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E: Wow, that does sound like destiny - awesome. So when did each of you start playing music?

B: Well, I started, let's see, when did I start? Wow, let me just focus in on that for a second...I think I played piano and farted around on the trumpet in about fifth grade or something like that, but I started playing guitar after I had heard some old blues and R&B songs. I actually heard Chubby Checker on the radio on one of those PBS-type stations and I was like, "Oh man, that's amazing, I gotta do this!" I think I was around 11 or 12 at the time, and my parents got me a guitar and I started working on it and got into the whole groove of it.

E: What about you, India?

I: Oh, let's see, I come from a big family of artists and musicians, basically I started way back. I wrote my first song at 16, but before then the influences were very strong - I think I started playing piano in fifth grade. But coming from such a musical, artistic background, I must have started way back in utero, probably. But the signs were really there when I was around 16, 15, 14, when I started writing music, writing songs, and it took over from there.

B: When we first started going out together we were both individually writing our own songs, and I was always really blown away by the stuff she'd write on the piano, very emotive - kind of like the "Miss Caroline" song on the record, it was kind of like Joni Mitchell meets Tori Amos somehow, it was really beautiful.

E: Yeah, that is a beautiful song, I really liked that one.

B: Thanks!

E: What's your favorite song on the new album? Which one do you connect with?

I: It changes, off and on. I really like "Beautiful Fate," that's one of my favorite tunes, and "Strangest Places." We just did a video for "Everywhere," the first song on the album, and I like that it's very upbeat, positive, and has a lot of great rhythm in it. I also like that one, but "Strangest Places" and "Beautiful Fate" are my favorites, for now.

E: Both good choices! What about you, Bradd?

B: I would say that we're pretty similar in that. I love the open, euphoric feeling of "Everywhere" and the Brazilian-esque, kind of club groove that it has. So I really resonate with that song. I definitely love the cool, subtle, kind of jazzy thing that's going on in "Strangest Places," and we love the cryptic, introspective, soul-searching aspect to "Beautiful Fate." It has a kind of subtle Radiohead-esque thing as well. I also really like "Dance Until Dawn," again I really like that Brazilian thing, I think it's a really beautiful song.

E: I heard while I was listening to it - there seem to be so many different influences on this album, so what would you say are your biggest influences?

B: This is one thing that people comment on this record, and about Astronauts of Antiquity. We are a pretty serious hybrid, a cross-pollination of genres, and that's not us going, "Ok, let's become that" - I think it's more that we've been through so many styles and listen to so much music. And our producer is the same way - his musicality is really profound. So, that's just giving a little background. For myself, there's a lot of influences from artists like Bill Laswell, dub and trance music, Zero 7 - I love their kind of lounge-y sound - and there's another New York group that's not as popular as Zero 7 called Wax Poetic, and they have this kind of trip-hoppy, club, electro sound. I really love people like that, but of course my influences also stretch back to people like Hendrix, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads - you know, very soulful, deep, rich musicality, but from different genres we also listen to a lot of Asian underground music as well.

E: Wow, so you like a wide variety of genres, it sounds like.

B: Yeah, and the Beatles too, I mean it's fun, just great songs. Ultimately, our thing is to blend all these styles and blend the hype that comes from the more lounge-y stuff, but put really great songs on top of that.

Q. Well, I think you were pretty successful! What are you listening to now, what kinds of more modern bands do you think have a lot of potential, that you've heard lately?

I: Recently I've been listening to Little Dragon, her vocal style - I'm really drawn to it. Her name is Yukimi Nagano -

B: Yukimi Nagano!

I: Yeah, Yukimi Nagano! (laughs) She's Swedish-Asian - she's great! Little Dragon, they're what like Brad was saying before, kind of trip-hop, electro, a lot of really downtown jazzy stuff. And then I've been listening to Seu, which is Brazilian - all the way from Brazil. Fabulous singer, again, sort of soft, jazzy, Brazilian, sexy, that kind of thing. So those have been my choice of music right now.

B: I'm not really listening to a ton of new stuff, I tend to like to go back to the vaults, but I've definitely been listening to Little Dragon with India, we really like what they're doing. There's also a group called the Bird and the Bee, which is also a duo, but they sometimes play with a band. It's kind of similar to what we're doing, they're a fairly new group. I'm also listening to a lot of things like African guitar music, and I've gotta be honest with you, I just love Radiohead.

E: Oh, I love Radiohead too!

B: Yeah, you know, they're just outside the box, very emotive, and I love their productions. For our next record we're going to be - I mean, I wouldn't say that we're trying to sound like Radiohead, but I really appreciate the attention to sound quality, and stretching the boundaries a bit...So, that's what I'm listening to.

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