Alternative rockers ASTRO LLOYD have been active for a while now, releasing an EP and album, with a follow-up album expected sometime this year! The band goes into discussion about their music, playing shows and what's up next!
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Astro-Lloyd started out in March 2011 when metalband ‘Sensei’ from Malmo decided to quit. Drummer Andreas Jabrell and guitarist Martin started writing new songs the same evening. Wanting to do something different than metal, Andreas switched to guitar and a couple of ideas for new songs were written that same evening. Soon after drummer Nils Lindkvist and bas splayer Daniel Johansson also joined the band. The first couple of years Astro-Lloyd tried a couple of different singers but none worked out and in the end Andreas ended up singing with Nils doing backup vocals. Soon after Martin quit the band Danny Forsberg joined just in time for the first official release, EP ‘Planet Unknown’, released 2014. Then they started to work on the first full album which resulted in ‘Astro Life’, released in 2017. At the same time as ‘Astro Life’ came out, Daniel quit and Michael Carlqvist joined on bass.
During the 2017-2019 Astro-Lloyd focused on playing live and at the same time started writing the follow up to ‘Astro Life’. Then things didn’t work out as planned, Michael quit the band, Andreas, Nils and Danny continued writing songs, Nils switched to guitar instead of drums and then adding Mattias Hallin on drums at the end of 2019. Soon after Cornelis Holmdén joined on bass and in the middle of the pandemic (December 2021) Nils and Danny left the band. That’s when we brought in Gustaf Danielsson on guitar, finished writing the new album. Now we have released two singles from upcoming album ‘Loud Noises’ (to be released later this spring) with a new single ‘Gnorts, Mr.Alien’ coming in the next couple of weeks.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
We were joking around a lot when coming up with the band name. Nils (our old drummer) had always wanted to name his child Lloyd and Andreas who worked at a golf course at the time talked about Astro Turf (fake grass) so we just combined it into Astro-Lloyd
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are based in Malmoe, Sweden and have a pretty decent music scene. It’s a little bit harder for newer bands but have some who have made it. Local bands we can recommend are of course Royal Republic, who have inspired us a lot with their high energy and then we have Deville, inspiration on the heavier side, fuzzy riffs for days!
4. How would you describe your style?
Alternative rock with a lot of punk rock undertones. We describe ourselves like “ Imagine if Foo Fighters and Biffy Clyro had a baby that really liked Blink-182! There you have Astro-Lloyd, alternative rock from Malmoe.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
EP ‘Planet Unknown’ in 2014 and LP ‘Astro Life’ in 2017. You can expect a lot of melodic riffs, high energy songs, often happy songs with a bit darker tone once you get in to the lyrics
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We have just finished recording our upcoming second album ‘Loud Noises’, two singles has been released already (‘Sphere Believer in November 2021 and ‘Antlers’ in January 2022) and upcoming single ‘Gnorts, Mr.Alien’ to be released in a couple of weeks.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We have played a lot of shows in Sweden, some in Denmark and Netherlands and did a small our in Germany in 2019. We just had our first real show in 18 months this past weekend (April 1) in Gothenburg and then we will have a release party in Malmoe on May fourth.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Plans for the future is to get our music heard by as many people as possible, get out playing shows and just make people happy with our music.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to us on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2M7i48NN8KNVkNAku4Roj2?si=lQXIoDGFSiWjvHVcK-sweQ )and other streaming services, watch our videos on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVlC4ZEvzQGi4j0nlXgw39A).
Find out what we’re up to next on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/astrolloyd/?hl=en) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/astrolloydband/)
You can buy things from us at upcoming shows.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
It’s up to everyone who listens. What we try to convey with our music is hope. It’s usually fast and uplifting with lyrics that has a hopeful but darker undertone. So mostly happy, uplifting memories from the music.
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