I had the privilege of interviewing Anthony Ferraro of Astronauts, Etc. after their show at Lost Lake on September 19th. The show was a ton of fun and I would recommend seeing them and their opener, The Mattson 2, whenever you have the opportunity.
Me: So, where has your tour taken you so far?
Anthony Ferraro: We’ve been out for about five weeks. We hit most of North America, starting in San Francisco. We’ve kinda gone counter clockwise around North America.
Me: And it’s wrapping up soon, right?
Anthony: Yeah, we’re on our way home.
Me: What’s your favorite show been so far, if you’ve had one?
Anthony: It’s hard to beat Washington D.C. There’s something about D.C. We’ve always had good crowds there: really vocal, they know all the words, show up in large numbers. I feel bad not saying Denver (laughs). We’ve gotta build our fan base here. I always really like Atlanta too. New York is fun too, but sometimes the crowd seems a little “too cool for school” and don’t really get into it. It’s always an adventure though.
Me: So is the East coast one of your favorite parts of the country to visit?
Anthony: It’s different every time. I feel like you get such an inaccurate picture of cities each time you visit them. You just see basically the three blocks adjacent to the venues. It’s nice to revisit places because you get to piece together a more accurate image of places. People always ask what your favorite places are, but it has so much to do with your experience there and not necessarily the city itself. Or just how receptive the crowd was or if you met somebody interesting on the street that day.
Me: I saw you have some dates in Canada. Is this your first time doing any international dates?
Anthony: I think we’ve played Vancouver a couple years ago, but this is our first time in Toronto, which is cool. My wife’s actually from Toronto, so we have some roots out there now. It’s nice to go there I love that city.
Me: What do you do to kill time in the tour van place to place?
Anthony: Ooh, good question. We’ve been doing a lot of audiobooks these days.
Me: Like what?
Anthony: We listened to a Steven King one, which is pretty good. I feel like scary stuff helps the time pass faster. It was called Salem’s Lot. It was a BBC dramatization so there were really good voice actors it was super fun. We’ve been trying to find more along those lines. It’s cool when one person is reading it too. Sometimes the dramatization falls a little flat. A lot of music too. We’re always showing each other what we’re vibing to at the moment. So constant conversation happening musically. I bring my kindle on tour too. Right now I’m reading this Chinese science fiction series called The Three Body problem. I highly recommend it it’s really really good.
Me: I’ve never heard The Mattson 2 until tonight, but their performance was crazy. How has it been touring with them?
Anthony: Yeah they’re super good. I’ve known them for a few years and we had albums coming out at the same time and Johnny had played drums on some of my songs on the record. It made sense to play together and hit the road together too.
Living In Symbol, released July 27th, is available on most music platforms.
By Max Askari