Now that you've attended the amazing Astronautalis show Thursday night at The Mohawk, you have returned to me as I requested to read the interview I was privileged enough to snag. We sat down on the upstairs patio at The Mohawk before sound check to discuss his new album, science, being humble, and dead rock stars.
Andy Bothwell aka Astronautalis hit the ground a good few years back, but after his latest album, This is Our Science, dropped and hit the Top 10 hip hop albums on iTunes, things have really been heating up as he is on tour for the first time with a full band.
CD: So you've dropped your new album, hows that going? The reception has been pretty fabulous, yeah?
AB: Yeah, its been awesome. Its exceeded all of my wildest dreams and expectations. When the album came out I figured I would make a post on Twitter, Facebook, the website; I had to leave the next day to go practice for tour. I figured you know 'Oh I go to do this, get lunch with my friend, start packing, go get dinner with another friend, finish packing, get some drinks, and catch the flight' and then the internet exploded. The album came out and I never got dressed, I never brushed my teeth; I was just drinking coffee and watching the album go up the iTunes charts.
CD: Ah that was awesome!
AB: It was such a crazy experience. It was really cool.
CD: And none of it would be possible with out the internet and its so weird to think about that. If it was six, seven years ago, do you think you'd be in this same spot?
AB: Nooo, no. If we were given the exact same set of opportunities we had, without the technology base, then no, there's no way. Most of the time when anyone has paid attention to us, its because fans were paying attention to us. The agency that books us had turned us down tons of times and it wasn't until we stopped trying to get them to work with us, and booking our own tours; we were booking these amazing tours by ourselves, that they were like 'Wait wait wait, hold on!' It was the same with any record labels or any magazine. The people who review my albums don't review my albums because they have to, they review it because a friend gave it to them.
CD: So crazy. You've recently, well not super recently now, moved to Minneapolis. Why that choice?
AB: Music and art, more than anything. Seattle is a really good city but its not very collaborative. I would go there and all my friends were musicians and stuff but we wouldn't ever really work there. But I'd go to Minneapolis and I would work. I really loved Seattle, and it was really good to me and my friends. It was really good to me particularly in a dark period of my life; that city got me through a lot. But when I came out of that fog, I realized I needed to be some where where I would be working all the time, because thats what I really want to do... The music scene thats there is the most exciting and supportive, and collaborative, and ambitious. I feel like in a lot of cities, its not cool to be ambitious, and its not cool to try to strive to make it outside of your city. Minneapolis is ambitious in a really awesome, kind of organic, and beautiful way. I love it there.
CD: Thats so good. Since you've been there, have you done anything? Who have you collaborated with? I mean, have you even had time since everything has exploded with the album and touring for Pomegranate?
AB: For sure, my friend Ryan Olsen who is sort of the master mind behind the band, Gayngs, he lives right down the street from me. Periodically he will just be like 'What are you doing?!' and I'll be like 'Uhhh I'm in my bed reading a fantasy novel' and he'll be like 'Get up, get over here!' So I'll ride by bike the four blocks over there and just hang out, and drink whiskey, and free style for like two hours... Its just awesome.
CD: That doesn't exist many places!
AB: That doesn't exist ANYwhere. Its such a cool thing. It was like that when I was in school. I was really fortunate to go to a really wonderful program in Dallas [SMU if you didn't know-CD] that had that never-ending creativity. Its like anything, its a muscle. Creativty is a muscle and if you exercise it the stronger it gets. The more than I am around it, the more I want to create.
CD: So it was pretty much the perfect move. I know the feeling. I've only recently moved to Austin and its been amazing. Now that this album has taken off, what do you want next? The whole MTViggy thing is crazy. Is it weird to think about going beyond the success that you have now?
AB: Yeah, the goal is always to go up. At least for now, until I reach a plateau thats a comfortable plateau. There are short term goals, and long term goals. I hope to tour my ass off for this record and expand the places that I play. I've already started plotting for the new record. I don't want to take as long; I took three years to write this last record.
CD: Yeah! I remember talking to you about it in Denton at Rubber Gloves. You were really stoked about how it was going to be about scientists, but we were so confused. Once I heard it though I was like OH! Okay, I get it.
AB: Its funny because this is one of the few records I've been pretty open with people about the process, not completely open, but more open than I have ever been. People have gotten to see how my mind works. It was like 'Its going to be about scientists but its going to be about something else. Its going to be about touring but its going to be about scientists' and everyone was like 'I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THATS GOING TO WORK' and then all of a sudden its like 'OHH We get it, we get it' But we're going to put some acapellas and remixes as well. Then I'm going to get back to working on the Four Fists record with POS, and I've got a few ideas for mixtapes that I want to do.
CD: What did take so long to get This is Our Science out then?
AB: Well touring for one thing. We pretty much toured for Pomegranate until we couldn't anymore. We got half way through that record's life span, and we got picked up by an agent. That agent got me on tour with Tegan and Sara, which got me on other tours and we had to continue. That album wasn't ready to die, which was amazing. With almost no publicity that album continued to propel us along and generate new fans. I write and research and research and research while I'm on tour and pack my head full of ideas. When its time to sit down, it kind of all falls right out of me. I mean we made that record in 10 days.
CD: Hahahaha, holy sh*t Andy. 10 days?
AB: Yeah but I wrote for it for three years! I'm kind of obsessive about plotting in advance. The Mighty Ocean was a record that we labored over for a year and a half. But I could never do that again. Its f*cking stressful as hell. I am a mess when I make a record. When it takes 10 days, I'm a mess for 10 days. When its a year and a half, I'm a mess for a year and half. It had to be done.
CD: I was talking to the stage manager Josh before y'all got here and he was asking me if I knew anything about you guys. I told him 'Yes they're so nice, they're great guys. He's so humble!' How do you do it? You're so down to Earth and normal, so its hard to ask that question, but you have to get a big head some time right? You are always so thankful and seem so grounded.
AB: I mean, its tough. Hold on one second.
[Andy got up for a cute little bro hug sesh with Mike Wiebe of The Riverboat Gamblers. It was cute.]
AB: We still good? Okay. It was be really hard to maintain perspective, because its not a real life; its a very strange thing. There's no guide book for it. To be honest, this month, as exciting as its been, has been totally nuts for me...The failures of the job are SO painful and they cut you so deep. For whatever reason, you can never focus on the successes. It can be hard to relax. This tour, as fun as its been, its been the most successful, but its also the most stressful. I've definitely unfairly taken that out on people. Once you get a small taste of success its never enough. You know it was like 'Great MTVIggy picked up the video, now we gotta get MTVu to pick it up'. The mentality is sort of a requirement of the job. I'm working on finding a balance. I never forget how lucky I am, but I struggle with priorties. I tell myself, 'You don't need to update your Facebook page, you need to call your mother'.
CD: Well you do a good job of it. I have some questions that my students [Yes readers, I am a teacher of the youth of tomorrow] wanted to ask. First one: If there was a musician, dead or alive, that you could do a collaboration with, who would it be?
AB: Joe Strummer.
CD: Nice. And quick! Interesting choice, why?
AB: I've been listening to him since I was a little kid, he's a hero. The list is huge. But the older I get the more I realized how big of an influence he is on my music, my art, and my everything. He was my cool for me when I was a little kid. The Clash was the cool.
CD: Its still cool.
AB: And its still cool! He was it. He reinvented himself so many times. Thats super commendable. Sometimes you don't know the impact somebody has on you til much later.
CD: We listened to the album in class. I have a band of the day in my room every day, and its been you a few times. They know the whole album is based around science, so they want to know 1. Who your favorite scientist is and 2. What your favorite scientific discovery is.
AB: Ahhh.
CD: I knowww. I was like YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. I should just bring my students with me.
AB: That would be awesome. I’d love to have them for an interview. That’s so funny.
I really love Joseph Priestly, for a lot of reasons. There’s generally the Anglican side and the French side. The French will say Antoine Levoisier was the first to discover that air was made up of individual molecules, but the rest of the world will say it was Jacob Priestly. He was kicked out of England partly for his association with the American Revolutionaries, and partly because of his founding of the Unitarian church. I love everything about him; just a classic Renaissance man.
Now my favorite scientific discovery is, without a doubt, the periodic table. Its so beautiful. Its like this is the universe.
CD: In a chart, of all things.
AB: Yeahh! My actual inspiration was in an episode of Radio Lab. They interview another favorite scientist of mine, Oliver Sacks. He has this case with the periodic table inside, and every year he buys himself another element to add to it. He’s able to hold the universe in his hand. That concept… its crazy sh*t. It’s like a map of the universe. It’s so elegant. Elegant is a word that I’ve really picked up from reading about science.
CD: Alright, it sounds like they’re ready for you. Thank you so much Andy. I can’t wait for the show.
AB: You’re welcome Caitlin, it was my pleasure. Enjoy the show, I’m so excited for you to see it!
Comments