Indie Duo Astronomy For Lovers "Cat Song"
First Track In Debut EP Homemade Spaceship
(photos courtesy: Astronomy For Lovers; Clio wears Lila by Lisi Lang)
Indie music sweethearts, Astronomy For Lovers, are what I would
describe as the product of a stellar collision. The duo Clio Em and Victor Báez are
like two stars that collide, and their attraction for one another results in their
merge into a greater and much brighter star.
Clio is Canadian and Victor is
Mexican. The two met in Austria while they were studying abroad. Their
chemistry and passion for music quickly became the birth of Astronomy For Lovers.
Soon they will be releasing their debut EP, Homemade Spaceship, due in 2015.
The first track which recently released, called the Cat Song, is
a great introduction of the duo to the audience. Written by Clio, the song narrates
the behavior of a lovely cat, which presents to me simple things that we
sometimes overlooked in life can be the most amusing.
The ukulele played by Victor in the
background added playfulness, like whimsical steps of a kitten ready to cause a
‘cute’ mischief. And the unique vocal of Clio transformed this catchy tune into
something very charming, and personally I find quite romantic.
I had an opportunity to interview
Astronomy For Lovers shortly after
the release of Cat Song, which has
now become my favorite morning tune.
Where did the name of the band Astronomy For Lovers came from?
"When we realized we liked each other, we were actually an
ocean apart: Victor was visiting New York, and Clio was studying opera in
Austria. We wrote long e-mails daily and also sent short stories to each other.
The name comes from the title of a short story Clio wrote and gave Victor."
Your latest single Cat
Song, what was the inspiration?
"We were inspired by Neko, our sweet rescue cat! He has a
habit of determinedly causing adorable mayhem during rehearsals, and it was at
one of these disrupted sessions that Clio came up with the chords that would
eventually become Cat Song."
Astronomy For Lovers is duo made of real-life
sweethearts; does this relationship help finding common grounds when composing
a new song? Or embrace eachother's differences in ideas?
"We're crazy about each other in day-to-day life, and we're
(luckily) attracted to each other's musical styles too. Otherwise, it would be
very difficult to have a duo together! We feel very fortunate that we can both
be together and work together. What likely helps us in getting along musically
is that we have different approaches to music. We're both classically trained
musicians, but when working on our indie material, Victor comes more from the
jazz side and Clio comes from the folksy and indiepop direction.
Each person's contribution to the track gets its own
breathing room. Clio's on songwriting duty; with Victor doing arranging and
additional harmonies. For example, Victor often adds jazz harmonies to where
Clio used a more traditionally modal chord progression, and the fusion becomes
something quirky and amazing. But we do have completely different ideas
sometimes! We've honestly never let it get in the way of our creativity though.
Sometimes if we can't settle on one solution, we just do two versions of a
song."
Astronomy For Lovers photo by © Theresa Wey
What is one of the best moments you two enjoyed being
as an Indie group? And one of the most difficult challenges?
"The best feeling in the world was playing our January show
this year at the Nikki Bogart Gallery in Vienna. That's an alternative art
space run by dear friends of ours: it's so underground it takes the term
literally, so it's actually in a converted historical cellar! We had a great
audience, and every song was received enthusiastically. Everyone had so much
fun together and the atmosphere was just amazing.
The challenges are numerous, but that's the case for all
indie musicians: it's not too easy finding enough time to play while working on
our other day-to-day tasks, approaching performance venues, figuring out the
ins and outs of putting an EP together, and basically taking on many
behind-the-scenes responsibilities. It's a good thing we got used to the
independent musician's life in our classical music careers; it really prepared
us for this! All of it is worth it, though."
Can you tell us the central theme to your
upcoming EP Homemade Spaceship?
"The theme is traveling in a portable home! We're releasing
the full EP digitally this November. Spaceships are vehicles that go far fast
but still provide a home for their passengers. We travel a lot, but we always
feel at home when we have each other. We wrote and recorded this EP in several
countries: Canada, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria. Each place
contributed a little piece to the landscape of the overall music. We're glad we
could pick up so many different emotions and influences and integrate that
tapestry into our songs."
Will Astronomy For Lovers be playing in Calgary?
"Of course, Calgary's Clio's
hometown! We're doing a physical release of the EP in early 2015 and will be
playing awesome concerts far and wide, so stay tuned to our spaceship's
frequency! We'll have more details closer to the date."
After Cat Song, Astronomy For Lovers will subsequently release one-by-one songs from its upcoming EP Homemade Spaceship - you can follow their updates HERE.
After Cat Song, Astronomy For Lovers will subsequently release one-by-one songs from its upcoming EP Homemade Spaceship - you can follow their updates HERE.
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