As long as Asterox draw breath, they'll be a welcome in the hillside in bonnie Aberdeenshire...
Originally from Oxfordshire, the enduring Asterox have relocated to the grassy climbs of Aberdeenshire, but continue to be just as productive. Lead by the unflappable Ian Hinde, he still produces and writes music with close band mate Roland Moore. They’ve been quite busy with their intriguing brand of blues tinged rock music and have a ‘substantial body of work’ that they’re decveloping to unleash upon us…So kilts on, whisky in hand, it’s time to dance with Ian and the band…
Who are your biggest musical influences?
Roland; Really like the old school New York writers Lou Reed, Paul Simon, otherwise any great iconic writers who have a strong legacy.
Ian; Bowie, the Stones, Lennon McCartney, Credence, Gratfeul Dead, Janice Joplin, Hendrix, Dylan
What would a typical member of your audience look like?
A truly delighted human being. Like someone who has discovered a secret that is going to provide them with a lot of pleasure and an inner smile as long as their ears are functioning.
What’s the reaction to the Eponymous album been like so far?
We definitely like it a lot. Steve White’s (the producer plus) input has really helped mould the sound into the kind of aural feast we were hoping for. Asterox followers like it too!
How would you describe the personality of the band?
Easygoing. Very Next Thing oriented. As introverted as it needs to be to ensure deep sources of inspiration are tapped and as extroverted as it needs to be to ensure the result gets before the public – without frills … unless humour counts!
How do you approach song writing? Who writes the lyrics? Are they from observation or personal experiences?
Roland; Personally, I lead with the melody and chord structure around it and, if it’s strong enough to hold lyrics (deserving of same) I will start to hunt them down. Sometimes the right lyrics come quite soon after so the combo is nearly simultaneous – that can be good. To set out to write a song
with a preset theme is not something I would do unless it would be as an experiment to see if it could give me a shortcut to inspiration. It is very hard to make pre-written lyrics sound melodically inspired.
Ian; follows a random structure. I get a riff or a bit of poetry in my head and make a voice memo. I want the beat to be as profound as the lyrics. I want to make a difference with good observation of the state of humanity and what we are doing to desecrate it
What’s on your toast?
Butter. Honey. Peanut Butter. Egg. Are you kidding? Toast is the ultimate combiner it is seriously good stuff.
If the band were a book, what would it be?
Let’s say that the Alexandrian Library had survived to benefit our culture and not been torched. Let us further say that in that library there was a niche housing a collection of many scrolls placed there by an ancient researcher who had managed to convince many people who had taken part in the Elusinian Mysteries to divulge their experiences fully for posterity. Now let’s say a modern mind had discovered and translated those scrolls and put them in a new book that examined such accounts, celebrating their existence and speculating on their implications (ancient and modern) while also correlating them to possibly similar modern ones such as NDE’s etc. That book would best describe the nature of the band – especially if it was accessible, well written, a little worn and the serendipitous result of scoping out a bookshelf in your favourite charity shop. Either that or the next book Philip K Dick would have written had he lived longer.
They say that performers are like prophets preaching to their following, but what are you channelling?
Roland; Inspiration itself (hopefully). When you hear it, see it experience it, you know it, or … Quality, Excellence, Goodness, that often elusive entity that Robert Pirsig was banging on about that we are all chasing in our relationship with the culture, be it through literature, tv, cinema, nature, any form of creativity, relationships
even …we love the life affirming reward when Goodness of any kind surprises and announces itself. We want to surprise people that way.
Ian; Streams of Reiki-inspired goodness to heal our divisions and so save our planet.
What’s been the biggest buzz so far?
Making Eponymous, hearing the result.
Who would you most like to tour with?
I am going to cheat and say the Velvet Underground at the time they made Loaded. Why? Anyone who asks hasn’t heard Loaded.
What’s been the hardest challenge so far?
Recruiting a bass player who isn’t about to relocate or start a family..
How are you coping with the changes in marketing music these days?
Adapting when we can. With me it can be a bit like stopping a horse from galloping around a paddock (song composition) to tether him to a plough (anything else) but I feel progress is being made.
What’s next? New music? Touring etc?
Providence and finances and inspiration vie to dictate what the next move is and where it leads. Will let you know when it happens …What the modern music scene lacks is the big Asterox shaped piece that will fill the gap in it.
What inspired you to start a band and what’s the inspiration behind the name?
Many a sleepless night – and a momentary flash of enlightenment Oxford 2008
How did the five of you find each other?
Process of illumination!
What do you find exciting about the current British music scene?
That Keith Richards is still in it – about time that we consider what sort of world we will be leaving him. The album Eponymous is available on vinyl, directly from ian.hinde@planet-cool.co.uk
About Asterox
Ian Hinde, the lead singer and songwriter of Asterox, started seeking musicians to play his expanding catalogue of original songs in 2007. His songwriting career began in 1997, when he produced original music for a film, Into the Blue, which was being developed by a friend’s production company. This triggered his creative expansion into a varied mix of music genres, to include New World, Blues and Rock.
In his parallel work in construction he happened upon a long time heavy metal bassist, Hamish “The Norseman” McGregor, who had been collaborating and playing with songwriter and guitarist Roland Moore in the band The Shrink, which had enjoyed cult status in the psychiatric community. Together Ian, Hamish and Roland agonised over the name for the band, but settled after many a sleepless night on “Asterox”. Aster–stars-rock
In 2009 they recorded their first EP on which they were joined by Northern Indie guitarist, Gordon McKay (Too Much Texas) and ex Painted Lady drummer, Tina Gayle. This EP was recorded by Tim Lovegrove at Warehouse Studios in Oxford. After this, the band, which by now included Californian Punk drummer Sal Paradise (Sick Pleasure, Code of Honor), played around Oxford at pubs, clubs and music festivals. They also hosted rock jams and the 3B’s music festival, until getting down to creating a complete album of 11 songs, distilled from Ian and Roland’s by now extensive catalogue of songs. They looked to find a studio with a producer who could accommodate their wide ranging musical genre and add interesting textures to the songs. They were lucky to find Steve White from his own Big Boys Studios in Witney, Oxford, who fitted the bill perfectly. Over 15 months from October 2015 to March 2017 they selected, recorded and honed the tracks that became the album “Eponymous”.
Having achieved their priority of having a finalised product, they have now started at the beginning of 2018 to assemble further members for the band. They were pleased to be working with videographers James Cederlof in New Mexico and Jamie Halliday in Oxford, with graphic designer Martin Wackenier in Oxford and with the marketing organisation Mastermind promotions in London. They are also associated with Gene Foley Entertainment in New York.
Bios
Ian Hinde – lead singer, harmonica and saxophone, is a North Londoner by birth; he spent most of his early life in Southend on Sea, before moving to Universities in Warwick and the States, studying American Politics. Alongside his theatrical and musical interests he adopted construction as his supporting occupation. He initially worked on earthmoving on motorways, on scaffolding bridges and on new commercial buildings. He then migrated to Canada for a year working as a steeplejack, rigging chimneys and towers in the oil industry around Edmonton, Alberta.
On returning to the UK he continued to build up his construction company and, as a sideline, acted in several films and many TV commercials. This led in 1995 to his association with a film Into the Blue, for which he wrote the eponymous song, Into the Blue. He continues to the present time in combining his music and building careers.
Oxford home grown, former salesman and postman, Roland Moore, began songwriting in his twenties and returned to his craft in his mid thirties with the firm intention of finishing the apprenticeship. The net of his interests trawls a wide cultural ocean, including American stand-up, spiritual and philosophical reading, rock bios and conspiracy theory; the latter he finds totally interesting in that it exists in its many forms as a sociological phenomenon alone, before it is examined as to the value, veracity and verisimilitude of the evidence supporting each of its hydra heads.
Sal Paradise was hatched in Washington DC, under laboratory conditions from a reptilian egg that was discovered inside a meteorite that crashed into a Peruvian mountain in the summer of 1960. After completely wrecking two Steinways and a Les Paul, he eventually settled on playing the drums. His expulsion from two of the finest boarding schools in England and numerous confrontations with local law enforcement, led him to fly, under his own power, back to the United States, where he joined up with Sick Pleasure just in time to record some of the best nihilistic punk ever committed to vinyl.
A founding member of the late, great Code of Honor, Sal Paradise went on to play with some of the most revered bands in the San Francisco underground music scene. This was fine with him, because he really prefers living in a subterranean environment anyway. Since having his wings and horns removed after being kidnapped by Nazi scientists on one of his frequent trips back to South America, Sal Paradise now resides in a cave deep beneath the Radcliffe Camera, its only entrances guarded by gigantic vampire wolfhounds. He retains his vestigial tail, saying only that “girls seem to like it.”
Mr. P prefers to pound Pearl drums and pulverize Paiste cymbals, but is partial to Tama Pro hardware and Vic Firth American Classic 2B or Rock sticks. He joined Asterox as a kind of convalescence after his previous life, but now Asterox are turning up the heat themselves