Discover Top Posts Tagged with #lars iversen

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - My Club

Blasting back into pop world orbit is the latest video from The Asteroids Galaxy Tour's most recent single. Getting down on a more pop-driven, hook-laden structure on the single titled "My Club", majestic horn loops intersect with quirky whistles and lead vocalist Mette Lindberg's squeaky lounge singer sound. Bright and colorful like the bands music, the video is a bit of a green-screened redux of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" zooming in and out with multiple exposures of Mette, Lars and team.

Check it out below:

#the asteroids galaxy tour #Mette Lindberg #Lars Iversen #danish music

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - November 5th, 2012 - Interview

Photo + Words: Peter Quincy Ng

While product placements are becoming more increasingly frequent in today's changing music industry, it's not often that a band has been so closely associated with a product than Asteroids Galaxy Tour. While the band played their live exuberant performance filled with festive horns, trippy synth melodies and lead singer Mette Lindberg's lounge singer swagger, it was surprising to see how times I've heard "Heineken band" thrown around and how many fans actually brandished Heineken beers during the set. The fact is like it or not, commercialization has been become a reality for many of today's emerging artists and who's to say that they aren't happy that they heard of bands like Chairlift, Janelle Monae, M83 through a commercial. After all, who doesn't like Apple products, cars, pretty girls in Victoria's Secret lingerie or Danish beer in the case of Asteroids Galaxy Tour? Of course TV commercials isn't the only we think about or the only thing the band has to offer, so we sat down and talked to frontwoman Mette a little more about their musical process and what they think of their recent success.

November 21st, 2012

Hey Mette! What’s up how’s the tour going so far? Well it’s been three weeks in all both in the States and in Canada. I think we have a week left or something like that. We’ve all been to California and then colder places like here, so we’ve packed swimwear and winter wear. It’s been good, good to come back and meet the people again and meet the same people again. So I think you guys mentioned many, many, many times that despite the fact that you are a large group. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour officially is only Lars and Mette. There are a lot of people playing in Asteroids Galaxy Tour. How do you guys keep your egos and Janteloven (Jante's Law) in check? Janteloven (laughs)! Well that’s what we love about traveling and being inspired by other cultures and what we see. We are a live band so even though Lars and I are the main core and we make music and have different musicians coming in and out, we just like to play and let go. We are a big band and people like to swap instruments, we like the live moments, we like to play live and we want people to come to our shows let go for the sake of music and that’s what it is live. I mean that’s kind of like fuck Janteloven we can do whatever we want, just to let go and let ourselves do exactly what we want to do. It’s easy, just do it! Mette is usually the only female in the band is it difficult being the only woman in the band? You know we’ve been touring for five and half years, we’ve been a band for a long time, have two albums and different EPs. We’re good friends and we spend a lot of time together, of course I miss the energy of (being around) girls it’s just something I can’t explain but it’s totally fine. Then I can just (grunts)… have my own space and get a little room for myself. So let’s talk about your new album “Out of Frequency”. It’s a pretty long album about fifteen tracks long. Most people like to cut down their album to about ten tracks. Why did you keep it the length it was? We like the tracks to make a “full” album. These days you only buy one song or two songs and we just decided to make a soundtrack (instead) for Asteroids Galaxy Tour so you could press play and listen to it the full way. We want people to go through that with the music so the songs make sense. We have the short songs that glue the (other) songs together so that’s why it’s got so many tracks because we want to form it into one experience. I mean you could always take a song out or two from the track but it’s really a musical soundtrack we are giving. There’s a certain charm to your album “Fruit” and especially “Out of Frequency” because it sounds nothing like what’s out there right now. Your music channels a style from a different era, you know like the 1950s Las Vegas glamor? Being from a younger generation, why does the glitz and glamor from that age appeal to you and how is it different from the bling of today’s celebrity culture? We’re inspired by so many different things over things between when you grow up and what you like. So sometimes we just like to wear “this style” or “that style” and we just love glitter, gold and diamonds. Sparkling stuff! We just do what we feel like. Sometimes like tonight I wear this and black pants and the other nights I wear glitter shorts. The culture (of Asteroids Galaxy Tour) has always been piece by piece at a time and now that we’re in 2012 there’s going to be references from the 90s, 70s, 60s and 80s. With the music we like to do what we like and maybe it’s a mix of stuff because we like many different things not only like jazz music, but things like pop and funk and groovy shit so we like to mix it up. Everything on this album on your last is all bright and cheery, almost to a sarcastic extent. Why is it all sunshine and lollipops with The Asteroids Galaxy Tour? What would a sad or serious song from the band be like? We have a lot of sad and serious songs; it’s not only cheerful if you listen to the lyrics. You know have “Major” and it’s about ambition for your life and the social code of where you are. Sometimes you need to give stuff to survive or you’ll get stabbed in back and you need to be cold to do that, because that’s the rule from where you are. “Satellite” in “Fruit” is searching and very lonely. Our music is at all very cheerful, sometimes it’s about love and that energy but letting go and feeling stuff, but a lot of it is dark and depressing but the arrangement of horns might sound cheerful but the layers underneath are very dark and serious. We like to mix it up a lot; we don’t see it as cheerful and “lollipop-ish” because we are serious about what we write about and what we come out with. We take it very serious and we like to be inspired by what’s happening and from where we’re from and stuff. “Suburban Space Invader” is about the fact you can make it no matter where you’re from and be cool but these days there’s a lot of “fast” fame and sometimes people only want to use you. It’s a kind like (in a) of 15-minutes of your fame, there are people doing stuff (to you), so take care of yourself otherwise you’ll get hurt. So even though you wanted something like (being) on television programs you could be just out (like that). A lot of people associate Asteroids Galaxy Tour with Heineken beers or i-pod touch commercials. The people behind James Bond were recently criticized for using their image to sell Heineken beers. While these ads increased the exposure of the band, do you worry that Heineken beers is all you’ll ever be known for? Well we had a lot of albums out and we played “around the bend”, “the song don’t shine no more” – a lot of singles that were not used for commercials. You know we’re not on a major label; we are a band that does a lot of things themselves – very independent. We don’t have a lot of money, (so) to be in a commercial and blowing up because of the music and with people listening to it and to getting know you that’s strong PR. We have so many songs people know and it’s not (just) like that. For us it’s about being heard and so last season to think about music like that because people don’t buy music anymore. The artists cannot survive unless they are really, really big, so go support your live shows and the musicians. Most musicians have their music in commercials, TV series and movies because it gives PR and some money, it helps the flow and we need that. It’s a good way to use each other. I mean Jay-Z did Heineken commercials, Brad Pitt and many other bands and commercials and stuff. It’s a strong thing to use each other. I think people need to not think about it like that but happy that they got to know about some music. Every time I hear something I go, “Oh what is that!” and you can get to know new stuff. So for you it’s more about the taking the music for what it is right? No, but of course it is! It’s a beer commercial and of course we drink beer and Apple it’s a cool brand as well so it’s nothing we wouldn’t want to be associated with. But we’re not a beer band! We’re just a band, a big celebration and it’s great we could get out like that. Speaking about Denmark abroad, in recent years there have been a number of Danish acts finding internationally such as Medina, Oh Land, Trentemøller and even wonderful people such as the AGT! While Denmark has often been in the shadow of Sweden music-wise what’s it like being part of this new wave of Danish artists from a country that was only previously known for Aqua. I don’t see it like that we have had bands for many years going abroad and playing abroad. It’s a very strong scene (but) we don’t see ourselves as a part of a scene or genre in how we play. In Denmark everyone knows each other we know Oh Land, we know Trentemøller, we know the people and it’s a small city Copenhagen. It’s just cool that there are so many bands in Denmark that get to get out and give out the great music. That’s just wonderful. Anyway going back on your record, I heard you guys were fans of gangster movies and there’s even a song on your record called “Mafia”. I’m pretty sure you’ve probably seen Danish cult-classic film “Pusher” haven’t you? So if you were a character in the movie who would you be and why? It’s been like ten years or more since I saw that movie but maybe the second I’ve seen. The third one I don’t really remember but I don’t remember what exactly the characters are about. It’s been awhile so maybe just some sort of psycho killer. I don’t exactly remember but I’d just like to be someone in disguise, like a girl dressed up as a boy and killing everyone. I’ve read other interviews about you guys and there are a lot of rather odd questions about your opinions on America and hamburgers, fruit and explaining your album and band names. Those are pretty silly questions I find; after all I hear Mette is a sushi woman. Instead of asking you guys what you think of hamburgers what can you tell us about Denmark as their music ambassador before we let you go? I love food. I love MEAT – red meat. I love vegetables and fruit. I love sushi and a great burger and chili. Oh I’ve been traveling a lot so… three, four years. I love where I’m from Copenhagen; it’s a great city with great architecture and a great vibe. It’s like Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin, it’s got this great café vibe, hipsters in the street, people bike and they’re organic and artsy! I think it’s a wonderful place I like Europe a lot, but I think it’s interesting to travel in South America and North America as well it’s very inspiring.

Of course I would want everyone to go to Europe and grow as a person as well not only see how it is where you’re from. It’s very refreshing and healthy for people I think. In our band we have a guy from France and a guy from America as well and our manager is an East German but lives in England as well. It’s an international band we speak a lot of languages so it’s just like that.

Check out Asteroid Galaxy Tour's most recent video for "Major":

#Mette Lindberg #the asteroids galaxy tour #danish music #Lars Iversen

The sun ain't shining!

#the asteroid galaxy tour #The sun aint shining #Mette Lindberg #Lars Iversen

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Heart Attack

Marking their first video from upcoming album "Out of Frequency" releasing January 24th, the bubbly retro-inspired video for "Heart Attack" features Danish dame Mette Lindberg of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour strutting her stuff the song's clash of hippie organ to modern pop beats. Fun stuff.

Watch the video below:

#Mette Lindberg #Lars Iversen #The Asteroids Galaxy Tour