With the release of their debut album, Broke after many years of gestation on the Cardiff scene and now an arena tour supporting Enter Shikari, Astroid Boys have gone from strength to strength this year. Peeking up over the underground, Buzz wonders if that’s had an impact on their music, going from bedroom producers to signed artists. Co-frontman ‘Benji’ Kendall exclaims “we’re still bedroom producers! We just set [our equipment] in a room and that’s literally how we do it! There are benefits to having a studio today but with a computer and some software, you can still just be as creative as anyone in a studio.”
Broke very much reflects what Kendall describes as ‘living in a broken society’. Are these the kind of questions he was hoping to ask? “I don’t want it to ask questions, I want it to start a revolution! But just for people to be having conversations will be good enough for us. Sometimes music doesn’t have to necessarily be talked about. It can just be felt, observed and it can affect you in a way that it might not have [previously].”
The MC talks of how some of the best nights of his life have been the ones where he’s spent no money. Is being broke more of a concept than a restriction? “Being broke is a beautiful freedom because, when you have to accept you got no money and you are on your own, then you don’t have to worry about anything. What do you have to fear if you don’t have anything to fear? What I’m trying to say [is] when you have money and you’re living to acquire money, you forget what’s important to you because you are always chasing someone else’s gain.”
Though Astroid Boys are always full of youthful energy, Buzz asks if they’ve matured since their last release, the 2016 EP CF10? “Being in a band and travelling and meeting a lot of people, you do tend to experience life a little bit quicker. Aside from music, [those experiences] have given me direction and focus in life.” Which sounds like a tentative yes, but not one that signifies a downturn away from their furious style anytime soon.
Astroid Boys’ new album Broke is out now. Info: https://www.astroid-boys.com/
words LAURA BLACKWELL