Three years after Astralyte's first performance, opening for Rusted Root here as Washington College students, the Worton-based band released their debut studio album "To The Nines" last Tuesday. The seventy minute, eighteen track compact disc represents a year and a half of preparation, three years of touring the East Coast, and seven years of working together.
Andrew Stein, the band's percussionist and special effect specialist, described Astralyte's sound over the phone as "live-tronic." Concerning the release of the album, Stein said that "we wanted to have a CD to show our grandkids."
The band members of Astralyte, composed of recent Washington College alumni, have been creating music together since 1997. Stein speaks of WC as "a creative environment that engaged us at an early stage with what it really takes to make a band successful." And that the CD is "another aspect of what we've been able to do with the tremendous support we've received from Washington College since day one."
Stein said, of his band members, that "we essentially were all committed full time to music" and that "we weren't in [music] for the girls for the cool rock star image, [but that] our love has always been in going out and playing for people."
Astralyte, who played sixty shows last year, thanks "The extended WC community" on their cd insert as Stein noted that "it's a tough road when you're out there, surviving on nothing and driving all night to the next gig; it's nice to see some familiar faces who also drove all night to get there."
"The band has changed a lot," said Stein of his college days. "The college band experiences were oriented towards a jam band scene," but since Astralyte's debut with Rusted Root "people knew the caliber of music we were playing."
The band's career took off after that break and soon they were lined up to play festivals up and down the East Coast. This, said Stein, "got [Astralyte] into producing large electronic music events in D.C. and Baltimore."
However, the direction has not changed for Astralyte. Stein says Astralyte's "hope is to expand awareness of what we're doing" and now to "push the cd and market it to the point where people reference it as an example of what live electronic music is."
As for "To The Nines," the band named it "because we went all out." "The idea behind 'To The Nines" was to "Not hold anything back and just do it to its utmost" said Stein. The artwork for the album and website was designed by Yoni Sandler, the artist responsible for the current WC logo.
Now that the CD is out, the band "still gets together to play for fun" and just because Astralyte "is not presently touring doesn't mean we won't." Stein said that the band "has had offers to play shows and will be doing select runs along the East Coast."
As for the response to the album, Stein commented that "it's great to have something so well recieved and we're really pleased with it." Astralyte's "To The Nines" is available in the WC Bookstore and online at www.Astralyte.com.
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