A Chat with Calling All Astronauts (12.10.25)
Known for their politically charged music that blends genres like punk rock, alternative rock, industrial rock, gothic rock, drum and bass, and synthpop, Calling All Astronauts is a duo that transcends boundaries and stands up to societal norms. We speak with musicians David Bury and Paul McCrudden about their new album, Noise Against Tyranny, what music means to them, upcoming plans, and more.
OSR: A bit of a cliché question, but how did Calling All Astronauts come about? What drew you to music and each other?
Bury: I had made music in other bands previously, and then had started managing a band called Caffeine. I had them touring with The Offspring, New Found Glory, The Dickies, etc, but I missed making music, and thought I still had a lot of songs to write. It turns out most of them are anti-fascist songs, who would have thought? 🙂
McCrudden: I joined the band just before the second album, the original bassist had left to have a baby, I’d been in rap-metal US:UK with David and J, so when they approached me, I knew what I was letting myself in for.
Bury: For most of the last album (#Resist) and the whole of this album, we’ve been down to a 2-piece. J hasn’t actually left the band; he’s just on an extended sabbatical.
OSR: You recently released your album, Noise Against Tyranny. What can you tell us about the album, from its composition and songwriting to production?
McCrudden: I think sonically it’s our best album so far. We lost a lot of time writing due to Covid. It appears like we took four years to make it, but we didn’t, as we couldn’t see each other for a long time.
Bury: I get lyric ideas all the time and make notes, so when we get a tune, I have a few ideas I can bounce around to see if anything fits. We record everything in my lounge, so we can take our time to make everything sound just like we want it to. Actually, just before we were ready to get the album mastered, I had a eureka moment. I decided to copy drum and bass rather than follow the traditional rock route, and let the bass take all the bottom frequencies, and moved the kick up the spectrum. I think it worked. Prior to this move, we had the kicks fighting with synth bass, sub bass and Paul’s 5 string, then suddenly we had loads of clarity, and a kick that really cuts through the mixes.
OSR: Your album is, well, to put it plainly, a wild ride of sound treading across the realms of metal, punk, post-punk and some EDM across the tracks. What made you decide to explore and sometimes blend these genres instead of sticking to a single tried-and-true style?
Bury: I like lots of music of all different genres, one minute I could be listening to Sisters of Mercy or Motionless In White, the next I’ll be listening to Dimitri Vegas or Pendulum, and I think that’s reflected in our music.
McCrudden: Unlike a lot of bands, we aren’t trapped making the same song over and over, or at least variations of the same theme, because we program the beats. We are able to cross barriers between genres, and we love to make tunes you can dance to.
OSR: Noise Against Tyranny follows ‘Pray For Your Soul’, the first single release since 2023; what made you step away from releasing music during 2024?
McCrudden: We’d released every single track from #Resist as a single, every one of them was different from the album versions. I’m mates with Alan Branch (NIN, U2, Depeche Mode), and he very kindly offered to mix the singles for us, so we had the challenge of making the tracks on Noise Against Tyranny sound somewhere in the ballpark of a double Grammy winner; that is no easy feat for two old blokes sat at home in somebody’s lounge with nothing but a computer, an interface and some plugins. It took time, but we are happy with the final result.
Bury: It just seemed right to wait until the album was complete before we started releasing anything from it. We had some tracks we felt finished in summer ‘24, but in retrospect, I think it was the right decision to wait, as we definitely improved those tracks.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Bury: Music can make you feel happy or sad, it can bring great memories flooding back, every song generates emotions for the listener, be it “I love/hate this song”. It stimulates thoughts and feelings, even what many of the alt-rock scene may calling formulaic pop, to others it’s just the greatest thing they’ve ever heard.
McCrudden: You can’t be close-minded about music, embrace it all, even if it’s not a genre you listen to by choice, there is always something you can take from every song. It could be a clever lyric or you may think this production sucks, but if you listen to music objectively, it’s way more than just songs.
OSR: Your music is a socio-political commentary on today’s society. It’s a timeless theme of facing fascism and capitalism. Do you think we’re going to reach a time of peace and co-operation? Until then, what advice do you give to listeners to make it through the struggles and uncertainty?
McCrudden: Don’t believe what the far-right media tell you; they all have an agenda. Nothing is ever what it seems on face value. Populist politicians are called “populist” for a reason; they spew rhetoric designed to engage with those who really don’t have a clue what is going on.
Bury: We see lines like “they are not far right, they are just normal people” – I’m sure the same was said in 1930s Germany, next minute, they were murdering six million Jews. We need to stand up to bigotry and hate. Our track ‘1979’ on Noise Against Tyranny definitely draws comparisons with the 1946 Pastor Martin Niemoller poem ‘First They Came’. We don’t want our own Kristallnacht; people need to take inspiration from Cable Street when all communities stood up for Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts and drove fascism back into the sewers.
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music?
McCrudden: I genuinely just hope people listen and enjoy it. We put so much time, effort and energy into making a new album, it would be a shame if it got ignored.
Bury: I echo what Paul has just said, with every release it just gets harder and harder to stand out in bloggers, DJs, etc, inboxes. They are just inundated with releases. I hope our message that racism, homo/transphobia, bigotry, hatred are not acceptable in society, but if they don’t get the message, at least appreciate our art.
OSR: Do you have a message for new artists?
Bury: I have a million and one tips for new artists, in my role as an A&R man in the music publishing world, I see every mistake on a daily basis. Some really important ones are: never send a song out until it sounds like you could potentially hear it on the radio, never claim it’s going to be a worldwide hit, and the harder you work, the luckier you get.
McCrudden: Make the music you love, have realistic expectations, for every Guns N’ Roses there are 100,000 bands you’ve never heard of, don’t try to sound like Arctic Monkeys, they already exist.
OSR: What can we expect from Calling All Astronauts in the future?
McCrudden: We’ll be making lots more eclectic records and fighting the good fight.
Bury: We have a new single, ‘Time To Party’, out on October 24th. You can watch the video here
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
McCrudden: Listen to our music, watch our videos and don’t worry too much. If we stand strong and united, there are more of us than them.
Bury: If you’ve read all the way down to question 10, I salute you!
Many thanks to Paul McCrudden and David Bury for speaking with us. Find out more about Calling All Astronauts on their Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
