The Indoor Astronomy of Astronomía Interior

This feature appeared previously in SPIN Magazine.

“We agreed not to make another rock and roll band,” laughs Ángel Mosqueda. Good thing, because he and Jesús Baez are already in one of those: Grammy-winning Zoé. Existing alongside their main group, the duo’s new project Astronomía Interior explores a different side of music.

With more than ten albums to its credit, Cuernavaca, Mexico’s alternative rock band Zoé is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed groups in the Spanish-speaking world. Baez and Mosqueda launched Astronomía Interior as a parallel endeavor, one that combines classic synthpop textures, evocative Spanish-language vocals and a modern electronic vibe.

To occupy themselves during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, the two passed musical ideas back and forth via email. It wasn’t long before a group of solid new songs began to take shape. Mosqueda suggested, “Why don’t we do this as a real, official project with all the ingredients that come [with] making an album?”

The new project lets Mosqueda and Baez step beyond their customary roles as bassist and keyboardist. “We started doing things that we don’t do in Zoé,” Mosqueda explains. “We’re going to musical places that maybe you don’t go in a band.”

Astronomía Interior is inspired in part by synthesizer-based music of the 1970s and ‘80s, but not defined by it. “We’re not attached to any style or way of doing things,” Baez says. The songs on the duo’s self-titled 2023 debut album are built with keyboards, drum machines and vocals, but the duo’s second album, due in March, takes things beyond those confines. The haunting and moody “Abril” adds guitars and real drums into the mix. “Our musical spectrum has become wider,” Mosqueda says.

The music video for “Abril” emphasizes the song’s dark and surreal quality. The female character in the video is an enigma: “You don’t know if it’s her dream, or if she belongs to a dream world,” Mosqueda says, noting that the song showcases just one side of Astronomía Interior. “Other songs we have are brighter, more colorful,” he says. “And that’s part of the joy of this.”

A duo in the studio, Astronomía Interior expands to three or four musicians for live dates. Creative experimentation is at the core of what they’re doing with this new project. “It’s a combination between fun and trying to do the best music we can,” Mosqueda says, noting that for Astronomía Interior, it’s always about the song. “We can experiment, but we’re always focusing on narrative and structure. We’re not DJs,” he says with a laugh.