THE ASTRONOMERS

Charlottesville's the Astronomers are ready to rock the Hill City Roots Festival

The Burg Staff

by Matt Ashare 

"We sometimes refer to ourselves as an anti-jam band."

This weekend’s Hill City Roots Festival promises to deliver plenty of what its name suggests: singing and a’strumming guys who wear broken hearts on their tattered or tattooed sleeves; twangy, Southern-flavored roots-rocking Americana; and a fair share of what you might call jam-banding. But there’s one up-and-coming act who are more than likely to shake things up with their aggressive yet melodic, cerebral yet playful, angular yet oddly accessible brand of indie-oriented rock — the charmingly skewed Charlottesville foursome who go by the name Astronomers.

     Led by singer/guitarist/pianist Nate Bolling, who moved to Charlottesville with his soon-to-be-wife and Astronomers’ bassist Alexandra Angelich just a few years ago, the band formed around an unabashed mutual fondness for the neo-new wave of the early Killers, the intoxicating cool of the Strokes first album, and, well, astronomy. In fact, Angelich and the band’s original guitarist Kyle Woolard (who know leads another promising Charlottesville outfit known as the Anatomy of Frank) were both stargazing students when Astronomers first formed.

     While those nascent influences may have been easy to spot on Astronomers’ self-released 2009 debut "Think Fast," the band, which includes bassist David Brear and guitarist Graham Partridge, are clearly well on their way to defining their own frenetic aesthetic on the new "Size Matters." Bolling took a little time out of his hectic schedule to talk about the evolution of Astronomers and their upcoming folk fest performance. Here’s some of what he had to say. . .

Q: It’s surprising that the name Astronomers hadn’t already been taken by another band when you first got together. Is there truth to the tale that you were all astronomy buffs? Well, I think there might be a British band called the Astronomers. It is a pretty universal, simple word as far as band names go. But it’s true: our bassist Alex was an astronomy major and our former guitarist was also an astronomy major. So it just made sense when we started the band. And we’re pretty much all around science geeks and nerds. So it fits us. It’s also really good when it comes to artwork, design, and that sort of thing.

Q: Two Astronomers songs that come to mind — "Two Suns" and "Perpetual Emotion" — give me the impression that the name has also influenced your songwriting.

Sometimes it works that way, and I’ll intentionally write lyrics that relate to our name. And other times it just ends up with me spouting out words as they pop into my head. I guess it’s kind of 50/50. Every song ends up working itself out differently. I write most of the lyrics, but the melodies and music generally are a group effort. It’s definitely not something I could do by myself.

Q: Along with the Strokes and the Killers, I hear echoes of the early Pixies in your songs. Am I wrong?

No. I guess you could say that that was the style we were going for when we started — something upbeat, catchy, and accessible that was a good blend of all of our influences. Personally I never got into the Pixies as much Alex and our original guitarist Kyle did. But I definitely respect what I am familiar with as far as their music goes and I’m pretty sure they’re an influence on our sound. It’s something I’ve definitely noticed it as I’ve gone back and listened to our music, even if it wasn’t entirely intentional at the time we wrote and recorded particular songs. But it’s in there.

Q: Did the band meet at UVa?

Kinda yes and kinda no. Alex and I moved from Dallas to Charlottesville because she was going to UVa. But the rest of us all met through the music scene in town. Our drummer Dave is from Culpeper, just north of Charlottesville, and our guitarist Graham is from Philly. So we’re all basically non-natives as far as Charlottesville goes. There are just so many musicians here, and it’s such a small town. There are times when it can feel a little crowded.

Q: Charlottesville is probably best known musically for the Dave Matthews Band. You’re obviously coming from at things from a rather different angle. . .

We sometimes refer to ourselves as an anti-jam band. We kind of do things the complete opposite in terms of how we write and perform and want ourselves to be portrayed. It’s just because there’s so much of that and there’s so little of everything else. Not that there’s anything wrong with jam bands. It’s just that we tend to be a little mathy with how we put stuff together and we like to overthink overthinking things. It seems to come together in the end pretty well.

Q: Does it feel a little strange to be playing a folk/roots festival?

Kinda, yeah. But from the lineup we’ve seen it seems like they’re keeping it pretty diversified. So I’m not sweating it too much. I feel like it’s pretty open stylistically. So I think we’ll fit in. The Invisible Hand are playing right before us and we’re kind of in the same scene here in Charlottesville. It’s funny; we’ve actually never played with them before, which is a strange thing. But we’re definitely part of the same scene.

Q: So, what’s next for you and the Astronomers?

I actually went to school for audio engineering and we recorded the new album ourselves in a studio in the basement of my house. It was really just a matter of us getting the right gear together. I did a lot of producing in Texas for a few years before we moved here, and I’ve just been getting back into it here. So right now I’m working on other projects. But, we’re in the process of writing some new and somewhat different stuff so that we can put out a little three-song EP early next year. We’re having fun with it and we’re writing together more so than ever. It’s been a lot of fun seeing what comes out based on everybody’s input.