Astræa: Breathing In The Light
In the blink of an eye, more than a year has passed since we spoke to songwriter and producer Astræa about her career leading up to the release of her first EP ‘Tonight I Run’. Now, she’s back with her next collection of songs entitled ‘Looking Up’. Moths and Giraffes took a trip to London to discuss the new songs at length, plus Astræa’s upcoming performance at the Servant Jazz Quarters.
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
Almost immediately following the release of Astræa’s four-track EP ‘Tonight I Run’ which also involved music videos and accompanying acoustic renditions, Astræa released another standalone single. ‘Ripples In The Water’ was penned during the U.S. election campaigns in 2016, but not released until the eve of the next election in 2020. Written with Duran Duran guitarist Dom Brown, the video features footage from various rallies in support of environmentalism, and against racism and bigotry.
Fast forwarding to summer 2021, these past few months have been all about Astræa’s new EP ‘Looking Up’. Entirely self-written and produced, Astræa draws on influences from the pandemic and the feelings of isolation many felt during that time. It also looks forward with a sense of optimism about the future.
Beginning with a synth refrain, it’s clear with the lighter programmed drums and piano that Astræa is going in a more pop direction with her new music. In a way, Astræa’s music has always been pop, particularly in her covers and the title track to the ‘Tonight I Run’ EP, but the music has always retained an air of seriousness. Here, ‘Stranger’ is bouncy and upbeat without the weight of heavier instrumentation. However, it’s Astræa’s lyrical content that carries the signature writing which can be heard in all of her music.
‘Reach for your embrace, but you're not around. There's distance in your gaze and it screams so loud. Don't recognize your face, you're a stranger to me now.’
Even in the precise and airy vocal delivery of the chorus, the words are unmistakably Astræa. Though if you look closely enough, how many upbeat pop songs are there with words that could find new context in a different arrangement? This is exactly what Astræa did in one of her acoustic videos, with just a vocal and piano accompaniment to really highlight the impact of her lyrics.
As if to further accentuate Astræa’s change in production style, the music video to Stranger is also unlike any she’s done before. Directed, edited and produced by Astræa, this video is a joint effort between herself and Mark Levin, who also mixed the bulk of the Looking Up EP. Set in a 1950’s time capsule, the vaguely sinister video shows Astræa in a domestic role where you can’t help but feel that whoever is coming home later is in big trouble.
By contrast, the two proceeding tracks are closer to what Astræa has produced in the past. The grandest of these is ‘Take Me Away’, which saw its release only with the full EP. From the very start, strings shimmer above piano, and isolation is represented with the closed-in vocal during the verses. The sparser layers in the verses only serve to highlight this more, with sustained piano chords and a bass drum that’s intentionally held back. Astræa gradually builds up the arrangement, bringing back the sound of plucked piano strings and cello.
But it’s when the chorus hits where Astræa’s vocal opens right up and the impact of her full string arrangement is truly felt. The strings on this EP are performed by the Parallax Orchestra, while the guitar parts on Take Me Away were played by Phil Hepworth, an addition rarely heard in an Astræa song. The sound of this piece is not to be underestimated, it’s the kind of full-bodied track that should be played on big speakers to really feel the force of the production Astræa has created here.
‘See this scar on my right knee, I fell off my bike when I was thirteen. Or this one here on my face, from chicken pox when I was eight.’
‘Scars’ is the most personal song on the Looking Up EP. The stripped back arrangement of Astræa’s piano and strings from the Parallax Orchestra gives the lyric room to breathe and where the focus should be. A talent of Astræa’s is her ability to connect with her audience, and Scars is a perfect example of this.
One thing I’m aware of when listening to this song (as well as Take Me Away) is how much more lavish the writing is where the strings are concerned, compared to Astræa’s output in years past. The way the arrangement is more than just complimentary to the chords, but instead a musical voice demonstrating what the lyric has to say without words, is simply breathtaking.
Above, Astræa returns to Craxton Studios to perform the song as it’s heard on the EP with members of the Parallax Orchestra in a string quartet configuration. Astræa has previously recorded acoustic versions of ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ and ‘Carry On’ at Craxton, both from the Tonight I Run EP.
The title track to Looking Up returns to the pop sound established on EP opener Stranger. The way Astræa has used the more uplifting sounds on this EP to bookend the heavier subjects makes for a well-rounded listening experience across these four songs. Looking Up was also the EP’s first single, and given a music video with a road trip around the beautiful Scottish countryside.
I can’t help but feel optimistic after listening to Looking Up, from the lyrics to the arrangement. As with the Tonight I Run EP, Astræa made production videos to demonstrate how she put the tracks together for Looking Up. In particular, the backing vocals for this piece are layered so well in the climax of the song, that it sounds like a gospel choir. In fact, this is all Astræa’s vocal production, but wouldn’t it be great to see a live session of this track done in that way?
With this new assortment of sounds, I’m excited to see what Astræa does next. Continue reading for our interview with Astræa. We talk pop music, the making of these songs, U.S. politics, and the future of Astræa’s music, plus much more!
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
Teri Woods: So your new EP ‘Looking Up’ goes in more of a pop direction than you have before, was that a conscious decision? Where did those influences come from?
Astræa: Yeah! It definitely is a lot more pop than some of the previous stuff I’ve done. I think I was experimenting with a bit more pop in my production with ‘Tonight I Run’ and ‘Carry On’ so it kind of felt like a natural progression and I would say pop has always been a big part of my life as a genre that I’ve always loved the most. I think my first ever album was (laughs) the Backstreet Boys ‘Millennium’ album. I had it on tape cassette! (laughs)
TW: My sister had that yeah!
A: I wore it out! And I think my second album was *NSYNC ‘No Strings Attached’, it was just like-
TW: Wow, we’re truly from the same era-
A: Yep! ‘90’s kids. And I was listening to a lot of my Dad’s music as well, like the pop music of his time like Crosby, Stills and Nash and Simon & Garfunkel, that sort of stuff. So I think pop is something I’ve always been very drawn to and it’s actually kind of funny though because I discovered in the last couple of years that most of the pop music that I’ve been really drawn to throughout my life has usually, like in a lot of cases been produced or written by Max Martin. So he’s kind of ended up being my production and songwriting hero, I guess you could say. And kind of actually one of the first reasons why I started writing in the first place. ‘Cause me and my friends, this was when we were obsessed with Backstreet Boys, we were like ‘We’re gonna start a band!’ So I was like seven or eight and we had this notebook, it was just three of us, I think we called ourselves The Angels or something just really stupid.
TW: Nice.
A: (laughs) So we had this notebook that we shared, we’d all write lyrics in it and make up little songs and pass it around and share it with each other, it was pretty funny. (laughs) So that’s actually like my earliest memory of writing music and songwriting so I do have to thank him for that, because that’s one of the first reasons why I started writing, because of Max Martin producing the Backstreet Boys. (laughs) So yeah it’s always been a part of my musical DNA, I would say.
And then, when it came to lockdown and Covid times, and I was writing and producing music for the next EP and thinking about what do I wanna do with this EP- You know I’m usually the type of person that writes all slow, melancholic piano ballads. Like I do of course do more than that, I’ll write cinematic tracks and that sort of thing but I really wanna have fun with this record and I wanted to explore that pop side of my production. I was also listening to Robyn’s ‘Body Talk’. Have you ever heard her album?
TW: (shakes head)
A: Oh my god it’s amazing. It’s like super-pop! Like Euro-Pop. So I was listening to that a lot ‘cause I think I came to a point where I was like ‘Ok, I don’t really wanna be listening to dark, sad music right now.’ And I feel like not a lot of people would want to either? Because the world is hard enough right now, and it’s ok to listen to, you know, fun music. You don’t always have to be talking about serious stuff all the time. I think I only just started realising that over the last year. I’ve always been the type of person that’s like ‘No I have to be engaged at all times.’ But I started to realise actually that it’s pretty unhealthy to be so obsessive about everything that’s going on in the world all the time. ‘Cause your brain needs a break sometimes. So part of me was like ‘I just wanna have some fun with this, and, you know, write some pop songs!’ So, that’s kind of like some of the reasons why some of the tracks turned out pretty poppy.
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
TW: Tell me about ‘Stranger’, where did that originate from?
A: During lockdown one, I delved into a lot of eighties music and eighties-inspired music, like Robyn is not an eighties artist, but very inspired by eighties music and synth pop. And I started listening as well to a lot of Prince and ‘Purple Rain’. I grew up in Minnesota, where Prince is from, and for some reason I never actually listened to Prince growing up. So I was like ‘Right, now is a great opportunity to listen to Prince, see what this is about.’ And I- oh my God the drum sounds on ‘Purple Rain’, I was like ‘That’s sounds so cool!’ I loved the electronic snares with the gated reverbs, loved the huge punchy kicks, and that really inspired me, I wanted to find beat sounds like that. And that’s kind of what ended up forming a lot of influence on the drums that I used in ‘Stranger’, ‘cause I was really seeking out those eighties drum machine sounds. Yeah and the rest of it, very much inspired by like Robyn and that was when Dua Lipa’s album came out too and I was like listening to that every day in lockdown one. I was like ‘Yes! This is so fun!’ So definitely a lot of pop music like that came to be a pretty big influence on ‘Stranger’.
TW: Ok, well there’s a big sound in ‘Take Me Away’ specifically, so would you talk us through the production of that one?
A: So ‘Take Me Away’, I actually wrote that one back in 2019, and I was going through like a trip-hop phase. That was when I wrote ‘Carry On’ as well, and I was listening to a lot of Massive Attack, Portishead, Lamb. Oh my god, Lamb – ‘Gabriel’ like influenced quite a lot of songs I was writing during that period of time. Because I loved the fusion of really chill lo-fi beats with ambient, orchestral soundscapes, I loved that sort of thing.
TW: I’ve listened to so much Massive Attack recently.
A: Aha! Really?
TW: Like, just such a huge fan.
A: Yeah, yeah it is just such cool music. So I was listening to a lot of that at the time. But I didn’t end up coming to produce it until we were in, I think it was- Maybe it was back in January? So we were in a lockdown, and I knew that I wanted to get strings on it, but I couldn’t work with ensembles at the time because of the lockdown. And so I ended up having a few of my string players send the arrangements I had done- they were able to record it at home and send it over to me, which was great. Because usually I really don’t like to do too many string overdubs, ‘cause it can make things sound a bit phasey and weird? But we were able to make it work which was great, so it was really nice to have real strings on that.
And then, the vocal sound- I would say the mix was really thought about and creative. So, Mark, my partner usually does most of my mixing and then I like to sit with him and direct him and then sometimes sneak into the project when he’s not there so I can mess around much to his dismay! (laughs) ‘Cause then he’ll open up the project and he’ll be like ‘What have you done!?’ (laughs) But you know, sometimes I fix problems, like, come on. ‘Cause I was listening to so much like Massive Attack and ‘Teardrop’, I knew that I wanted to have the verses have that sort of vocal sound which is like really tube driven, saturated, almost sort-of filtered lo-fi vocal effect. And like really heavily compressed and I wanted the verses to sound like that because the lyrics are very much about feeling enclosed and, you know, stuck inside. It’s weird that I wrote this before lockdown was even a thing. (laughs) But, I wanted it to kind of musically symbolise that and then have the vocals open up in the choruses with the themes of escapism and being taken away somewhere else and being free again. So that was a very conscious choice and I knew that I wanted that to be a big part of the mix.
But yeah it’s weird, like the lyrics- I was going through a period of time, yeah this was the end of 2019, where I was just writing, writing, writing, writing, but I was doing it by myself every day for months at home. Same four walls. And I think I got to a point where I was like ‘Oh my god, what am I doing to myself? This is so unhealthy!’ Like I was already isolating myself before isolation was a thing, so I need to get out. So that’s what ended up inspiring the lyrics to ‘Take Me Away’.
TW: So how come that you decided to not use that for your first EP? Was it just not ready yet, or…?
A: It wasn’t ready, and I already had four songs that I was like ‘these are definitely the songs, I absolutely wanna go with those first.’ But yeah, that’s the main reason. But yeah the lyrics and the song structure were finished but not the production and I knew the production would probably take me a little bit longer to finish as well.
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
TW: Ok, so you mentioned recording strings before, which featured quite prominently on ‘Scars’. What was it like to record the strings on that track? For the studio version?
A: Yeah, I mean it’s always pretty amazing getting to work with strings because, like, you know it’s not something you get to do all the time, because it’s not always paid! It’s something I absolutely don’t take for granted ever, but there is nothing like writing a song and writing out arrangements and then hearing it brought to life right in front of you. You can’t even put it into words really. It’s just an amazing feeling. So yeah it was incredible being able to do that and so we recorded the strings for those, also back in 2019 at Air-Edel Studios, and it was just a string quartet and that’s when we recorded strings for ‘Carry On’ as well and a couple of other bits which actually have not been released, yet, but hopefully will in the future. Yeah it’s amazing getting to work with strings, like I come from a classical background, so, that’s why a lot of my production ends up using a lot of orchestral elements and strings and that sort of thing. So, it’s always really fulfilling to work with strings.
TW: Is there anything else you can tell us about the unreleased stuff?
A: So I think the other ones that we recorded that day were acoustic versions of tracks that are already released. But I have not finished them yet, because I have just not had time. (laughs) But there is an acoustic version of ‘Nobody Loves Me Like You’ that I desperately wanna get out eventually because it’s one of my favourite string arrangements that I’ve done. And I really hope that one day I’ll have time to finish it! There’s too much on my to-do list.
So I have this idea, I really wanna do like a vinyl where on one side it’s the first two EPs, and then on the other side it’s like acoustic versions of everything. So maybe one day I’ll do that. We’ll see. I don’t know, because I really wanna start writing my debut album as well, so it’s hard (laughs).
TW: ‘Scars’ particularly is the more intimate song on ‘Looking Up’. So have you ever written a lyric that you think is maybe too much that you thought ‘Gosh I need to pull this back a bit, I need to make this more palatable for general consumption.’ (laughs)
A: That is a very interesting question, but no, I wouldn’t say I’ve ever done that. ‘Scars’ is one of the most important songs to me that I’ve written. Sometimes with songs you have to kind of like chip away at them, and mould them over time, like sometimes songs can take you weeks. Like I have songs where actually I had to come back to them like two years later when I finally had an idea. I was like ‘Oh my god!’ Anyway, getting off track.
But this, ‘Scars’ was actually one that just felt like it flowed out of me, and I was just following- I don’t know, some people like to call it ‘The Muse’, I don’t know what word to call it, but it felt like it was just happening without me having to think about it. And I think I wrote it in like twenty minutes, had Mark come upstairs to listen to it and he cried, so then I was like ‘I think I’m on to something!’ (laughs) ‘This is great! I made somebody cry!’ My, you know, ultimate aim sometimes.
No, but I don’t think I’ve ever changed anything because it’s been too personal because to me, songwriting is like a form of therapy and it’s always been important to me to be honest in my songs because the artists that inspire me the most are the ones who are honest. They’re brave enough to be honest and open in their songs, which, when you hear somebody singing about something that you’re dealing with, I think it can be really helpful because that’s what music has done for me, and that’s something that’s always formed a part of who I am as a writer. So, I don’t usually hold back. My songs are my diary. (laughs)
TW: (laughs) So on the flipside, ‘Looking Up’ is actually quite hopeful, written during the pandemic, was there a moment that triggered that lyric?
A: Yeah! So I wrote that one a couple of days after they had announced that vaccines were coming, so I was like ‘Oh my god.’ Because obviously for the longest time things were so, so bleak and very dark and kind of like there was just absolutely no end in sight. I mean of course, little did we know, we still had the worst to come, and obviously it’s still not over by any means. But for that moment, I kind of felt like a little bit of hope that we would eventually get to a point where life could feel more normal than it had been. So that was kind of like one of the main reasons, ‘I’m gonna write a song about this and hold on to this sense of hope’ because I think that’s a really powerful thing. And I wanted to make something that would help keep my spirits up and maybe help other people keep their spirits up, so that’s why I ended up writing that one.
TW: Ok. Well you shot the video in Scotland, whilst on a road trip. I love that video, I just think it’s-
A: Oh yay!
TW: I don’t know, it really embodies part of the lyric I think. The landscape is just so beautiful. So what did you enjoy most about being in Scotland?
A: You know the first thing I was gonna say was the landscape, but then I thought to myself ‘Actually, it was being there with my dog, and Mark.’ Because, like, my dog, Zeppelin, it was his first proper trip outside of London, and he’d grown up, you know, in our house throughout the lockdowns. We got him summer 2020. And it did him so much good because I think like a lot of dogs, a lot of puppies that grew up during that time are gonna have a pretty hard time adapting to change and different environments because they’re like so used to just being at home all the time. And he certainly has had like- I’m talking about him like he is my child, which is ridiculous (laughs).
TW: That’s fine (laughs).
A: Oh my god. He’s like had some difficulty with change to his routine, so it was just really nice getting to see him like enjoy being out in the wilderness. So being able to go on walks with him, and go camping with him, like it was so fun. Like all three of us doing that, it was so fun. And getting to film the video with him as well, because he was just so cute. (laughs)
TW: Was it always a plan to do the video while you were there in Scotland? Or you just thought, ‘this is a great opportunity, let’s do that as well’.
A: Yeah I think it was like a mix of both. We planned to do something for a video, but I think a lot of the ideas formed while we were there. Actually I didn’t realise the mountains were so big there, like we drove into Glencoe and I was like ‘Oh my god this looks like Colorado!’ I didn’t realise, it was so impressive, and just gorgeous. I’m a very outdoors-y person, I love hiking, I love camping, so that was one of the first opportunities to finally get out and go on a trip. And that’s what I really wanted to embody in the music video because that’s literally what ‘Looking Up’ is about. It’s coming out of that dark time and being open to the future again. So that’s what I wanted to show through the music video.
TW: Yeah, I think that really comes across.
A: Thanks!
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
TW: So going a bit further back to last year, after you released the ‘Tonight I Run’ EP, you put out a song called ‘Ripples In The Water’ which was on the run-up to the, generational-changing, defining U.S. election. So, as a huge Duran Duran fan, you worked with Dom Brown on that, how did that happen?
A: So I met Dom through a manager that I had been working with at the time who knew Dom. Don’t know how he knew him, but he knew him! Dom came to a gig that I was playing at. The Bedford, like this was back in…2016? And that was when I first met him, and then I went to his studio like the next week, which is insane by the way. Like, oh my god, fully kitted out, proper outboard gear, while I was there that day, another Neve channel-strip showed up in the post, (laughs) it was just like, really cool!
TW: It’s just another thing.
A: (laughs) No biggie.
TW: Yeah, yeah, just throw it over there in the corner.
A: So his studio is awesome. And then, when I arrived, Dom played me a track that he had been working on. So it was just the production and stuff. And I was like ‘This is sick! I love the vibe of this, let’s write something over this.’ And I had this idea of ‘Ripples In The Water’, like I had that written down in my notebook as a tagline.
So this is- yeah 2016, lead up to, you know, Trump elections during that time and I was thinking a lot about how concerned I was about the state of my country. And how concerned I was about people, including people very close to me, who were being led astray by a liar, who was using fear as a tactic to gain more power and I was thinking about the rippling effects of the things that he was validating. You know, his racist, misogynistic ideals that were now being validated in society and thinking about how that’s gonna continue to have effects for a really long time. And we might not always see them, especially if you’ve grown up in a privileged life, you’re not always gonna see those effects. Or feel the impact of it.
So I was thinking a lot about that, and Dom played me a track and then I just started coming up with all these melodies and lyrics and we were bouncing off each other the whole day. It was like a super inspiring, very collaborative writing day. It was so much fun. Yeah, he’s really great to write with. And then we ended up writing a bunch more tracks, including a couple, recently as well we wrote over Zoom for his most recent album. So a few cuts on that too. Yeah, he’s a really, really nice guy, and I enjoy working with him.
TW: Cool! So, further to that, obviously Trump wasn’t re-elected.
A: Yep.
TW: Great! I’m pleased about that, as is most people. So do you think, since he’s been out, that the U.S. has begun to heal from those four years, or do you think perhaps there’s a lot more work to do yet?
A: Yeah, there’s a lot more work to do. Unfortunately though he is out of office, the mentality and the politics still remain among a lot of politicians. And unfortunately, the whole pandemic and the vaccine discussion has been completely politicised over there. There’s like a little bit of that over here, but compared to over there, it’s gotten very extreme. Like there are people in my life as well that I’ve had a lot of very serious discussions with about it, and the struggle is real. There are definitely still huge amounts of division and I think it’s gonna take a very strong leader to help heal the country and I think it’s gonna take a long time.
TW: It’s very ingrained, really isn’t it?
A: Very ingrained.
TW: The mentality of it is sort of going back years.
A: Exactly, because it was happening even before- This is the thing, I can’t place the blame completely on Trump, because we were already a divided society. And you know, when you look at things like the gap between the richest and the poorest, like, it’s becoming increasingly wider over the last like- since the eighties. It’s been a divided society in so many different ways, for decades and I think Trump just became a face of it and encouraged it. But it was already there.
But I will still hold onto hope that we can overcome it and that we can come together as a nation again. Sometimes you get glimmers of hope. So like it’s the twenty-year anniversary of 9/11 the other day and, as utterly tragic and horrible as that was, there was a moment after that and like the days following where the nation really came together. And it didn’t matter, you know, what somebody’s political viewpoint was, where they came from, what they did with their life. People seemed to really care about each other and wanted to help each other because people remembered, ‘Hey, we’re all Americans, and we’re all human’.
It’s moments like those that give me a lot of hope that we can overcome it. We’ve gone through civil wars. Like we’ve been through worse, and, you know I love my country and I just wanna see it do better, and be better. So I do think that one day we will reach a point, but it’s not gonna be an overnight thing. It’s gonna take a long time, and it’s gonna take very strong leadership.
TW: Ok, I don’t really know how to join that to my next question. (laughs)
A: (laughs) I can honestly talk about politics like ‘til the cows come home.
TW: And I’m really pleased that this generation and the generation coming through below us as well are getting more political, getting more engaged-
A: Absolutely!
TW: They’re not allowing so much more of the terrible stuff that’s happened in the past to seep through.
A: Yep. And I think there’s finally an acceptance as well that people can have a political opinion and voice it because I think, especially for artists and people in the limelight, like, people used to get- they still get a lot of flak for saying stuff, like it happens all the time. But I would say, in general, people feel a lot more comfortable stating their opinions which I think is great because then that opens up conversation and I think that’s an incredibly important thing to do, whether or not I agree with you, I think it’s important to have those discussions, so.
TW: Yeah, because years ago, you kind of had people who did music, and then you had almost like political artists, and it was sort of like, they didn’t cross-
A: Yep. People wouldn’t dare.
TW: No, they wouldn’t say anything.
A: And even me personally, to be honest, probably a big reason why I didn’t put ‘Ripples In The Water’ out sooner than I did was because I also was afraid of getting flak from people and, you know, of course there’s gonna be a couple of comments here and there, and there were. But it didn’t bother me because I felt like I was saying what I needed to say.
TW: I mean I don’t know how much you know about Taylor Swift, but-
A: I mean I love Taylor Swift! (laughs)
TW: Ok yeah so she, you know, in her film talks a lot about making a stand against Trump and, more about her more local elections. And how difficult it was even to fight with her own people to just be able to say what she wanted. Erm, that’s so terrible!
A: I know, I don’t think anybody should be silenced like that, especially when you’re standing up for something. That documentary is amazing, by the way, it’s one of my top favourites. And I’m not just saying that because I love her to death, but a lot of it for her was standing up for LGBT rights in- I think it was Tennessee, and talking about a politician in the Republican party who was discriminatory towards the LGBT community and so she knew that it was really important to take a stand and to stand for what’s right. And I think that’s something to be massively respected.
TW: Yeah and I think that you will be remembered for saying those things, the right things, rather than staying silent. I think people will be aware that you stayed silent in that time when she knew what was going on.
A: Yeah, absolutely.
Image Credit: Björn Franklin.
TW: Still don’t know how to connect that to my next question but anyway we’re gonna go for it. (laughs) So as well as working with other artists recently, you’ve been producing other artists as well, you also co-wrote a track for Ward Thomas’ latest album ‘Invitation’, which is called ‘My Favourite Poison’, how did you get involved with that, tell us about writing that?
A: Yeah! So, I had already produced a couple of tracks for them over the years previous to that writing session. Like a couple of acoustic versions of some of their tracks, and I just really loved creating with them. Like they are so funny, they’re so genuine, and down to earth people and just very entertaining as well, like very fun to hang out with. So, they came over to the studio, brought their dogs, which was awesome. We had studio doggies, and we just chatted and got a song out of it. And I think some of the best writing sessions are when they just feel like you’re hanging out, and then you get a great song out of it.
It was really cool, they came into the session and they wanted to write a song about a toxic relationship that someone they knew had gone through. So then I started laying down these really dark minor chords and then they just started doing their crazy thing, their melodies with their crazy harmonies, and I was like ‘This is sick! I love this!’ And we were just vibing off each other the whole day, it was great. Yeah it was really fun, and then some of the arrangements that I had written ended up on the final production as well, but it was such a fun track. I didn’t know they were gonna put it on an album either! So, it was really cool to see that, to see that on there is awesome.
TW: Ok, so it was more like a speculating sort of session, you didn’t know where it was gonna end up or what it was gonna do or anything?
A: Most writing sessions are like that, I mean, you don’t know how a session is gonna turn out, so you never know whether a song is gonna go anywhere. So it was just kind of like a thing like ‘Hey let’s write together’. So we did, and then it ended up going on their album, like sick! I love this! So yeah it was really cool.
TW: Yeah! Ok, so, to finish up, you’ve got a gig coming up at the Servant Jazz Quarters, it’s gonna be your first gig in about two and a half years!
A: The last one was like May 2019, yeah. Woah, way too long!
TW: So, how are you feeling about this gig? What can people expect from this gig?
A: Yeah, I am so excited, I’m also very nervous because it has been so long! Like oh god! So, initially obviously there wasn’t supposed to be a gap this long, I was gonna put out the ‘Tonight I Run’ EP like the beginning of 2020, do gigs then, and then of course – Covid. But yeah I’m so excited, it’s gonna be an intimate, acoustic performance, just me and the piano and, we have a great support act with Alice Pisano as well. So I think it’s gonna be a really special night and it’s gonna be really nice and cosy. I love the venue- ok I haven’t actually been there, but it looks awesome! (laughs)
TW: The pictures are nice. (laughs)
A: The pictures are brilliant! It looks like it’s got like a 1920’s speakeasy theme, which I like, I could be making that up, I don’t know, but it looks cool! Oh and they have a Yamaha upright piano which is awesome, and yeah it’s gonna be a really, really nice evening. Getting to be able to share music with people in person again is gonna be pretty incredible as well. I’ve done a bunch of livestreams, mostly last year, which were a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it, but it’s kind of bizarre, ‘cause you can’t see people. You can’t see their faces and feed off of their reactions, and to me that’s like a really important part of it is making that direct, individual connection with people. Because my songs are so personal, and I like my performances to feel that way as well, so, it was fun, doing livestreams but I’m ready to get back to doing in-person stuff for sure. Yeah, it’s gonna be a really nice evening.
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Visit Astræa’s store to buy CD’s, vinyl and downloads for her ‘Looking Up’ and ‘Tonight I Run’ EPs.
For more information about Astræa, visit her official website.
To purchase tickets for Astræa’s performance at London’s Servant Jazz Quarters, visit the Eventbrite website here.
Follow Astræa on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @astraeamusica.
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