- Tue, 2009-12-22 13:01
With only one UK stop on their November/December tour, the Asteroids arrived at London’s Bush Hall on the 26th November for a jam packed, jazzy hat wearing, bass slam funking, disco ball dancing, cockles warming winter party like no other. Hitting home the sparkling truth that not one Asteroids number will leave you standing still, the band performed songs from their (finally!) released debut album Fruit, plus three new jam-slam-mother-funk-out new numbers.
I Like Music caught up once again with our favourite Danish frontwoman Mette to chat about the Asteroid's summer of festival feats, the music scene in Copenhagen, rediscovering the new-old and why writing new material is good for the spirit.
"I Like Music because… it is for everyone.” Mette, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
ILM: You’ve played a lot of live shows this summer! What can fans expect from your latest tour?
Mette: They’ll hear the album which has finally been released! We’re playing new songs as well! It’s three new songs on top of the album! So, some things people haven’t heard before. It always changes. You play it like that, then you do something else. We have different sets. So there’ll be things like that you know....plus little surprises!
ILM: You’ve had a very busy summer! What were the highlights?
Mette: We did a lot of festivals. We’d never played festivals like that. It was really cool to travel and get the vibe from them all. The whole time we were looking forward to releasing the album, it was getting closer and closer! We played some really good festivals. We played some brilliant ones in Germany. It’s completely different playing a big stage outside to happy festival people! Totally different to a club... Though it’s cool to us to have both.
ILM: What can we expect from the new material?
Mette: I guess it’s difficult to describe. You have to hear it! We have more synthesisers on it, which we also use on stage. We have some new percussion things. We still have some great horns, using the horns like they could be guitars, but getting the horn to do it instead. I’m not sure. I think you could describe it all better than me!
ILM: What are your future plans?
Mette: We are always thinking about the next album. We did the first, it took a while for it to get out. In the meantime, as a musician you work always. We are always in it and writing new material. We can’t help it and we think it helps us to get to another level. It helps lift each other up. It’s good when you have new sounds in your head to bring them out as soon as possible and add something fresh. It’s good for fans, they like something new too. It’s exciting! Definitely a fresh mint!
ILM: What music have you been listening to recently?
Mette: Well, I guess when we make music we don’t think we want it to be like the 60’s or the 90’s or something like that. We find inspirations from so many different artists. This year I’ve listened to a lot of Jay Z. I’ve been listening a lot of new-old artists! I’ve been listening to Prince again. I used to do that many years ago, I didn’t hear it for a long time then I brought it back up! Also Johnny Cash. I’m not saying our music will be anything like that, but, you know...!
ILM: Have you seen any new, exciting live acts recently?
Mette: Mostly when you play you don’t get the time to see many other acts, maybe just a little bit! We played in New York a couple of weeks ago, there was a band playing before us called The Lights. There were three girls, drums, guitar and bass and they sang, all of them. It was kind of hippy, 70s, like kind of lose feeling, a good feeling to it. We were looking and listening. It’s not often you hear something you haven’t heard before. That was kind of fascinating. I’ve been hearing a lot of jazz shows, going to a lot of jazz clubs and watching brilliant musicians play.
ILM: What’s the music scene like in your home town, Copenhagen?
Mette: It’s tough as we have been away so much. I don’t go out to hear live that much and if I do it’s mostly jazz clubs. But I think the disco is coming back a little bit. The disco beat, disco inspiration definitely. Pop is getting popular again. Not only like really sticky pop, but pop music with an edge. That’s cool. We have a lot of indie rock bands, indie electronic. There are a lot of indie pop-tronic bands in Denmark.
ILM: Can you recommend any bands from there that haven’t made it across to the UK yet?
Mette: There is a band called Oh No Ono. A band called Who Made Who. The Raveonettes, their newest album is poppy as well. Yeah.....! Check them out!
