PCM's Emily had the chance to speak to Astronauts of Antiquity, a musical duo comprised of India and Bradd (B. Rhyan) Weinberg. They recently released their second album, Rocket Science for Dummies, which features a diverse, eclectic blend of sounds and genres. Check out the interview, where they discuss the new album, musical influences, and the history of Astronauts of Antiquity!

Emily: So how are you guys today?

Bradd: We're very, very good. We're honored to be on your show.

E: Oh, thank you! It's actually a website, not really a show, but thanks!

B: Ok, we're honored to be on your website-show.

E: Well thank you, I'm honored to interview you! So I have to ask you, where did the name "Astronauts of Antiquity" come from?

B: Well, it came from one of our founding members, who's no longer with us, although he did play on the record. He actually came up with the name - it came from the book Chariots of Fire. It really resonated with us because to us it means more or less that there's so much wisdom from ancient cultures, and our kind of "job description" is to try to imbibe that in our lives and put it in context, in modern music. So that's kind of the vibe of where the name comes from.

E: Alright, thank you for enlightening me, I was very curious about that.
B: Also, you know, India and I do a lot of space travel.

E: (laughs) So, Rocket Science for Dummies, this just came out in February, I believe?

India: Yes, it was released in late February.

E: And it's your second album?

I: That's right.

E: So, I haven't had a chance to really listen to your first album, but I did get to hear Rocket Science for Dummies, and I was wondering what you think is different about this album from your first album.

I: I think it might be a little bit more sophisticated musically. We have more DJ work on it. We've always been pretty diverse in - well with our other works too, we've always been sort of a pool of different types of styles, putting them together into our own sound, and even more so with this record. You know, more influences. And also more consistency in my vocal style, I feel very pleased with what I've come up with in this album.

B: Also, another thing that's different, on the first record we weren't so hip on do-it-yourself, you know, being an indie artist at that time, so we were kind of shopping for record deals. We didn't really put it out there so much, we've actually still gotta get it up on iTunes. We just really wanted to focus on this record and we're going to get it up sometime in the next couple of months. But I think also, with that first record, we recorded it in different places and different times, and this record we really hunkered down and spent about two years just working a couple days a week with a few people we work with in the band. And it also represented a progression of songs that we had worked on - probably half the record was songs that we had worked on in a live setting before recording them. And then we had broken up the band except for our keyboard player, and then we just kind of hunkered down and our keyboard player ended up producing the record, most of the songs, and our mood was just "Ok, let's capture the essence of what we're doing and bring it to a different level." So the album represented that consistent period of time, working and being unified.

E: What's your songwriting process like? Do you both collaborate equally, or is it more like you take turns, or write together, or what?

I: We're both writers and lyricists, but the process can vary from song to song. I might get an idea and put it down on keyboard, then let Bradd hear it, or Bradd might write a whole tune on his instrument and I'll write the lyrics - it really depends. There's no set process, really.

B. I think that there's also been tunes that we've collaborated with others where it starts with a groove - it could start with a groove from a drummer, or with a computer-generated groove. I think the key thing for us, wherever it starts, is that we don't take for granted the process - we really, really work on it and craft it until it's just right. Every once in a while there are those rare things that come out and they're just right from the beginning, but with us it's more like we do a lot of tweaking until the lyrics are right, until the groove is right, until the chord changes are right - until everything's just working right all together.

E: How did you two meet and start writing music together?

I: Well, we both met in a club. I went to go see Bradd play, it was an open mic show, and later I invited him to one of my shows. So we met that way, through the club circuit - in the Midwest, actually. So we struck up a friendship that way, and I joined his project for a while to sing, do backups and stuff like that, and then we just started to write and it took over from there. The chemistry was right.

E: And are you married now?

B: We are married!

E: That's really awesome! I wasn't sure, I thought I had read that you were somewhere, but I wanted to make sure.

B: There's a thing on the bio about us meeting in an airport which is all true, all that stuff ( read it here ). There was a period of time where I was living a monk's type of life, it's kind of a long story, but we met without knowing it. Years later when we met on the music scene and after we had been going out together for some time, we reminisced about that time we were both in Colorado, and we realized, "Oh my god, we had this chance meeting and we never even knew it!" It was kind of synchronistic, destiny-type, cool stuff.

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