Deastro – a.k.a. Detroit-based artist Randolph Chabot – released his second album ‘Moondagger’ earlier this week. Check out our review of it (it’s very good) HERE.
To mark the release, we invited Chabot to take part in our regular Culture Clash series, and here’s what he sent us…
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Movie
Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky. This movie had a profound effect on me. When I was 13 there was a period in my life where I started hearing voices and seeing shadows move. When I was 18 I was praying in a closet and this symphony starting playing in my head that was more beautiful than anything I had ever heard. In the song ‘Biophelia’ on our album one of the lines says, “I cannot explain my dreams of dogs with two faces and our names.” I kept seeing this wolf that had two faces – one wolf face and one face that was mine – when I was dating this girl about two years ago. I have always doubted the validity of these experiences and Stalker puts the viewer in the same position. At the end of the movie the little girl, ‘Monkey’, seems to move these glasses telekinetically but then a train goes by and shakes the whole house, making you question what you saw.
Book
The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. This book gives me hope that a better way of life is possible for us.
Album
‘Yellow House’ by Grizzly Bear. My ex girlfriend and I saw them and Dirty Projectors at the Blind Pig in 2007, here in Michigan. We played ‘Yellow House’ all that summer, and it is one of those albums that seems to be connected to my bones in some way.
Track
‘Brother Sport’ by Animal Collective. My drummer and I blast this song and freak out in our van every time we see each other.
Television show or series
Twin Peaks. We ate at the RR Diner (we had cherry pie and coffee) on our last tour and went to the waterfall from the opening credits of the show. We also stopped in Missoula, Montana where David Lynch was born. There was a bum who had taken his clothes off in the street, a kid playing metal music on a mini amp and begging for money, a drunken dance party in an alley, and a VW Bug that drove by with a stuffed gorilla bigger than the car itself strapped to the top. We felt like we understood David Lynch a little better maybe…. well, maybe.
Exhibition
Paper Rad. I am so glad this exists.
Holiday destination
Any beach, or any body of water, with my friends!
Gig venue
Scrummage University. This was a loft space in Detroit where bands like Dan Deacon, Silver Apples and Ecstatic Sunshine played. It was covered in stuffed animals and giant chandeliers. They shut down the loft and moved to an abandoned toy factory for a while, which was really creepy and cool.
Live band/DJ
M83. When I was a teenager this band really inspired me to make music. I got to see them for the first time last year when they played with a band on Ghostly called School Of Seven Bells, who might have been better than M83. I don’t know… it was an amazing show.
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‘Moondagger’ is out now on Ghostly International (REVIEW); find Deastro on MySpace HERE.
Check out previous Culture Clash Extra features…
Vivian Girls
Magik Markers
Still Flyin’
Crystal Antlers
Love Is All
Tilly And The Wall
