God Is An Astronaut Talk ‘Intense’ New Album ‘Ghost Tapes #10’ and India
The Irish post-rock band’s Torsten Kinsella dives deep into their 10th record and talks about releasing a live album of their seminal record ‘All Is Violent, All Is Bright’
Irish post-rock band God Is An Astronaut. Photo: Bryan Meade/Courtesy of Napalm Records
Among the pioneers of visceral, tender and hard-hitting post-rock, Irish band God Is An Astronaut got especially intense on their latest album Ghost Tapes #10, which released in February. Guitarist and co-founder Torsten Kinsella has said in previous interviews that the heaviness of their new record is partly owed to being locked down and gig-parched for over a year.
In a new video chat with Rolling Stone India, Kinsella also says it was a natural move after the mournful 2018 album Epitaph. “Intensity… we just naturally felt that way. We just had to get it out of our system. Life shapes the kind of records we make. You can never tell what’s next. I don’t even know what’s next,” the guitarist says.
With amps plugged in and making “a big racket of noise,” Ghost Tapes #10 has also been followed up with a live recording of All Is Violent, All Is Bright – the 2005 record that brought God Is An Astronaut wider listenership and acclaim alike. “The idea was to keep it as you have it in the room, for better or worse. It was kind of a modest setup but we just wanted documentation that it was all done in one take. As a live version of the record, I’m very pleased with it overall,” Kinsella says.
The band spoke with Rolling Stone India to also raise funds for the relief efforts undertaken by the non-profit organization Citizen’s Covid War-Room (CWR). Comprised of several individuals who work in the independent music industry, CWR has been a crowdsourced undertaking to provide verified leads for oxygen, plasma, ambulances and hospital beds, among other resources across India.
Kinsella counts India as one of the band’s favorite shows in 2018, when they performed at Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Pune. The guitarist adds in his message for India, “We hope that everybody – not just our fans – are staying safe and doing their best to isolate while this pandemic is happening. It’s a scary situation and we know that India’s got a large population, so it’s hard to look after people like we can here in Ireland. We’re really thinking about you guys over in India right now.”
Watch the video interview with God Is An Astronaut below. Contribute to Citizen’s Covid War Room’s relief efforts here.
