MUSIC INTERVIEW: THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR

Mette Lindberg on Creating a Modern Classic Soundtrack for a Unique Musical Universe

By: Team Buzzine

February 10, 2012

Denmark’s The Asteroid Galaxy Tour is a band based on contradictions. Whether it's the fact that they use very modern methods in creating a classic sound, or that a band becoming so beloved from their live shows has gained so much fame from ad placements, or even that Mette Lindberg’s sometimes androgynous voice comes from such a gorgeous Scandinavian beauty, one thing is clear: something very interesting is going on within this musical star system.

Mette sat down with Buzzine’s Stefan Goldby at Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Music Festival to reveal the details of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s new album, Out of Frequency, while also illuminating exactly how they create and promote their music, and the lessons she and musical partner Lars Iversen learned from touring Europe alongside pop royalty like Amy Winehouse and Katy Perry.

Stefan Goldby: Let’s begin at the big bang moment of your galaxy: how did you first join together with Lars Iversen to make music?

Mette Lindberg: The main core of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour is me and a guy called Lars. [Laughs] And we met each other in Copenhagen in the music scene there. We’ve known each other for many years, and one day Lars called me and said, “Hey Mette, I’ve got some sketches for some new songs, and I want you to sing on them: What do you say?” And then I listened to it, and it sounded so good, because Lars is a great producer. And when we had six songs – something like that – and we were asked to open for Amy Winehouse in Copenhagen, and we were like, “Uh oh…we don’t have a band.” [Laughs] So then we had to gather our friends and the coolest people we knew, rehearsed two times, and then we played for 20 minutes…

SG: And that momentum led to your debut album Fruit being an international hit a couple of years ago, but as we sit here today, you have a new album about the be released, but we are in that strange position where nobody else has heard it except for you guys…

ML: Actually, we just released a track from the new album. The album is going to be called Out of Frequency, it’s out in January next year in the States, on the 31^st – and you can download a track for free from our website. It’s called “Major,” and the album is done - it’s mastered, it’s almost printed, so it’s really done!

SG: For all the people out there who already have Fruit, and perhaps the more recent Golden Age EP as a bridge between the two, what do you think the biggest difference is between Fruit and Out of Frequency?

ML: The difference between the two albums is that it’s been some years... [Laughs] The first album, and I believe some other musicians, they feel the same… it might have really old songs on it, because you had songs you did many years ago. So for the new album, it’s all really fresh and was made while touring and touring, but it’s from some other time that’s its own. It’s not like five years ago or two years ago – it’s together. I mean, you need to tell me what you think is the difference when you hear it, because I don’t think about that. We work with it so much, so it’s difficult to tell details, because you get blown away by sound every time…

SG: Hopefully it’s easier to remember details of things you did yourself: Is there a day or a session from the recordings for Out of Frequency that stands out most in your mind?

ML: Well, Lars has his own studio in Copenhagen, and we hang out there every day.  So we don’t have like, “This week we are in the studio”, when we’re not on tour, we meet in the studio and chit-chat, hang out, and just eat ice cream or something, you know! [Laughs] So sometimes we do something, and sometimes we just listen. So the last half-year, we’ve been working a lot inside, even though it was summer in Denmark, so summer 2011 was definitely like, “Hanging out inside in a cold building with your jacket on, then take your jacket off and sit in the sunshine for ten minutes and go back in.” [Laughs] But it’s been really great to work on the new album. In the process, you don’t know where it’s gonna go, and then suddenly you have all these songs and it’s like, Ah! We got something here”, and then you put it together as a big puzzle, and then it just makes sense. And that’s really, really nice.

SG: Once you took all the pieces of the puzzle and put them together, what are you happiest with about the picture they made?

ML: We see this as a soundtrack for a movie for our world. We created all this, and we don’t write about our own lives, we create something that we’re fascinated about or inspired from. We like old spy movies, Blaxploitation movies, and we like rise & fall and romance & drama, and I think we created an album consisting of all these things, and together it’s one soundtrack for something we imagined.

SG: Your music seems to blend elements of classic music, and certainly the ‘60s spy movies is part of it, but then there’s very modern elements as well. Is that deliberate, or is that just organically the music that you and Lars make?

ML: We are inspired by a lot of different artists and also cultures and people in general, and for us, this is what happens: We just play around with the music, Lars is sitting in the studio creating beats and arranging horns and stuff like that, and it just pops out like that. And I think everything we collected in our bags just comes out there. We don’t sit down and say, “Okay, we’ve got to make this kind of thing.” It’s what happens, and then in the end, you have something and you don’t know where it came from. But it came from something. [Laughs]

SG: That something – at least with your music from Fruit – went out into the world in a lot of ways through different adverts, right? Whether it was via Apple or Heineken, or even Australian department stores... In today’s changing music world, are adverts effectively the new radio?

ML: That’s a good question! I believe that now everyone’s got their music on TV series, in movies, in commercials, and it works together. Like football players and sports people are always being sponsored by something that has nothing to do with what they do… like milk or something like that! And now it’s kind of okay, everything has changed, and it’s a really good way to make people aware that you’re here. To be blown out on television is really different… but you always had Beverly Hills 90210 and Peach-Pit, and then you had bands playing in the series… many years ago.

SG: Nicely done: We don’t get many 90210 references any more… [laughs] But whether for the cameras or at an actual concert, your live performance is such an integral part of your music: Even the Apple ad came from the band flying to California and playing for them at their offices… So how do you go from taking something that you and Lars create in the studio and turn it into a living, breathing, live band–playing monster?

ML: The exciting thing about being in the studio is that, at some point, you’re gonna play it for people. They’re gonna hear it and react to it when you play it live, and I believe that that mix is perfect because we get to be really nerdy and geeks together and create all this and then share it with the band and play live and it’s a great combination: After a long time touring, it’s really good to be home and to go into your own bed and sleep and then go to the studio and hang out with the band. It’s a nice feeling to have a small family like that, and then at some point it’s really nice to do the other thing again, and then back again and back again…

SG: You’re in the live-show phase of your ‘thing and back’ process right now: What elements come together to make a great night on stage for The Asteroids Galaxy Tour?

ML: The audience means a lot to us. As you can imagine, looking at a crowd doing like, [Screams] “Woah!” and singing along, it can only make you happy and like, “Yeah! Let’s go for it! Let’s do this together.” Sometimes, if you have people standing just looking at you, it’s like, “Are you looking at me?” [Laughs] and “Do you like it or not?”

So it’s really nice when you can see that people react to it: I like that. And of course have some good sound on stage. So to get the vibe from the audience and to play with the band and have the energy as a band, because it comes from that, you know, playing live as a band.

SG: You mentioned that Amy Winehouse was a big part of your musical development early on. You then also went out and toured with Katy Perry almost immediately after Amy. What did you learn from those tours?

ML: When we went on tour with Katy Perry, like two years ago… I think it was before we released the first album, and we were a very young band at that point and hadn’t been playing that much, so it was just the fact of being a part of a really big setup with a lot of people working on it, while we didn’t even have a driver. [Laughs] Oh, maybe we had a driver, actually, but we don’t have this or that. And one million people in this big production… that was fascinating. It was very professional, while we came from just the raw beginnings. So, we were wishing for one day to have a stagehand or a tour manager. [Laughs] That’s kind of nice!

SG: A life without stagehands or a tour manager conjures up a picture of a band breaking down in the middle of nowhere with no roadies and no help – and that’s a little depressing. But luckily, you have come a long way in the past couple of years, so we don’t have to end our chat with you on that note! Instead, let’s end by finding out what has been the single best moment on tour for you so far? The one where you thought, “Yeah! This is what I signed up for…”

ML: I can tell you that, the other night, we played in Chicago and we had some fans, and they created an Asteroids car, they painted a really cool, old car. They had our silhouettes on the side and the chords and the notes for some of the songs, and the name on it, and I have some pink, round glasses. They created it like two big lamps in the front window, so when you were in the car, you looked out the glasses and it was blinking! And that was really cool. I mean, how cool is that, to have a car? Like, your own car. We didn’t get to keep it, though. But… we stood on top of the car, and they played the new song from our new album from inside, and the police came because we were too loud! [laughs], and that was quite great. It was just so sweet that they’d done that…

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s new album ‘Out Of Frequency’ is out now via BMG Rights Management.

Check out the Buzzine Photo Gallery of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour's live performances at Filter Magazine's Culture Collide Festival 2011.