Once upon a time, Ben Baker and Michael Stensland came together to give birth to a brilliant idea. Towards the beginning of their college careers, the two musically inclined friends decided to start a duo called The Astronomers!
Since their first releases in 2019, The Astronomers have been reaching for the stars. The duo has had the pleasure of hyping up crowds at shows throughout the midwest, reaching new listeners with support from radio stations across the country, and even having their song “Casita” featured in a Nissan ad.
As The Astronomers continue to welcome in what will surely be their biggest year yet, the guys decided to unveil their latest gem, “Hotel Rooms.” Ben and Michael spilled the tea on how the eclectic pop anthem came to be, but first things first…
How The Astronomers truly became The Astronomers
Ben: I started producing when I was in high school under the name DJ Baker. I was just uploading instrumentals for gamers to use in their videos. I grew a small YouTube following, then got bored of doing that in my freshmen year of college. I ended up calling Michael and said, “We should make this a duo. I want to start making pop music or edm, stuff with vocals in it.” We’ve been doing it ever since!
Michael: I think we’ve always liked music, but both of us have been very into something in *that* moment of our lives. Ben used to love drawing, and he would go nuts drawing stuff. I’ve always kinda had the vision that I wanted to perform. I didn’t really know whether that would be through sports, acting, radio, or music. I didn’t really know… I just wanted to perform. I like putting on a show, and I guess to do it through music and to hear people singing your songs is really cool. It’s probably the best feeling when it comes to performing.
Ben: For me, I never thought I’d be doing music considering all the things we’ve done. I was going to school for construction management, so originally I was just gonna do that. The first year I got really bored of it, and I ended up moving in with Michael my sophomore year so we could just focus on music stuff. I’m glad I did that, because it’s a blast.
Hotel party, anyone? Yes? No?
While The Astronomers have been cranking out tons of music over the past few years, they admitted that not every part of the journey has been as pristine as a night with clear skies.
Michael confessed, “We were playing some shows back in the fall, which was great. It was super fulfilling, but we had a lot of opportunities just fall through. Stuff wasn’t working out, our numbers weren’t exactly where we wanted them to be… but that happens sometimes. School was still going on, and it was a really tough balance for a while. It was like, we love this, and this isn’t something we want to stop by any means, but we just need to keep finding those things to keep us motivated and that motivation to keep going.”
Perhaps that motivation will come through “Hotel Rooms.” Michael and Ben had found a neat guitar and drum loops, and decided to see how they’d fit together on a song. The two created the song with the intention of never releasing it, but after hearing the crowd response from a show in Madison, they realized it was destined to be out in the world.
Michael shared, “I’m really glad that it is. In terms of the message of the song, it’s going to be really cool to see what this song means to me when we’re actually on tour… and what it means to us. It’s a song I think we wrote to our future selves, and it’ll be cool to see how we portray that song when we’re actually living it.”
“Hotel Rooms” is all about the experiences of musicians living out their dreams of being on tour, yet longing to be reunited with a special someone. Not being able to see a loved one for weeks or months can be one of the most difficult sacrifices of touring. However, “Hotel Rooms” is a promise to love that person unconditionally, because physical distance can make one realize they’re stronger than they think!
At the end of the day, The Astronomers hope that “Hotel Rooms” will come through for you when you really need it. “Songs will come back to you in personal ways,” Michael said. “Our song ‘Overthinking,’ I felt like didn’t hit me personally until a year after writing it. It’s cool how songs can do that and help you out when you least expect it.”
Pushing Boundaries
With each release from The Astronomers, one can expect a delightful blend of genres. Michael and Ben want to push boundaries… creative ones, that is. (Remember, they’re “Overthinking,” not overstepping!)
Although, the guys will also admit that it isn’t always easy to be musical innovators.
“We struggle with that sometimes,” Ben said. “We had ‘Overthinking,’ and that was a pretty good hit for us. We wanted to follow it up with songs that sounded similar. After a while, we still wanted to be creative and push those boundaries every time we put a song out.”
Michael added, “Not putting pressure on what we already made is like the smartest thing we can do. It’s what we’re vibing to right now, whatever we wanna make. Obviously, all of our songs will be like, oh yeah, that’s The Astronomers because that’s me singing and Ben’s production… but we do want to switch it up. We don’t want all the songs to sound the same.”
Essential Questions
If “Hotel Rooms” could be the theme song for any movie, which would it be?
Michael: Probably your typical coming-of-age Netflix movie, because it’s got that good feeling that’s very happy but very sad… it hits you in a lot of different feelings. I think one of the Kissing Booth movies, I think it would be perfect… or one of those typical romance movies.
What we used to do before we started making music videos was we would play our songs to random videos on YouTube that we thought were fitting, because we never made music videos. We never took the time to do it.
Do you have any must-have snacks for studio sessions?
Ben: My snack would be taquitos. I’ll work on production, and then I’ll go pre-heat the oven. It’s like a little process. Coors Banquets go good too.
Michael: I usually like to eat before we have a studio session. I’m more of a candy guy. If we’re in the studio, I’ll just munch on some Starbucks or Airheads… stuff to keep the vocals loose. Before every show, I’ll eat Starbursts. I’ll make sure I have Starbursts from a local gas station and eat two or three of those.
Fun fact – at our Fondue Fest show, I put in a Starburst right as ‘Guess It’s Just Life’ started playing. I don’t really know why I did it. It was so stupid because the intro wasn’t as long as I thought. That whole song, I just had a Starburst in my mouth, like halfway chewed. I was trying to sing while salivating… so just a little note for me to not put a Starburst in my mouth before a song starts. I wasn’t worried that it was gonna fall out, but I was worried that I was gonna choke while I was singing. I had to stuff it in the back of my mouth as I was singing. I remember chewing it at the end, and it was stuck to my teeth just sitting there.
If you could have ANY brand sponsor you for anything, who would it be?
Michael: I’ve got two brands. Coors Banquet, and Ralph Lauren. Those are my brands.
Ben: I wouldn’t mind Peanuts… or Nike.
Now that you’ve gotten to know The Astronomers, be sure to check out “Hotel Rooms” below. Also, go ahead and say hey to Ben and Michael on Twitter @the_astronomers and Instagram @theastronomers.music!
FFO: AJR, The Chainsmokers, Jon Bellion, half•alive
