Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band
David B - Vocals, Keys, Production
Paul - Bass
J - Guitars
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Calling All Astronauts? How long has the band been around?
All three of us where in US:UK, a seminal UK Rap-Metal band, we played with the likes of Faith No More, PWEI, Ned’s Atomic Dustin an more, J was then in pop-punkers Caffeine, they toured the UK and Europe with bands such as The Offspring, The Dickies, AFI, Blink 182, Rancid, Less Than Jake, they also did several US tours.Paul was in The Marionettes, they played festivals across Europe and supported such luminaries as Sisters Of Mercy and The Cult
What’s the origin of that name, and have you changed the band’s name before?
We’ve only had the one name, we wrote a long list of names and nothing was jumping out, I was then reading a newspaper and the headline was “Calling All Astronauts” as NASA was recruiting Astronauts, and as J was obsessed with UFOs at that time, we thought it fitted perfectly
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
We all write them together, I (David) write the lyrics, but we do the music together, it always starts with a drum pattern and grows from their, we write everything in the recording studio, so when it comes to playing live, we have to learn all the songs :) most of our songs tend to be socio-political, we tend to have quite an obvious left wing leaning
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
We take a lot of Influences from late 70s early 80s post punk, goth and synth-pop, and then mix it with modern dance production techniques, current bands I’m listening to are Editors, The White Noise, DED and Knife Party
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
We all loved music from a very early age there was no one act that inspired any one of us, really it’s just a long time of great acts we have taken inspiration from
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
J and Paul tend to just focus on their gear, I do vocal warn up exercises and get very nervous, none of us ever drink before a show, although we’ll often have a good few afterwards
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
If I’m honest, every time a radio station plays our music, every time a blog or magazine writes about us, it’s a highlight for us, we are always amazed that anyone likes what we do, if I had to pick one, it would be a toss up between being invited into BBC 6Music and being interviewed on his show, or playing on the main stage at Guilfest on the bill with The Who’s Roger Daltrey
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Another very hard question, The Offspring are a great band to tour with, it really is a real laugh every night and they treat the support bands so well, they make sure you get a sound check and food etc every night
Is there anything else you would like to add?
We are releasing our “Influences EP” on March 30th, as we talked about earlier, many acts have influenced us, so we have recorded four tracks that we all live by other artists. You can preorder it now.