Four years ago (July 2015), God Astray dropped a new single called "Wet" and announced that there was a new album in the works.... then disappeared for four years.
So what happened?
First, God Astray mastermind Joe Lupia finished writing/recording/producing a new full length album for his (former?) other project, Man Woman Machine. Released in September of 2017, MWM's "Ultra-Xenosonic" record.... flopped. HARD. After a series of events left them unable to gig in support of this new record, it went unnoticed to the world and sold terribly. Their own fans didn't even seem to like it. Having been extremely proud of this offering.... only to watch it fail miserably, Joe took a step back from music for a while.
In the fall of 2017, Joe started a new project... something a little different. He began writing a script.
After working on a couple of projects with a film crew over the course of spring/summer 2018, Joe completed his script, and... began pre-production on his debut feature film... a drama with paranormal elements, centered around a fictional late 90's industrial rock band, Tragic Tryst.
After several weeks of filming... yet again... another series of events ended up derailing the film, leaving Joe broke and unable to push forward with the project for the time being (the film will be rebooted when the time is right). During this time, he learned to play drums, using the drum set that he purchased for use in the film.
Joe then returned to music, handling guitar duties for a local "industrial" rap metal band for a year, before being inexplicably fired.... only days before their first show back after a long hiatus.
With his plate now cleared, Joe returned his focus to his sole remaining project.... the new God Astray release.
Originally intended to be a full length album, Nymphomaniacal seemed too grand (and interesting) of a concept to explore within the span of a mere dozen or so songs... so the decision was made to expand it into a series of shorter albums/EPs.
So here we are. The first volume of Nymphomaniacal.
The effort kicks off with BAREBACK, a straightforward musical mission statement, reminding the listener that in this age of a hyper-offended society, God Astray DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK, and will continue to be as inappropriate and vulgar as deemed necessary. TITS! is a sonically intense anthem of appreciation for one of womankind's most spectacular assets. The art of cunnilingus is perfected over the sexy, slow grooves of VERTICAL SMILE. Up next is (SHE LIKES IT) VIOLENT, a danceable electronic number packed full of bizarre porn samples, chronicling a woman's wilder sexual fetishes.The short interlude BE ADVISED... uses a looped sample from the original 2015 version of WET as the perfect transition into a new, beefier version of the track. THE TEXAS SHOCKER is a fun little interlude, warming up the listener for the album's final track...BACK DOOR, a super-fun electronics-based romp through the thrilling experience of consensual anal sex.
God Astray will be spending the winter working on some very NSFW music videos to accompany the record, as well as beginning to write the followup.... NYMPHOMANIACAL (Volume 2)!!!
After FOUR YEARS of being mostly MIA, God Astray has FINALLY dropped a new record!
This year has been total hell for me, and one of the worst blows was having to vacate my apartment after 12 years of living there (it had to be done, new owners needed to get the building up to code, which required major renovations). Dismantling my studio, transporting it to the new place (nearly an hour away) and settling in/reconfiguring everything/rebuilding my studio.... took the better part of two months.
At that point, I re-evaluated the status of the new GA record and realized that I did not want to be confined to the limitations that a traditional album format would place on completing my lifelong goal... releasing a sex album. Not to mention, sex is a very broad topic (one of my very favorites... other than talking gear/comic books/movies/etc....which wouldn't make for very exciting albums), and I could easily write several albums worth of material on the subject.
Thus, the idea to expand NYMPHOMANIACAL into a series of EPs/short albums was hatched.
With Halloween (my favorite holiday) rapidly approaching, I set October 31st as the release date, and got to work on finalizing the songs I had recorded. Fortunately, all the tracks I wanted to include had made it through the music completed/lyrics finalized phase of demoing, so I just had to re-record final vocals for a couple songs, then spent a few weeks mixing everything down and mastering it a few times until it sounded right. On October 30th, I finally locked in a master of the recording that had the punchy sound I was looking for.... just making the deadline.
So here we are. The new album is out, and is fucking FREE!
You can grab it over here: https://godastray.bandcamp.com/album/nymphomaniacal-volume-1
I have also released two covers that I recorded... also for free download.
My cover of FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY's "Condemned"
https://godastray.bandcamp.com/album/condemned-front-line-assembly-cover-single
and my cover of THE PRODIGY's "Baby's Got A Temper"
https://godastray.bandcamp.com/album/babys-got-a-temper-the-prodigy-cover-single
So what the fuck is next? I still need to film some music videos to support Volume 1, so that is priority #1. I have a very NSFW concept planned for (She Likes It) Violent, I just need to lock down locations and a very brave actress.
Meanwhile, writing sessions for Volume 2 will begin this winter in my newly set up studio at my new location. More details will be released as they emerge.
It has been awhile since I have posted anything, so here is an update of some of the things going on in the world of GOD ASTRAY!
After a very long period of frustration and extreme writer's block, I took a year-long hiatus from all musical endeavors to clear my head and try new things. One such thing was my passion for videography/photography. So I wrote a script for a movie about a fictional late 90's local industrial rock band and the drama they went through after a string of events occurred. I was extremely happy with how it turned out, and took it into the production phase. At this point, the film has been cast and we have actually filmed a handful of scenes for it. Even though I was on hiatus, I still ended up writing music for it, featuring lyrics by my Man Woman Machine bandmate, Tracey Moth. Making films is a ton of work, especially with a cast built mostly from stage theater people, as they keep busy schedules. Hopefully the film will wrap production sometime late this year.
In making the film, I also had to buy a variety of stage lighting and effects, video lighting, high end cameras, and more band gear (such as a full drum set). This sets me up nicely to step up my game for future God Astray related projects, so expect to FINALLY see some actual God Astray music videos released in the near future.
The first video release will be for the song "(She Likes It) Violent", which will be the next single released. This song is from the forthcoming full length all-erotic themed LP, tentatively titled "NYMPHOMANIACAL", which is slated for a late 2019/early 2020 release. The video concept has been figured out, and filming should take place in the coming month or two.
As for the record, writing began fairly recently and is going extremely well.... in fact, much better than any previous albums I have worked on. At this point, a handful of songs are already complete ((Wet, Vertical Smile, (She Likes It) Violent)), with another batch nearing the final mix stage, and another handful already planned out and on deck to be written next. Normally, I write the music first with no planned concepts, and it takes forever to come up with the lyrical aspects of a given track. For this album, I have approached the songs by coming up with the concepts first, then finding samples and working on lyrics before even one note of music is written. This has proven to be extremely effective!
There are also a few other God Astray releases in the works, but I am not ready to spill those details quite yet. So instead, I will announce that I have recorded a couple of covers that will hopefully see release soon. Last year, I recorded a cover of FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY's "Condemned", off their Hard Wired record from 1995. FLA has always been a HUGE influence, so it was an honor (and a ton of hard work) to record a cover of one of my favorite tracks of theirs. It will hopefully see a release though the TRIBULATIONS tribute albums group...otherwise, I may release it independently at some point.
Earlier this month, I recorded a cover of THE PRODIGY's "Baby's Got A Temper" to be released on JILTED GENERATIONS: A TRIBUTE TO THE PRODIGY. It will be released on September 17th, 2019 (late frontman Keith Flint's birthday), and the proceeds will benefit suicide prevention. This cover came together extremely easily, and I am very likely to continue to contribute to more tribute records in the future... so that is something to look out for.
That is all the news for the moment, but GOD ASTRAY is fucking BACK, so expect this page to be much more active this year!
On Saturday, June 23rd, GOD ASTRAY will be performing live on The Last Exit For The Lost, WVBR 93.5FM in Ithaca, NY. You can also tune in online at www.thelastexit.org . The program begins at midnight. They recently gave our track "Ultra-Negativity" some airplay too, so you can definitely expect to hear that one played during the live set.
GOD ASTRAY's track "WET" has been included on the compilation GOTHIC MUSIC ORGY VOLUME 4.
You can check that out here: https://dt-compilation.bandcamp.com/album/gothic-music-orgy-vol-4
The first new God Astray song written since 2012...and damn, it's great to be back!
"Wet" is a joyous, over the top tribute to womankind's super-soaked lusty lady parts....overloaded with enough porn samples to put even the most uptight prude in a randy mood!
Go get "Wet" on Bandcamp now for 'pay what you want' pricing!
w/JEREMIAH'S RAZOR
FALLING FROM ONE
WAGNER 3000
NEW BREMEN, NY
OXFORD, NY
UTICA, NY
w/ZALATAN
SEVENTH SEIGE