We were lucky enough to catch up with GALACTAPUS following the release of their post-punk single ‘Waking The Troll’. Enjoy our full interview with this unique and innovating band now!

Hi Galactapus, tell us about yourselves?

Galactapus is a nameless, faceless recording group hiding in plain sight. We have the luxury of a private sanctuary in the middle of the city, a safe place mentally, physically, creatively.

How we’re acquainted will have to remain a mystery I’m afraid. But all our music, film and artwork is produced and contained under this roof.

The music is so much more than therapeutic, it’s also religion. Tempered with silence though. Which is also religion.

Who influenced your latest release, ‘Waking The Troll’?

Galactapus are avid record collectors, but that doesn’t make us too special.

For ‘Waking The Troll’, the big influence was the birds in the back yard. We just set up mics, recorded them, then tried to let that navigate the composition.

The song has something to do with our morning ritual meditation of gratitude and neutralizing persistent panic. And it’s inspired by the feeling of home and the passing of the seasons, the tranquility, the nostalgia, tumult and terror that goes along with it.

At some point in the creative process, a song grows legs, starts walking and emitting aromas. We put meat on its bones, let it make the decisions, oblige by its whim.

We see ‘Waking The Troll’ is available on vinyl, why did you decide to print on vinyl?

Well, we had the notion that like-minded citizens of the world probably have vinyl collections, maybe they’d be the ones we should consider foremost. And the packaging is exciting for us as artists.

But I don’t really know who consumes music and how, or why, but give the good people a choice I guess.

Tell us about your LP, ‘I Intend To Stay’

Writers have liked words like strange, unique, new among more colorful ones. We hope so. We have to justify to ourselves that the music we release has a comelling reason to exist out in the wild. Seems like a low bar, but for us it’s a very high bar. 

Singing in our songs is very important, the timbre of the human voice perks our ears up. It’s been that way since we first plop from the womb. But Galactapus has no lyrical content, hopefully that’s not a barrier for some.

You’ve probably heard all the words before anyway, or if not you probably will. But it won’t be Galactapus that tells you so. So divorced from language, we can get out of the cerebral forest and hit on some real ineffable feelings, which is our endeavor.

Some in Galactapus have the mixed blessing of synesthesia, when stimuli excite the wrong sensory pathway. So the album is the sound of colors and shapes, textures, certain voices… that sit together for a while and suggest something musical to us.

We try to be a unique conduit for the atmosphere’s floating detritus.

What’s your dream venue to play?

The answer maybe in your question. I think infiltrating people’s dreams could be the next natural setting. More personal and interactive, better for everyone involved.

Sometimes there’s bands playing in my dreams. A big blessing, because I can steal their songs when I wake up.

Other than music, what are you passionate about?

Animals, art, love-making, healing, cooking. All part of the greater body of work.

What changes would you like to see in the music business?

Oh, well, music is a noble pursuit. Music business is mostly the opposite of that. I suspect your reader’s wouldn’t be interested in a venomous tirade.

We’ll choose our battles, recognize our locus of control. To some extent now, musicians only need to involve themselves in the business as much as we can bear.

How do you feel about how the internet plays a role in today’s music business?

Twas a time you’d go to a store to see what’s new in music. Last year’s music had run its course, either sold out or returned. Presently though, us as consumers have the keys to the archive of the history of recorded music. Now, and all at once!

People don’t particularly care what’s old or new, and what anyone else’s social group is listening to. 

So as musicians, the competition is now everybody who has ever recorded music. You can’t steal from old obscure artists anymore, an old trick of the trade, you’ll be quickly exposed. Well, these are all mostly good things for all involved.

What would it be if you could choose one thing for fans to take away from your music?

You know the moment, maybe when the world is asleep, where you hear a music that changes everything, and it feels like it’s all yours? Just an artist giving a personal gift to only you?

It’s probably happened to all of us. And the best part is no one can take that moment from you, they don’t even ever have to know about it.

The artist will probably never know what that moment meant to you. Well, I guess the romance of that moment, and the fact that we’ll never know about it, is our highest hope and inspiration.

What is your favourite song to play live?

Live performance is a bit of a summoning, a re-animation of a feeling. The song will choose US at any given moment, and we need to be astute and ready to receive IT, whenever it decides is the time.

That being said, we’re not currently performing for myriad reasons, and I’m not sure when that status might change.

Have you started working on your next release?

It’s about half in the bag. A new album means a new approach, per our mantra of making new music with a reason to exist. It’s tentatively called ‘The Rainbows Of Wrong’. Because at best, there’s only a handful of ways to do something right, but beautifully vast and varied ways of doing things wrong.

This is the natural habitat of Galactapus, in the wonderful wild of our imagination. I Intend To Stay resulted from a lot of slow-burning nebulous ideas on the range at all times. The new record will be more about capturing moments, and being a little more proactive in the pursuit. It’ll be another side of being in the present.

FVMusicBlog February 2022

https://www.galactapus.com/
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