This is the first single, from my new album. Click here to listen: https://astronautalis.bandcamp.com/track/the-way-i-am

Produced & Mixed by: @SubpYao
Roel van Wijk - trumpet
Dirk Bosman - trombone
Tim Paters - saxophone
Bass: Sam Verstraten
Backing Vocals: @Bartees_Strange

Artwork: @AndyMcAlpineDesign

This was supposed to come out in April, and the album was all set for a September release, with a full US and EU tour to follow in October and November...then all hell broke loose with Corona.

As borders locked down, and the world ground to a halt, I talked to my team, and everyone advised that we push everything back.  This totally gutted me, because Subp Yao and I have been working on the album for so long (he is producing the entire thing), it is such a departure from anything I have done, and I was just so ready for the world to hear it.

But, the other exciting part of this album forced us to make the tough call to push it all back.  We’ve decided we’re done with record labels (outside of Europe...shout out to Cargo Record for handling us there), and we are DIY or die from here on out.  So, we’ll be self-releasing this record (outside of the EU), and it only made sense, that if we are going to do this ourselves, we needed to do it right.  So, we pushed the album release back, to very early 2021 with a US & EU tours to follow (will be announcing that soon).  I hated doing that, but it was the right thing to do. 

BUT...I didn’t want to wait that long to start sharing this music with y’all...and so we decided to stick with ONE PART of the original plan, and release the first single before the summer starts.  We picked one of my favorite songs off the album, “The Way I Am” and scheduled everything for June 5th.  Then all hell broke loose in Minneapolis. 

If you have been following me on social media at all, you know what this all means for me, both as a long time resident of Minneapolis, and as an American.  Hell, if you have listened to the last two albums I made you’ll know what all this means to me.  I felt so heartbroken and angry in the last 10 days, so worried for my friends in MPLS, and so furious at my country, it felt hard to think about releasing music.  It felt hard to think about anything.

As the day got closer, I couldn’t decide what to do about it all, so I talked to some friends, and the team, and my wife, and everyone’s general consensus was...”who knows WHEN there will every be a ‘GOOD’ time to release music again?  Put out the damn song.”

So here we are, dropping a wavy little summer banger as Rome burns.  It ain’t a firetruck to put out the flames, but maybe it is a glass of water to quench your thirst in all this mayhem?  I am glad I asked them all, just posting the song to bandcamp last night gave me the first shot of real joy I have felt in a while.  I needed to put this out, at the very least, for my own brain.

I am going to be honest, we’re going to need every nickel we can get to property put the full length album out our ourselves, but right now, there are people who need it more.  So, today, I’ll be donating all my Bandcamp profits from this song to:

African American Youth Harvest, Lake Street Council, and Unicorn Riot

Bandcamp is waving their share of revenue again, so even more money goes to me, which means even more money goes to these great organizations.  It a great feeling to be a link in that chain. 

There will be more info on the album, and the tours, plus an INCREDIBLE video for this song coming soon, but for now, keep protesting, keep donating, keep reading, keep informed, and keep the pressure up on your government.  And if all that gets exhausting, you need a break, and you want to hear a a weird ass trippy little love song to escape for a few minutes...then I got you.

Stay safe y’all.

Thanks for being there to listen to my work, you don’t know how much it means to me right now.