d made up for him. I’d like to think that it has a similar quality to songs like Yellow Submarine; very silly and childlike but with a psychedelic edge. It’s probably very uncool but my son loves it. When I wrote it, I was singing it in the voice that I had been doing for the character El Gato when I told the story to my son. Which was essentially Antonio Banderas’ voice in the film Puss In Boots. I’d been really thinking about the way that Paul McCartney would use different voices and create characters, so in that spirit I just rolled with it. It probably ends up sounding more like a bad impression of one of my heroes, Gruff Rhys.
The 2nd number is called Her Hair (is the colour of a sunset). I love song titles with brackets. This is my first real attempt at a straight up, schmaltzy love song. Sonically, it’s far more straight up than El Gato. I was shooting for a Walker Brothers, Dusty Springfield, early/mid 60’s big melodramatic sound but on a budget, which I think made it land around the Britpop era. We had an excellent violin and viola player called Emily Harding come and play multiple parts to build up a faux string section. Lyrically, I wanted to balance cliché & sentimentality with humour and silliness. I also wanted to write the most vomit inducing key change in the last chorus. It might be one of the first songs to mention Louis Theroux.
Every Body is the 3rd track and the 4th is a song called The Manager. Probably a lot of Beatles influence in there. I’d also been listening to Alan Hull a lot and that probably seeped in. It’s a character song about a generic manager, and definitely not about me. I had the chorus lyric “I am your manager, your soul-destroyed admonisher” so worked backwards from there. Matt plays some beautiful piano and Emily also worked her string magic again.
What is the writing and recording process like for you?
I hadn’t written or recorded any music for a long time. I watched Get Back, the Beatles documentary, over Christmas 2021 and it made me remember why I love music. Over the space of a few weeks I wrote the 4 songs that appear on the EP. Very quietly on a nylon string guitar after my sons were asleep. Simple songs in terms of their structure etc. but I thought they had something about them. Watching Get Back also made me really want to try recording in a studio. So I did some googling and discovered that a studio had opened up about a year before in a village 10 minutes from my house in rural North Yorkshire. I spent 20 minutes on the website looking at the incredible equipment list & decided I was going to try and record these 4 songs that I had written.
The EP was a team effort with co-producer Matt Davison and studio owner and mixing engineer Ade Barwick of Church Lane Studios (the studio that had opened up 10 minutes away). It’s an absolute hidden gem of a studio. I’m worried that the secret will get out and they’ll get too busy for my next one! Matt is a close friend of Ade’s and was available to produce the EP. Meeting Matt, in my own little world, was like the Beatles meeting George Martin. I felt I could take the songs anywhere with Matt’s musical input and Ade’s studio. I demoed the songs with Ade one evening, just me and guitar. Matt took the demoes and worked on some arrangements and additional instrumentation. Then spread over almost a year, we spent 2 days in the studio per song tracking, with extra time for string overdubbing.
Your music has a dreamy-pop sound, but it’s also quite unique. What/who influences you most as an artist? What have you been listening to recently?
The biggest influences on my songwriting are probably The Beatles, Super Furry Animals/Gruff Rhys, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and if I’m being honest probably subconsciously a load of average Britpop that I grew up with. I think when I wrote the songs on the EP I was listening to a lot of solo Beatles stuff, a load of amazing welsh songwriters like Sweet Baboo, Bitw, Cate Le Bon etc., I’m always listening to music with grand orchestration; Randy Newman, Lee Hazelwood, Scott Walker, Dusty Springfield. But also bands that incorporate synths, drum machines etc. As long as it’s sonically interesting, then I will take inspiration from it.
Where are you based? What is the music scene like in your part of the world?
I live in Ripon, North Yorkshire. For any kinds of music scene you need to travel an hour to Leeds or York. I’m not really tuned into what’s going on musically. Being a parent, I don’t get out much these days, but when I do, having the Brudenell, The Crescent, Wharf Chambers, Leeds Irish Centre etc. An hour away means there are always great gig options.
Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?
Unfortunately not. As noted above, I don’t get out much these days.
Any last words for the fans?
Hey guys! See you either downstairs, at the pub, at nursery drop off, at work or in town on my way to Sainsbury’s.