It's been a few months since Miami band Astari Nite last played north of their county line. In Broward, they were last seen opening for Stars at Culture Room this past October, and in Palm Beach County, for Modern English at Respectable Street in September. On Saturday, March 10, the band finally returns to the latter venue, one of their favorite stomping grounds, and frontman Mychael Ghost says the wait was on purpose.
At that show, the band will have a little more new material to air out -- after several years as a band and two EPs, the group is finally recording a proper full-length debut. Ghost describes it as "an unorthodox scientific experiment" that's been the focus of the band's activity since those last few shows.
"Our two EPs that we released, Astari Nite and Requiem Mass, were used to establish our sound," Ghost says of the group's Brit-influenced post-punk, which the quartet has solidified over the past few months of writing. "An album should be created when you're at peace with the songs that are on it."
Thanks to a deal with Creator Management, a new venture by one of the founders of Ultra, Astari Nite took the stage at the festival and embarked on a run of mini tours, during which they nailed down the evolution of their sound. Ghost says that, overall, the new songs are about evoking a certain mood more than a particular subgenre.
"The songs take you through a morbid sense of happiness, with the hope of reliving that one moment when it felt natural to love or easy to be innocent," Ghost says. And though the new material picks up on certain old threads, Ghost says they are more expansive, both in sound and in feeling. "Our direction has changed a bit. I think I have also gained self-control with the understanding that it's okay to simply breathe every now and then."
Despite the focus on the album, which the band is recording at Neverland Studios with producer Josh Rohe, Astari Nite still has a few performances planned before the release. Besides the March 10 gig at Respectable Street, the group will again perform at Ultra Music Festival, on its opening night. "To be able to see New Order perform that very same evening," says Ghost, "will be a dream come true!"
Astari Nite. With Retrocities and Universal Citizens, 9 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Admission is free; age 21 and up. Click here.
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