Astro Sasquatches by Ill Jay Phox

A few years ago I had an experience I've never really spoken about.
I was going through some stuff at the time and decided to go for an Outback hike to clear my head.

I drove out bush for a few hours, parked my car on the side of the road and started walking. This was something I'd never done before, so I did all the things that those tourists do who end up getting lost. I went on my own, I didn't tell anyone where I was going, I didn't take enough water - every mistake I could have possibly made, I made.

About two hours later I turned around to walk back to the car. After another three-hour walk back I still hadn't reached my car. I thought I had walked back the same way I came, but then I should have hit the road again by now. It was getting dark and I started panicking, as it dawned on me that I had no idea where I was.

I decided to not walk in the dark and curled up next to a rock to sleep. I was cold and almost out of water. The next day I decided to find higher ground in the hope I would be able to spot the road. There was a rock formation on the horizon, which seemed to be the highest point in the area. The day passed and progress was really slow. At times I couldn’t see the rocks I was heading for and started questioning whether they were actually there. By midday, I had used up my last sip of water which I had been saving from the day before. It was already dark by the time I reached the formation. I climbed up as high as I could and found shelter next to one of the boulders to sleep.

The next morning, after two days of walking with no food or water, I was exhausted. I tried to lift myself off the rock but my body said no. I had nothing left. The next thing I remember is opening my eyes, I was still in the same spot. There was a deafening, constant, crackling sound, like an untuned radio. I could see an object hovering in the sky not far from me. I saw what looked like a body, slowly descending to the ground through a beam of light. It looked like a big, hairy, ape-like creature, or maybe a puffy space suit of some sort.

This is where my memories fade.

In the few days after the incident, I felt confused, unsure of whether what I had seen actually happened. I had anxiety attacks and nightmares for weeks. I tried to process what I had experienced in the only way I know, through music. I made music to distract myself. A lot of it was weird, often not even music - just noises and soundscapes without any rhythm or structures.

I have recently revisited those projects and re-worked some of them into songs and I have published them on Spotify.

I have never spoken about this before because it’s a completely made-up story. Total humbug. But it’s heaps more entertaining than the truth, which is that I had a bunch of songs with meaningless working title names sitting around and was struggling to come up with a concept for an EP.

Don’t judge me.

Hope you enjoy the sound of Astro Sasquatches.

beat creator. groove rider. sample digger. vinyl appreciator. deejay. event facilitator. radio host.