Astro Safari

is the name by which 3 recently graduated (and 1 current) Western (Ontario) students call their collaborative musical creations -- conceived mostly in Sydenham Hall, HSB Room 240 and on Cedar Ave across from the Hi-Ya Mart. Their names are Matt Simmonds, Paul Jenkins, Ben Tucker and Dan Weidelich. We hope you enjoy what you hear !

Astro Safari is a newly formed Canadian four-piece started out of the University of Western Ontario. With a repertoire based in rock music they are doing their best to ignore the rules and formulas plaguing the art best understood by way of ears.

The project, originally titled Sim & Dan, began to take root from the stockpile of co-lead-vocalist, Dan Weidelich's lyrics and guitar pieces he began writing in his first year of university. After two dormant years, insert the musical mind of multi-instrumentalist Matt Simmonds (also of Air Marshal Landing) and suddenly the hibernating bits and pieces began to pour fluidly into their own respective places.

The pair recorded two songs ('Open Your Eyes' and subsequently 'Riptide') for a mutual friend(Ben Doner)'s group audio recording projects in 2009. Upon hearing the finished products both decided an album must be written, inevitably leading to the formation of a band. Experienced hardcore-high-school-band-drummer Ben Tucker hopped on the kit to solidify the groove and Paul Jenkins ferociously picked up his axe to power up the tonal potency of what has become known as Astro Safari.