Astronauts, etc. Premiere New Single THE ROOM From Upcoming Album LIVING IN SYMBOL

Astronauts, etc. -- Oakland's Anthony Ferraro -- shared "The Room," the second single from its forthcoming new album Living In Symbol today. Ferraro says of the song:

"Addiction, depression, unhealthy love, bad ideology. They're all rooms that can start to feel like home, with its safety and familiarity, if you spend enough time in them. I wrote this song while watching my good friend try and fail to leave such a room. I hoped to represent both sides in the song - the comfort, even euphoria, of being in the room, and the dread of realizing you may never leave.

There are nice rooms, too, but this song isn't about those."

Living In Symbol, which was co-produced by Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi and includes the previously released single "The Border," is out July 27 on Company Records; it is available for pre-order now via Company and streaming services.

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Tony Peppers (aka Astronauts, etc., née Anthony Ferraro) lives just outside of time. His best friend's father told him in the 4th grade that he was really an old man. It makes some sense, then, that he was diagnosed with arthritis at age 10 and dropped out of school at 20 because he really needed to think things over. He still is, but at 27 Tony has some things to say, and he's saying them on his new album, Living in Symbol.

It's been a circuitous seven years for the Oakland-based classical pianist turned pop arranger. Between stints on the road with Toro y Moi, he wrote his first LP, Mind Out Wandering. Recorded mostly live to two-inch tape, the album was a conscious departure from the bedroom pop direction of earlier material. Its production was precise and nakedly clean, showcasing the musicianship of his band and earning comparisons to early Bee Gees records and Philly soul.

When Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) offered to produce his next album, Tony began devising a collection of songs that would capitalize on the intersection of their sensibilities. The world had begun growing rapidly stranger, and he found his reference points shifting toward outsider music, Latin psychedelia, and the haunting orchestral arrangements of David Axelrod.

A new voice was coming out of Tony, taking cues from oracular crooners like Lee Hazlewood and Kevin Ayers and delivering cryptic messages pitched far below the falsetto that had come to characterize his sound. It would seem disjunctive if it wasn't so natural; you can hear Tony finally stepping into himself as Bear's production carries the songs onto a bizarre and timeless wavelength. Living in Symbol serves as the surreal coming-of-age diary of one weirdo floating through the ooze of the Information Age.

Photo credit: Lucky Banks-Kenny

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