Astral Drive

It’s been three years since Astral Drive’s debut release and now Phil Thornalley raises the bar with a new eleven song follow-up, heavy with soulful harmony vocals, heartfelt singing, lush chords and optimistic star-gazing lyrical themes.

In the 70s he worked with The Jam and Paul McCartney. In the 80s he worked with XTC and Duran Duran and then joined The Cure. In the 90s he co-wrote and produced Natalie Imbruglia’s evergreen hit ‘Torn’. In the 2010’s he played bass for Bryan Adams. So what’s next?

“I feel like I’m just getting warmed up!”, Phil quips.

After decades of making records for other artists, Phil started making his own under the Astral Drive moniker in 2017. A combination of seventies recording techniques, impromptu jam sessions (with himself) and starry-eyed idealism.

“With the new album can be a beachhead to explore a more personal sound”. Revealing broader influences from Weezer (‘For The Dreamers’), New Radicals (‘Waterfall’) and even Prince (‘Wish U Well’), the record has a noticeable pivot towards guitars, rather than the predominant songwriter-at-the-piano sound first time around.

Phil has clearly chosen to broaden the sonic scope of the project this time around. “The first album was made looking through a fish-eye lens of seventies sounds. This time around there’s still many of those signature sounds - over-compressed drums, over-EQ’d pianos - but I let the sound choices be freer. This time I reached from as far as the 70s to the 80s!”