Brightest Young Things

Deastro play DC9 on Thursday. This is fantastic news.

I first heard Deastro in October 2008 with the release of “Keepers” on Ghostly International, and was suitably impressed by the precocious young fucker’s incredibly energetic electronica. This led me to trawl through his blog and find what other gems I’d missed. The result was a blizzard of Deastro compositions popping up on my playlists in the months before I was finally lucky enough to see him in New York at Cake Shop in March 2009.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from Deastro live. I deliberately did not want to prejudice myself by reading reports from the field, so I was pleasantly surprised when he showed up with a full band. The results were explosive – a band so tight, so well practiced, so suited to each other that they seemed to have played together for years.

Little did I know that the seeming unity of spirit they showed was…temporary, if not completely illusory, in retrospect. I looked forward to asking him about this, but, as with the Dears, I worried that the downfall of the band might be from ego, it might be from genius, it might be from madness…or a combination of the three.

BYT: Hey Randy, I’m interviewing you for a website here in Washington, DC.

Deastro: Oh, cool!

BYT: So, I see Deastro as being a facet of your personality – a personal expression. Do you see Deastro turning into something different, something more collaborative in the future?

Deastro: Well, interesting you ask that – the band I toured with earlier in the year broke up with me in September. I had tried to make the music with them as collaborative as I could. I guess it just didn’t work out.

Recently, I’ve started making music with my roommate. He’s a super-nerd, like I am, and a jazz musician. After we finish this tour with Max Tundra, I plan on working with him to make music that sounds much more live, with a lot more looped sounds, and bring in a synth player.

BYT: Wow, I’m really surprised to hear you broke up. When I saw you in March, I was shocked to see how perfectly you all worked together as a band – not just one man with a laptop, or with a bunch of hired guns.

Deastro: They were amazing musicians, and I would love to play with them again – if they ever decide to talk to me again. In the meantime, I think my sound will return to where it was when I first started making music. That is, it’ll have a wider, darker sound, less in-your-face, and more serious. Weird pop songs.

BYT: There’s a certain energy in your music – a positivity that comes through everywhere – from the pure joy of “Tree Frog” to the driving force of the instrumentals. Where does it come from?

Deastro: I think people have misunderstood my music so far. Sure, I’ ma positive guy, but I’m not trying to support the listener with my own energy. In a way, I feel like a lot of what I’ve done sounds too over the top. Especially with my last record [Ed: Moondagger] any message was overshadowed by how fun the music was. Don’t get me wrong – I’m proud of it – we recorded it in two days and wrote it in two weeks. I’m proud of how we all came together so quickly, wrote great songs, and recorded them in single takes. But, we’re deliberately going by a different route now, where we’ll have more time to make the songs we want.

BYT: It seems like your songwriting is a purging process – writing the song, recording it, and putting it out as fast as possible. Why is that?

Deastro: I suppose I’m trying to put distance and separate myself from what I’ve done before. It’s been a year since the songs on the last album were finished – September 2008. I’ve moved on from where I was then. We’re still playing those songs live, but I feel like I’ve moved on and I just can’t sing them the same way.

BYT: I’m trying to gauge your musical influences – how long have you been listening to popular music?

Deastro: Only about three years.

BYT: [Stunned] Oh, wow. Well, what do you think you’ll be doing in the future?

Deastro: I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been touring for five months, and a lot of the songs I write are about being home. Being on the road is counter-productive to me. I love normal life – I’m not the kind of guy who likes touring. As I’m touring, I miss Michigan, and I feel like I’ve missed out on normal life. I want to be at home and work on songs, and put them out in an arranged fashion. Fortunately, I feel like I’ve found the right people to surround myself with, and hopefully we won’t have problems playing together for the next five years.

BYT: Hm, well, a lot of your music seems about escape – into art, philosophy, science fiction, the church, philosophy – paths that are escapes from daily reality. Does music take you into these realms and away from home, or does it bring you towards what you’re searching for?

Deastro: I dunno, man, I think I just want home to be real. I think the reason I write music to help communicate that sense and help a lot of people find home and make it tangible and real to them. The things of our past reinforce the moments of our future…

Human beings have reinforcements – for instance, other finding the right people, and spending time with them – this gives you an increasing payoff the more time you devote to it. I hope that message comes through my music, and I want that feeling in my life to continue. Whether it’s through my extended family – and the way our generation finds family through networks of friends – it’s important for people to live communally.

I know from being home-schooled, and an introvert my whole life, that there are these great rewards in finding this sense of home and belonging with other people. It’s not about money, or making it, or playing for years and years. It’s about giving people a taste of something more from life by sharing something with them. It can be making them a mixed tape, or having them stay at your house – creating connections among bands across state lines.

Music, to me, when I stopped going to church, was an important replacement for me of that sense of family I had gotten there. When I was younger, this youth leader at our church who played in a Christian punk band took me out on the road with them to play rhythm guitar. It was a formative experience for me – and I want to bring other people into music the same way. I want to get back to Michigan and get involved with other musicians. I started out as a social worker, and I feel like Michigan is the place for me.

I’m taking three months off after this tour, and I want to create my own art space and do something that shakes people up and brings people together.

BYT: Thank you for your time, and I look forward to seeing you on tour!

Want more:
Check out DEASTRO's blog and Twitter and make sure to go to DC9 tomorrow

Bonus:
Max Tundra who is also playing the show did this awesome interview with up before. Read that too.