Most people know 21-year-old Randy Chabot Jr. as the madly prolific electro-brilliant Deastro. But Deastro is just one side of Randy's multifaceted personality. The others include Our Brother the Megazord, which is Randy's self-described "sunshine rock" project; Jr. Jr. is his lo-fi acoustic indie rock outlet, and the tentatively named Galaxy Eyes will be more of a Steve Reich meets Four Tet at Sufjan Stevens' house kinda thing.
So when does Deastro sleep? That would be on Sundays.
His days go like this: After getting off of work at the Moonstruck Chocolate Company in New Baltimore, Randy heads home to Sterling Heights to work on tracks in his parents' basement, which he shares with his brother Michael.
Said basement is overrun with keyboards, guitars, amps, PAs, drums, MIDI controllers and computers. Randy pretty much kicks out a track a day there. On top of reading voraciously, illustrating and playing shows, he somehow has enough time for his girlfriend Rachel.
Michael and Randy slowly took over the basement from their parents after starting in a corner — set aside for their creative pursuits — about five years ago. Their folks are supportive, but there've been mishaps along the way. Like when Randy turned off the furnace one day while recording and forgot to turn it back on, or when he unplugged the refrigerator also while recording and almost ruined Thanksgiving. "I hope to have my own basement someday," Randy says, "with a studio that's not next to the furnace. My mom is seriously an angel."
Deastro performs at Blowout on Friday, March 7, at the Painted Lady. His new release, The Thigh Master ("a culture rant inspired by feminist study") is tentatively scheduled for free download in April.
