Astrophagus’ drummer is a real boy
The laptop now plays second fiddle to a human
Raise your glasses with wild abandon, Denver concert-goers: Astrophagus is no longer living in terror of you spilling your beer on its drummer. After playing along to laptop-generated beats for ages, the Denver atmospheric rock act’s putting a living, breathing (and vastly more liquid-resistant) human behind the drums. Drummer E.J. Ulery—who also rocks out with Fell—makes his debut with the band this Saturday, Jan. 16, at the Meadowlark.
Astrophagus’ laptronica sound isn’t being put out to pasture entirely, though. Ulery and the act’s trusty computer will tag-team the percussion, with the work shifting between man and machine depending upon the song.
“Some of the beats I’ve written are completely hard to follow,” frontman Jason Cain said. “It’s just kind of a matter of is he augmenting the electronic percussion or is he supplying the bulk of the percussion as certain nuances are coming in from the computer? We employ various techniques for different songs and we kind of experimented around with it for a little bit to see what was going to work for each particular song.”
