Astaire
One of the best-orchestrated tours that has come around this year was the Astaire-Stars-Ivy bill that stopped at the Paradise in early May 2005. Astaire, Stars, and Ivy all have similar facets to their music, but it’s easy to tell them apart – particularly Astaire, a charging-up-the-charts band with some great Europop/Brazilian influences in their music. Astaire are Erica and Bruce Driscoll, a brother and sister duo, who took some time out of their busy recording and touring schedule to talk with AvoidPeril about their latest tour, their influences, and plans for their forthcoming album.
1. Erica, your voice is quite lovely and unique – I have likened it to the vocal work in bands as diverse as Frente!, Goldfrapp, and The Cardigans, to name a few. Which artists do you feel have had the most influence on your vocal work?
Erica: Thanks a lot. While they're all amazing singers that I admire, I wouldn't say that they have had an influence on how I sing. I feel like I've pretty much been singing since birth, I just do what comes naturally to me. When I was little my parents always had records lying around that I would listen to. Some of my favorites were Simon and Garfunkel, Bobby Vinton, and The Carpenters. Karen Carpenter's voice was pretty amazing. My mom also had quite a collection of Brazilian music in the house. I love that smooth but smoky sound. Then when I was about 15, some older friends of mine introduced me to The Smiths, which was like nothing I'd ever heard before... and I would definitely have to say Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys is another favourite.
2. Astaire have toured steadily over the past few years, and played a number of high-profile industry shows. What show has been your favorite, and why?
Bruce: The show at the Paradise Club (Boston) with Ivy and Stars was probably my favorite. Everywhere I looked from the stage, I could see people dancing and smiling. It felt like they were pumping pure oxygen into the room, and everyone appeared to be in an elated, ‘little kid at Chuck E. Cheese Pizza’ state. Plus, all three bands had to share the same dressing room, so you can imagine that it got a little crazy.
Erica: That's a hard one. There have been so many fun shows. The best ones are when you look out in the crowd and people are singing along, not some industry show where people stand there with their arms crossed. When people are there because they love the music it's the best feeling. Oh yeah - I have to mention, at the last show of the tour (in Montréal), Bruce got tricked into going back on stage for an encore, but no one followed. The look on his face was priceless as the whole crowd sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.
3. What aspects of performing and touring do you enjoy the most?
Erica: Being able to play music every day is a pretty great thing. Also (though it’s a bit of a cliché), seeing new places, and meeting people. Getting to know the other band you’re traveling with is usually fun. Oh yeah, I actually sleep surprisingly well on a tour bus!
Bruce: Touring, for me, is a little bit like that Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day.” Night after night, around the same time, you play the same show, and you’ve got to out-do yourself every single moment of each show. No amount of rehearsals can give the same, tight feeling a band gets from a few weeks on the road. And I think that feeling is one of the most satisfying aspects of it all.
4. You’ve worked with Andy Chase (Ivy) and went on tour with Ivy for awhile – how was the tour? Also, there is evidence of the cool europop of Ivy in the remix of “L-L-Love” that appears on the Monster-in-Law soundtrack. Do you count Ivy as one of the band’s musical influences?
Bruce: This tour with Ivy has been great. They’re all spectacular people, personality-wise and musically speaking. Their fans have been very receptive to our music, and vice versa, so I think Astaire and Ivy fit very well on a bill together. I've been listening to them since Apartment Life, and love their approach to songwriting and production. We also share a great deal of influences: The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Pet Shop Boys…the list goes on for days.
Erica: We love those guys... It's weird, ‘cause I used to drive around in my car listening to Apartment Life. Having worked with Andy in the studio a bit, we all became friends. That kind of led to the tour. Yeah, anyway now we can make fun of them...
5. What can fans expect from Astaire’s full-length debut? How does it compare to the sound of the Don’t Whisper Lies EP?
Bruce: For anyone who has seen us live and knows the DWL EP, you can expect the full-length album to meet somewhere in the middle. The live show is synth-free, and has more rock energy, and the EP is very dancy, Juno-laden, and pretty. We want to combine the two a little bit more.
6. What are some albums that you’ve been enjoying recently?
Erica: I've been listening to the new Coldplay and New Order records, The Stills, Robi Rosa... A lot of older stuff I guess... Oh yeah, I just acquired some rare ABBA b-sides which are pretty great.
Bruce: I can’t stop listening to the House of Love's new album, Days Run Away. Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers still have it after all these years. The Cut Copy record, Bright Like Neon Love, has also received a few plays on my ‘new-wave-only’ iPod.
7. Now that tour with Ivy is finished, what are Astaire’s plans? Will you get right back on the road to promote the full-length album?
Erica: Well, we have an Exclusive Live Acoustic EP coming out on iTunes worldwide that we're pretty excited about. They asked us to be the Single of the Week a couple of months back, and we ended up having the most downloads ever for that promotion – over 200,000! We couldn't believe it! So they asked us to come to the iTunes studio in San Francisco and record a few songs live. We did an acoustic version of “L-L-Love” along with a few other new songs. That will be coming out on July 12th. We're also gonna be putting the finishing touches on the album.
Bruce: Once we finish the full-length album, there will be another longer tour. Maybe next time around we’ll bring a keyboardist and a dancing tambourine player.
8. Give Avoid Peril readers three reasons to pick up Astaire’s debut EP, Don’t Whisper Lies (available for preview/purchase at http://www.astairemusic.com/site.html).
Erica: 1. It's a collector’s item because we have to change the name.
Bruce: 2. It’ll inspire new dance-moves you never knew you could do. 3. Morrissey watched our set at the Troubadour. It can't be all that bad.
Astaire will be touring during the summer of 2005 in support of their forthcoming full-length album.
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