Post by Zapp Brannigan on Mar 3, 2011 2:53:37 GMT -5
www.lifessweetbreath.com/interviews/10-astronautalis-interview.html
Andy Bothwell is a Seattle-based rapper who goes by Astronautalis. With three albums under his belt—two of which were self-produced—and two more coming this year, he knows his way around a rhyme. With a tour beginning March 4th (his first with a live band) and a new single dropping, Andy has a lot going on. I sat down for an interview with the king of indie, historical fiction rap to talk about his past, his inspirations, and the creative challenges that come with being a full time musician.
Life’s Sweet Breath: Where does the name Astronautalis come from?
Astronautalis: I wish there was a good story and I think I should probably make up a good story but I came up with it when I was fifteen and I really just wanted a cool name. I was a battle rapper and I just wanted an original name. At the time it was in vogue for rappers to cite science and a lot of rappers out of New York area had scientific references and I kind of combined that with a list of words that I liked and on that list I had "Astronaut" and I had "Nautilus". And one day I was driving my mom’s minivan around and it combined perfectly in my head and I am still using it years later.
LSB: Can you tell me a little about your life growing up? When did you decide to follow a musical career path?
A: I started rapping when I was twelve when my brother gave me some rap music on a cassette and it really had an effect on my growing up as a suburban white kid. That is about as hypnotic as it can get listening to inner city gangster rappers. That really kind of completely swept me off my feet and made me want to start rapping, but it did not become a serious thing until much later when I got to college and started doing underground battles in Dallas. I was going to school for theater to become a director and I was at a battle in Dallas and I met Brock Cummings (publicist) and I ended up going to the finals in the battle and he took me under his wing a bit and he kind of established me in Dallas and trying to parade me around and he took me to battles and got me shows and slowly but surely I was away from school and music became a pretty full time path for me. I was still working for the theater degree and I never thought the path was a musician was open to me but it kind of swept me off my feet and I actually got to go on the Warped Tour after I graduated and after doing that for a whole summer I realized, “Wow, people do like this!” and it was a very nice thing to see people who weren’t just your friends or know you personally were into it and that is when Brock and I decided to give this a try and he quit his job, got us a car, and drove around the country and seven years later it is a full time job now.
LSB: What sort of influence did your family have on you to drive around the country and rap? Do they continue to influence you today?
A: Yeah, certainly. I am really, really close to my immediate family. And there is certainly a good amount of travelling on both sides of my family. My two uncle’s on my mother’s side spent the ‘60s traveling around the world and my father spent time in the Green Beret’s and got kicked out of college for punching a professor. He was real wild guy who settled down after he met my mom. And they have always been part of it. My mom has always been sort of an artist and has supported me on my less-than-usual career path even before I was going to do rap when I was thinking theater. Both of them have always been very supportive of it but it took them a while to get that I was following music because I really wanted to do it as a career and not because I was simply fucking off. And eventually they realized I was working and have been supremely supportive ever since. They are always going to be there because of how they raised me with the culture I grew up in with my brother and my mother and my father will always have an impact on what I do.
LSB: What are some of your musical influences?
A: It comes and goes, to be sure. But there are things that always seem to stay consistent. There is a lot of rap music that I really do love and it tends to be alternative rap music that I get into. But periodically, I like coming back to gangster rap music that I grow up. You know things that you hear being played on the radio and that sort of thing. That has been a part of my life since I was twelve and I don’t ever see it not being a part of my life. But additionally, at the same time that I was really loving New York City’s underground rap music I was super obsessed with the Pacific Northwest music scene like K-Records in Olympia, Washington and that has always been a big part of it. I think that the two musicians that I listen to more than anything else is a musician named O’Callaghan and a band called Rachel’s which is a contemporary classical music band and that is the stuff that is always there. There are tons of other things that have floated in and out. Everybody likes the Beatles, obviously. But those are the sounds that define who I am more than anything else.
LSB: How about working with other young rappers like Ceschi or POS? How do you guys help each other grow in your art?
A: Yeah, especially working with Stef (Stefon Alexander, POS). I have never had a collaborative relationship with a rapper before. I would do spots on songs, but even then that is a strange little process that you don’t talk about. You think of an idea that you all want to write about, then you write about it, and then that is it. But you don’t talk about each other’s writing or critique each other. But Stef and I have for years now, even before we started working on a record, we would talk to each other about that and listen to each other’s records and he told me a lot of stuff about my music before I made Pomegranate that really helped shape the album. He pulled a lot of stuff that really made my music better and we are able to critique each other really well and it has worked very well. The process has continued through this album (The Four Fists, a collaborative effort between Andy and Stefon), a collaborative and critique based process where you constantly are forced to work with people, so you have to learn how to critique and communicate. You have to make corrections and work together and that is tough especially for a solo artist. Even if I work with other musicians, ultimately, I am the boss. And that has been tough to escape. But working with Stef has been really enjoyable and it is great to insert this collaborative art form back into the music which is something it has been sorely missing.
LSB: In your upcoming tour, you are traveling with a live band for the first time. How has it been transcribing music that has always been played on a laptop into a live setting?
A: It has been interesting so far. I mean, I haven’t even got to sit down and work with them in person. It has been a lot of emails and notes and that sort of thing. I will meet up in Maine with them at the end of February for about six days to put it together as much as we can. They are really great people. But it definitely is sort of a hilarious experience in a way. I don’t expect that when we play our first show on the tour, it will be far from perfect. But that is also the whole point of this tour is to sink our teeth into this and by the time the new album comes out we will be able to do it full time and do it really, really well. It’s as exciting as it is terrifying! Trying new things always is, like jumping off a tall tree or something. It is a rush that is terrifying too.
LSB: So you are playing with a live band on the new album as well?
A: The records have always had live instruments on them. Pomegranate especially had more than fifty percent live instruments. So, that has been the issue. That was something I could not afford to do. I never saw the point of limiting my creative process on the albums but there are limitations to what I could do live. There are a lot of songs on the albums that I could never do live which is disappointing because people really like them and some of my favorite songs from those records would be silly to me with just a laptop and vocals because they are so quiet and pretty and they did not work in that environment. That is the goal is to live out some of these songs more directly and bring me closer to the albums and making these shows more than just a rap show. The goal is to make the live show as diverse as the album is.
LSB: Where do your lyrics come from and what made history such a vibrant and prominent subject in your songs?
I had always said at the end of high school that if I did not make it to theater school, I would have gone to college to be a history professor. To everyone in my family and me, it is a big part of our lives. I have loved it since I was a little kid. I spent so much time thinking about the things I learn from history and the stories that I have heard. I felt that rap is such an excellent narrative in musical form and I don’t think people really use it too much as a narrative anymore. It is important to grow and I wanted to focus on rebuilding that narrative form in rap music. I did not want to build a record about myself. I completely wanted it removed from me. So I decided to use ideas and moments in history because it seemed like such a natural extension of myself. It is something I love and get excited about and to combine all of these things that I love into one big ball is very exciting.
LSB: You tour almost constantly, it seems. How is life on the road and getting to see the country and perform almost every night?
A: The short answer is that it is great; no matter what it is great. Like anything, it is not without its downsides. Just like staying home. I get really lonely on the road and you get crazy at some point and you just want stability and you are always surrounded by people. You don’t really have any privacy but no matter what, it is still great. It really is awesome that I have gotten to see 20 countries and 48 states and I am hoping to reach my 49th in the next few months. I know America like that back of my hand and I am starting to know Europe pretty damn well. I have been to four continents and it has been great that I have gotten the opportunity to do all of that. No matter what its complications or problems I still like traveling a lot. It is a really wonderful gift that I get to do that.
-Eamon Frawley, March 3, 2011
Andy Bothwell is a Seattle-based rapper who goes by Astronautalis. With three albums under his belt—two of which were self-produced—and two more coming this year, he knows his way around a rhyme. With a tour beginning March 4th (his first with a live band) and a new single dropping, Andy has a lot going on. I sat down for an interview with the king of indie, historical fiction rap to talk about his past, his inspirations, and the creative challenges that come with being a full time musician.
Life’s Sweet Breath: Where does the name Astronautalis come from?
Astronautalis: I wish there was a good story and I think I should probably make up a good story but I came up with it when I was fifteen and I really just wanted a cool name. I was a battle rapper and I just wanted an original name. At the time it was in vogue for rappers to cite science and a lot of rappers out of New York area had scientific references and I kind of combined that with a list of words that I liked and on that list I had "Astronaut" and I had "Nautilus". And one day I was driving my mom’s minivan around and it combined perfectly in my head and I am still using it years later.
LSB: Can you tell me a little about your life growing up? When did you decide to follow a musical career path?
A: I started rapping when I was twelve when my brother gave me some rap music on a cassette and it really had an effect on my growing up as a suburban white kid. That is about as hypnotic as it can get listening to inner city gangster rappers. That really kind of completely swept me off my feet and made me want to start rapping, but it did not become a serious thing until much later when I got to college and started doing underground battles in Dallas. I was going to school for theater to become a director and I was at a battle in Dallas and I met Brock Cummings (publicist) and I ended up going to the finals in the battle and he took me under his wing a bit and he kind of established me in Dallas and trying to parade me around and he took me to battles and got me shows and slowly but surely I was away from school and music became a pretty full time path for me. I was still working for the theater degree and I never thought the path was a musician was open to me but it kind of swept me off my feet and I actually got to go on the Warped Tour after I graduated and after doing that for a whole summer I realized, “Wow, people do like this!” and it was a very nice thing to see people who weren’t just your friends or know you personally were into it and that is when Brock and I decided to give this a try and he quit his job, got us a car, and drove around the country and seven years later it is a full time job now.
LSB: What sort of influence did your family have on you to drive around the country and rap? Do they continue to influence you today?
A: Yeah, certainly. I am really, really close to my immediate family. And there is certainly a good amount of travelling on both sides of my family. My two uncle’s on my mother’s side spent the ‘60s traveling around the world and my father spent time in the Green Beret’s and got kicked out of college for punching a professor. He was real wild guy who settled down after he met my mom. And they have always been part of it. My mom has always been sort of an artist and has supported me on my less-than-usual career path even before I was going to do rap when I was thinking theater. Both of them have always been very supportive of it but it took them a while to get that I was following music because I really wanted to do it as a career and not because I was simply fucking off. And eventually they realized I was working and have been supremely supportive ever since. They are always going to be there because of how they raised me with the culture I grew up in with my brother and my mother and my father will always have an impact on what I do.
LSB: What are some of your musical influences?
A: It comes and goes, to be sure. But there are things that always seem to stay consistent. There is a lot of rap music that I really do love and it tends to be alternative rap music that I get into. But periodically, I like coming back to gangster rap music that I grow up. You know things that you hear being played on the radio and that sort of thing. That has been a part of my life since I was twelve and I don’t ever see it not being a part of my life. But additionally, at the same time that I was really loving New York City’s underground rap music I was super obsessed with the Pacific Northwest music scene like K-Records in Olympia, Washington and that has always been a big part of it. I think that the two musicians that I listen to more than anything else is a musician named O’Callaghan and a band called Rachel’s which is a contemporary classical music band and that is the stuff that is always there. There are tons of other things that have floated in and out. Everybody likes the Beatles, obviously. But those are the sounds that define who I am more than anything else.
LSB: How about working with other young rappers like Ceschi or POS? How do you guys help each other grow in your art?
A: Yeah, especially working with Stef (Stefon Alexander, POS). I have never had a collaborative relationship with a rapper before. I would do spots on songs, but even then that is a strange little process that you don’t talk about. You think of an idea that you all want to write about, then you write about it, and then that is it. But you don’t talk about each other’s writing or critique each other. But Stef and I have for years now, even before we started working on a record, we would talk to each other about that and listen to each other’s records and he told me a lot of stuff about my music before I made Pomegranate that really helped shape the album. He pulled a lot of stuff that really made my music better and we are able to critique each other really well and it has worked very well. The process has continued through this album (The Four Fists, a collaborative effort between Andy and Stefon), a collaborative and critique based process where you constantly are forced to work with people, so you have to learn how to critique and communicate. You have to make corrections and work together and that is tough especially for a solo artist. Even if I work with other musicians, ultimately, I am the boss. And that has been tough to escape. But working with Stef has been really enjoyable and it is great to insert this collaborative art form back into the music which is something it has been sorely missing.
LSB: In your upcoming tour, you are traveling with a live band for the first time. How has it been transcribing music that has always been played on a laptop into a live setting?
A: It has been interesting so far. I mean, I haven’t even got to sit down and work with them in person. It has been a lot of emails and notes and that sort of thing. I will meet up in Maine with them at the end of February for about six days to put it together as much as we can. They are really great people. But it definitely is sort of a hilarious experience in a way. I don’t expect that when we play our first show on the tour, it will be far from perfect. But that is also the whole point of this tour is to sink our teeth into this and by the time the new album comes out we will be able to do it full time and do it really, really well. It’s as exciting as it is terrifying! Trying new things always is, like jumping off a tall tree or something. It is a rush that is terrifying too.
LSB: So you are playing with a live band on the new album as well?
A: The records have always had live instruments on them. Pomegranate especially had more than fifty percent live instruments. So, that has been the issue. That was something I could not afford to do. I never saw the point of limiting my creative process on the albums but there are limitations to what I could do live. There are a lot of songs on the albums that I could never do live which is disappointing because people really like them and some of my favorite songs from those records would be silly to me with just a laptop and vocals because they are so quiet and pretty and they did not work in that environment. That is the goal is to live out some of these songs more directly and bring me closer to the albums and making these shows more than just a rap show. The goal is to make the live show as diverse as the album is.
LSB: Where do your lyrics come from and what made history such a vibrant and prominent subject in your songs?
I had always said at the end of high school that if I did not make it to theater school, I would have gone to college to be a history professor. To everyone in my family and me, it is a big part of our lives. I have loved it since I was a little kid. I spent so much time thinking about the things I learn from history and the stories that I have heard. I felt that rap is such an excellent narrative in musical form and I don’t think people really use it too much as a narrative anymore. It is important to grow and I wanted to focus on rebuilding that narrative form in rap music. I did not want to build a record about myself. I completely wanted it removed from me. So I decided to use ideas and moments in history because it seemed like such a natural extension of myself. It is something I love and get excited about and to combine all of these things that I love into one big ball is very exciting.
LSB: You tour almost constantly, it seems. How is life on the road and getting to see the country and perform almost every night?
A: The short answer is that it is great; no matter what it is great. Like anything, it is not without its downsides. Just like staying home. I get really lonely on the road and you get crazy at some point and you just want stability and you are always surrounded by people. You don’t really have any privacy but no matter what, it is still great. It really is awesome that I have gotten to see 20 countries and 48 states and I am hoping to reach my 49th in the next few months. I know America like that back of my hand and I am starting to know Europe pretty damn well. I have been to four continents and it has been great that I have gotten the opportunity to do all of that. No matter what its complications or problems I still like traveling a lot. It is a really wonderful gift that I get to do that.
-Eamon Frawley, March 3, 2011