INTERVIEW WITH ASTROID BOYS
2011 was quite a year for you guys, tell us more about that…
TRAXX: this has undoubtedly been the best year of our lives for us all, and the worst. I have slept with so many girls, and made some cool songs.
BENJI: Wow, I almost forgot about last year for a second haha. We had a fantastic year in 2011. We played at Glastonbury festival, performed with some great artists like ‘ Ms Dynamite,Example, Professor Green, got on the Bigga Fish summer tour with the likes Lethal B, Ghettz, Lady Leshur plus more’ as well as demolishing gigs up and down the country. I don’t quite think any of us were expecting such an exciting year and until the year came to an end it seemed a little hard to actually realize the adventure we had bin on.. Absolute MADNESS!!
DELL: From start to finish, we had an idea of being a group that puts out music that we all enjoy, We’ve succeeded in doing that, we’ve played small and big gigs covering all aspects of what we can do and had once in a lifetime experiences. i think that we have come far for the time we’ve been on the scene
What would you like to achieve this year?
TRAXX: to just fuck around make some crazy good music and have the best time causing trouble on the way, but one thing I’d love to do is take all my team out the UK and tour in America, for any of us to not worry about money would be amazing, but I’ll happily do what I do broke if I have to.
BENJI: Well during November of last year we set a few goals for 2012 but it seems that without realizing, we achieved a lot of those already! We are going to be touring the UK with Hyro Da Hero from today and we have also managed to get some great exposure from BBC 1Xtra & Online video channels and blogs, such as Grime Daily. I think our target this year is to perform at more events than last year and release just as much material as we did last year. We enjoy what we do and as long as we do it just a little bit better each year I know that the whole group will remain happy.
DELL: as a producer, I would like to put out a solo EP, an album with Astroid Boys with all my music, and DJ to some big fucking crowds
Where did the name come from? Are you sci-fi fans?
TRAXX: No, not at all. I hate Star Wars, Star Trek, all that shit. It’s a unbelievable story but hey, it originally came from a drunk night in Cyprus visiting family while I was on the run from some trouble back home and as I sat talking to my Nan’s brother he tells he this Greek word which means Greek star “astroid without the e”. He backed it up with some dope ass story which made it stick in my head coming home to start a group called Astroid Boys.
You’ve been making music since you were teens – how has the sound changed since you started?
TRAXX: Definitely got more creative, since we started , everything was a joke two years ago and although we all work against growing up we are all facing some tough times recently, this has made our shows more aggressive and added more depth/ reality to our music.
BENJI: When I started making music it was more like Urban Poetry.. No beat, just a load of lines that rhymed.. I think the genre’s that we have played around with have changed more than our own styles.. we are a bunch of over excited kids that have a hell of a lot to say. That’s how it began and its kinda how it remains, just with a different soundtrack
DELL: As the producer, I started out sticking to my drum and bass roots, slowly progressing into the dubstep scene when i heard the likes of Koan Sound and dubstep started progressing into further dimensions
What’s your fave thing about Wales?
TRAXX: the fact we have a fucking dragon on our flag, other than that, I’m ready to leave.
BENJI: Welsh Cakes. (If you have never had one, Tweet me and I’ll hook you up).
DELL: Being ‘from Wales’, people underdog us straight away – so clearing that stigma at our shows is always a good feeling.
And your least fave?
TRAXX: Dumb blonde chicks that don’t know anything more than what’s on TV and the radio; chicks with chips in Chippy Lane (that’s Caroline Street , which has loads of chips shops and kebab takeaways , if you’re not familiar with Cardiff) in a valleys accent. Damn, I throw kebabs at them.
BENJI: My least fave thing about Wales is that we only have one football team in the Premiership and it’s the wrong one!! CARDIFF CITTY FO’LYFEEE!
You have a song ‘Women Are Our Weakness’ – who’s your ideal woman?
TRAXX: Arabella Drummond (do your research) but I’m quite digging this chick that came to our show last weekend mind. I’m taking her bowling next week so I’ll let you know how it goes.
BENJI: Haaa, Naiome Lenoir. She’s incredible but I read that she’s a psycho so Ill stick to the Google images!
Any collaborations in the pipeline?
TRAXX: Yeah some, we did one with Killa Kela, and mainly with different producers. Dr Meaker and us have a single coming out called “Shakkowwt !” (say no more). I’ll leave the rest under the covers for now. But we got a collaboration with Busta Rhymes believe it or not in the summer – we won a competition, so that will be cool.
Catch Astroid Boys on tour with Hyro Da Hero – on Tuesday 7 Feb at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff and on Sunday 19 Feb at Bristol Thekla, Bristol. More info at www.astroidboys.com
