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Molek FMThe Asteroids Galaxy Tour: A Danish Space Odyssey
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The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s latest album Out of Frequency was launched back in January and had been garnering pretty good reviews. JUICE actually really liked it ourselves, so we talked to principle songwriter and producer of the group, Lars Iversen about future plans, and tips for people travelling to Denmark.
Now that the album’s been out a few months what’s on for the rest of 2012?
More touring! We’ve been on the road constantly since January. Right now we’re in a tour bus on our way home from some festival shows in Germany and Switzerland. We play one or two festivals a week throughout the summer. In the autumn we’ll do a French tour, then a Denmark tour and finally we’ll tour the USA for the second time this year. Oh, did I forget to mention that we are playing two big shows in Sao Paolo, Brazil at the end of July?
Will there be an Asia tour? Have you ever visited Southeast Asia?
I know that an Asian tour has been considered, but no details yet. We played at a big square in Hanoi in front of 200,000 people on New Year’s Eve. That was a really crazy experience. We had to play for the communist committee in the afternoon, so that they could approve the show. They were afraid that we had a political agenda or something.
What’s better, touring or making music?
If I HAD to choose one, it would be making music. No doubt. But after spending a year inside a dark studio making some killer tracks, all you wanna do is present them to the world!
How did The Asteroids Galaxy Tour begin?
I had a bunch of songs that I had been working on for a while, but needed the right singer. I knew Mette [Lindberg] from the underground music scene in Copenhagen, and we used to play in a band together some years before. We hooked up and started recording the songs, which then kickstarted another round of songwriting and even more recording, all done in my one room flat. We spent several months inside my flat every day until early dawn in a rush of inspiration. We were on a roll. We then got a Danish booking agency, and their first gig for us was a support gig for Amy Winehouse. We were forced to gather a band in a hurry and start rehearsing.
An old friend of mine who happened to be a UK music lawyer handed around some demo CDs. Around about the same time as the Winehouse gig happened, we got signed to a UK management… and the rest is history.
What does the name mean?
A journey, an adventure, a constant on-going and evolving monster of a tour!
Why did you decide to sing in English over your native Danish?
We grew up listening to English and American bands, so it would be really strange for us to sing in Danish. A side effect to singing in English is that we get to tour the whole world with our music – not just the 8 venues that exist in Denmark.
If our readers here in Malaysia ever visit Copenhagen, what are 3 things you recommend they do there?
1. Go see Christiania (the free hippie town in Copenhagen).
2. Try our rye bread with pastry.
3. Instead of visiting The Little Mermaid, why not go for the real thing: visit one of our beautiful beaches (and check out the girls there!).
What are your musical influences?
‘70s funk, ‘90s hip hop, alternative dance, soul, rock’n’roll, psychedelic sounds and outer space!
Your music is an extremely popular choice for use in TV, movies and advertising – how much control do you have of that?
We have 100% control when it comes to movies and advertising. In Denmark TV can use our music without out permission for some reason… So we get surprised sometimes when turning on the TV.
Is there a product or movie you would refuse to have featured alongside your music?
Maybe diapers? (laughs)
You’ve played opener for Katy Perry and Amy Winehouse, how have those experiences compared to playing your own shows?
Nothing compares to playing our own shows. We’ve grown to become a big bombastic live act in our own right, and we always get such an amazing feedback from our audience. We played some pretty big places with Katy Perry on her Europe tour a few years ago, but supporting can also be a tough challenge sometimes. Nothing beats our own tours and our own fans.
There’s been a lot of hype around Scandinavian music in the blogosphere this past year, especially that Swedish indie pop sound, what’s going on musically in Denmark right now?
Danish reggae and dancehall music is really big right now. I know, you wouldn’t think of Denmark as a country that embraces Caribbean music genres like that! On the international scene we have some really fine acts such as Choir Of Young Believers, WhoMadeWho and Trentemøller. But they all sound very different from us.
Finish the following sentence: We make music for… you.
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s latest album Out of Frequency is already available in stores. Check out what the band is up to and have a listen to their stuff over at theasteroidsgalaxytour.com.
