Astro is a Chilean

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band from

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

, formed in 2008.

History

Formation (2008-2009)

Andrés Nusser and Octavio Caviares met at the Escuela Moderna de Música y Danza in Chile where they were enrolled as students. The other members knew each other from the DJ scene in Santiago. The band formed in 2008 when Nusser agreed to perform at a ski resort in southern Chile in exchange for a free 3-day stay there. Unfortunately, Nusser did not actually have a band, so he formed one with Caviares and members of Moustache!, a duo made up of Nicolás Arancibia and Daniel Varas. The band cites

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

, and

MGMT MGMT () is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser. Originally signed to Cantora Records by the nascent ...

as early influences on their music. In 2009, the band released its first EP titled ''Le Disc de Astrou''. The next year the band performed at

Vive Latino Vive Latino - Festival Iberoamericano de Cultura Musical, known for sponsorship reasons as Amazon Vive Latino, is an annual music festival held in Mexico City. It is one of the most important music festivals in Mexico, featuring a great varie ...

, the Mexican music festival.

''Astro'' (2011-2013)

The quartet released its first full-length album, ''Astro'', in 2011. Despite being entirely in Spanish, the album received attention from American music critics.

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

featured the album as part of its First Listen series in 2012. Jasmine Garsd called ''Astro'' one of her favorite albums, referring to it as "infectiously cheery, lighthearted and danceable." She described them as musical cognates with American bands such as

Animal Collective Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is cha ...

, and

Passion Pit Passion Pit is an American indie pop band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Formed in 2007, frontman and keyboardist Michael Angelakos is the band's primary recording member. As a touring act, the band currently consists of Angelakos (vocals, syn ...

. In 2013, Astro performed at

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

Chicago, Primavera Sound, Mysteryland, and many others festivals. The song "Panda" was featured on the soundtrack of ''

FIFA 13 ''FIFA 13 ''is a Association football, football Simulation video game, simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. The game was released in late September 2012 in most regions ...

'', the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

video game.

Departure of Andrés Nusser (2016)

In May 2016, Andrés Nusser announced that he would leave the band and that they would go into an indefinite hiatus after their tour on Mexico. Recently in 2020 Astro released a new single.

Members

*Andrés Nusser - vocals, guitar, keyboards *Octavio Caviares - drums, percussion *Nicolás Arancibia (Lego Moustache) - bass, keyboards, percussion *Daniel Varas (Zeta Moustache) - keyboards, percussion

Discography

Albums *''

Astro Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (born Terence Wilson) (1957–2021), rapper and member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie ro ...

'' (2011) *'' Chicos de la luz'' (2015) EPs *''Le disc de Astrou'' (2009) Singles *"Maestro distorsión " (2009) *"Ciervos" (2012) *" Colombo " (2012) *"

Panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is ...

" (2013) *"Hawaii" (2013) *"Manglares" (2014) *"Caribbean" (2015) *"Druida" (2015) *"Warrior" (2016)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Chilean rock music groups Chilean alternative rock groups Rock en español music groups Musical groups established in 2008 Musical groups disestablished in 2016 Chilean musical quartets Nacional Records artists