Asteroids Galaxy Tour – The beauty of chaos

Asteroids Galaxy Tour, one of our favourite Nordic pop bands (and we’ve got a few), are getting ready to release their sophomore album Out of Frequency later this month. With Electronic Beats presenting the band’s club tour in 2009 and their music being picked up by the likes of Apple and Heineken, the Danish pop-monsters have had a stratospheric rise to the top over the last 24 months. I caught up with the band’s front-woman Mette Lindberg to talk about partnerships, living in the Danish ghetto and funny Europeans…..

Hey Mette. So one new album…Do you want tell me a bit about it?
It’s new! Me and Lars we are the main core of the band and so we have created the music. Lars is the producer and is the main songwriter, but we write together as well and we work on all the songs in the studio. Back and forth, listen, record and write on it…

What feeling are you trying to capture with the music?
We like to create fiction, to create characters and have this psychedelic big band feeling to the music and that everything is possible. We like the romantic drama and that it’s the rise & the fall and mystic. We like to play around with all that to create this universe. We see it as a kind of soundtrack. Out of Frequency is the name of the movie and I like that everything is possible. We just love music and that everything is possible.

And there are more elements of dance music on Out of Frequency
We like dance music! We like good beats, we like hip hop, we like jazz, soul and funk music.

Where did you record the album?
We’ve got a studio in Copenhagen in the red-light discrit, where all the hookers, gangsters and drug addicts are! It’s an old house which used to be stable and Lars actually started building in there with his brother who’s got a studio as well. And they kinda built more and more and now we’ve got a studio next to it as well. Do you know Who made Who? They have our old studio. So they’re just in the next room with Lars’ brother.

Does that environment influence the music then?
Well, Copenhagen is a small city. Denmark is a small country where no one is really rich or really poor. Everyone is alright in some way and even though that’s good, in many other places people need to sacrifice and really suffer for survival and for art. So we find it more inspiring to travel. It’s just interesting, the different cultures and the social cult – that’s also what I find most interesting by traveling. Maybe not always in Europe, because Germany is not that far but something like the English culture and French culture and then the European pop culture. The body language is just so open or simply different in other cultures and it’s an exciting thing to observe.

So do you find that when you go to different places that people react to your music and the band in a different way?
Yes! It also depends on what day of the week it is, how drunk are people. Was it a good opening act? Is it cold, is it warm, is it small…

I remember the shows you did for Electronic Beats were very high energy. I enjoyed the music on record but then when I saw you live there was a whole extra element. It wasn’t just you standing there playing the songs.
We are six people and we want to play! Most of the time we played for Electronic Beats it’s been really rock ‘n’ roll. Small stages with sound that is really in your face. It’s small, we’re a big band and so it’s sweaty! It’s the beauty of chaos.

In terms of recording Out of Frequency was it a long process?
Well as we’ve got our own studio we can go in whenever [we like]. We kind of went three or four days a week and just hung out, chilled, talked, sometimes we were really productive, just hanging out and I think it got that feeling of all the time we spent together, me and Lars just chilling and talking. We both talk a lot! We are different but musically we agree a lot. We have a lot in common. I do the interviews as it’s easier for me instead of us being six people you know…six monkeys or one monkey!

So you don’t mind doing the press then?
No I mean it’s easier just to go with the flow as one person instead of “can I speak now?” or “I don’t agree” or something like that. I speak on the behalf of me and Lars.

How did you get together musically with Lars?
We met through friends and the music scene here in Denmark. We played a little bit sometimes and did other things and stuff. Lars called me one day and said “I’ve got these songs and I’ve been producing them and I want you to sing”. I was listening and was blown away by his production and then everything just happened. Searching for someone who produces music with me and can create something, it’s difficult…how do you explain what you want? We of course have different opinions but because we’ve got a deep respect for both ways. We tried many times to be in other peoples bands. It’s a great thing that our friends & musicians are in our bands, but mainly they play with us and then they have their own bands they play with sometimes.

So there’s not so much pressure?
No we tell the people what to play, they join the tour, they record when we need it in the studio and it’s only me and Lars who need to decide. It’s so much easier.

Asteroids Galaxy Tour will be playing at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on April 23rd presented by Electronic Beats. Buy tickets here.

Published February 10, 2012.