Jessica Tanner was fascinated with space growing up in Phoenix.
But she also flirted with becoming a geologist β she loved rocks β and maybe an archeologist, because she had seen βIndiana Jonesβ a gazillion times and thought Harrison Ford was so good looking.
βHe was my first crush,β the recent University of Arizona grad said.
But when it came time to decide a career path, she picked construction engineering β not exactly what you would picture when you listen to her new album βAndromeda.β
Oh, yeah, Tanner is also the aspiring singer-songwriter Asphalt Astronaut whose ambient music has been described as βpensiveβ and βmelancholy.β
On Oct. 17, Tanner is releasing Asphalt Astronautβs second album, βAndromeda.β Sheβs performing a CD release event at Bookmans on East Speedway and South Country Club Road on Oct. 23.
Two albums in less than two years? Not a bad start for someone who picked up the guitar as an βeasy Aβ elective in college and found herself with too much time on her hands during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tanner, who is mostly self-taught on the guitar, started writing lyrics to go with the chords she was learning in that UA class, one of her last classes before she graduated in 2020.
βI always liked singing as a kid, but I was super shy about it,β said the 24-year-old, who was born in Tucson and grew up in Phoenix. βI would do it by myself when I didnβt think anyone was listening.β
Thatβs kind of how she recorded her debut album, βAntares,β which she released on Dec. 1. The 10 tracks are in the singer-songwriter vein, with varying tempos and moods that are accentuated by the imperfections of the recording. Tanner, who admits she knew nothing about recording at that point, bought an inexpensive mic and recorded the album using her computer.
She uploaded it to Spotify thinking βmy fans will find me.β
βAnd they didnβt,β she said with a laugh.
Fast-forward to 2021: Tanner, who works as a project engineer for a Tucson construction company, upgraded her mic and bought βbig boyβ recording software to make her sophomore album. She also focused more on the story she was trying to tell through βAdromeda.β
βIβm proud of how it developed a narrative. The first (album) was, βOoh, I bet I can write 10 songs and pick out (multiple) chord changesβ,β she explained. βThis one is a breakup album, which is super cliche I know, but thatβs music I guess.β
When she first started writing the album early this year, she didnβt know it was going to be a breakup album.
She wrote moody, angsty songs that reflected issues in her relationship β she thought she and her significant other were hitting a rough patch that would be mended with time.
βI thought it was some sort of metaphor,β she said of the lyrics she was writing and the story that was unfolding with every new song. βBut it turns out it was quite literal.β
The result is an album of somewhat sad but never sappy songs that borrow a bit from fairytales and folklores to tell her story of love lost. The album opens and closes with the title song; the reprise is a bit more moody and stripped down from the sweeping, lyrically and musically layered original.
Tanner decided to up her marketing game on the second album as well. Instead of uploading it to streaming sites when she finished the album in June and hoping people would discover it, she developed a marketing plan that included releasing the first single in July and reaching out to music journalists over the summer.
βIβm very excited to put it out,β she said of this weekβs release. βIβve been sitting on it since June.β
As for her stage name? Tanner says that goes back to childhood career plan A.
βIβve always liked space,β she said. βBut Iβm not STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) focused.β
