It’s not easy pushing the boundaries of interstellar space, but someone’s got to do it.
For the past five or so years, Geelong space rockers The AstroTurfs have been taking audiences across the universe under the direction of frontman Tom Stevenson.
On May 23 the seven-piece will take to the Barwon Club Hotel to celebrate Stevenson’s 31st birthday and, just maybe, announce the release of new tracks.
“Especially for this show, I think the party vibes are going to be really high,” Stevenson said.
“People can expect a whole lot of chaos, headbanging… you can expect someone’s going to end up on the floor, because at least one of us usually falls over. Yeah, it’s going to be a good time.”
Stevenson, who began gigging when he was 14, abruptly left the scene in 2017 after experiencing a feeling of burnout and dissatisfaction with music.
“I’d been playing music for what felt like a really long time and didn’t feel like I’d gotten anywhere,” he said.
“I was playing the same stuff that I’d played for the last ten years to the same people in the same place, so I stepped away and I didn’t play. As much as possible I purged music from my life, sold all my gear.”
Stevenson may have felt done with music, but it wasn’t done with him. Stepping back from playing created a space, into which new musical ideas soon began pouring.
“All of this material started coming out, but I wasn’t able to facilitate it, so I did a lot of writing using my phone and GarageBand to get this music out of my head,” he said.
Thus the seed of The AstroTurfs was sown. Stevenson invited a hand-picked bunch of musicians to join him on his space odyssey involving big existential themes, “and just throwing in some loud guitars and a bunch of synthesisers”.
“As loosely connected as some of the material was, I wanted everything to revolve around space exploration and longing for the answers to big questions,” he said.
“It’s cool to kind of work within this box and then try to see how far you can push the boundaries of it before it breaks.”
For the birthday celebration The AstroTurfs will be joined at the Barwon Club by The Refuge and Barracouta. Doors open 8pm.
