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A Rocket to the Moon is on the rise. The rock band that made waves for their cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” kicked off their international tour, with dates scheduled in America, the United Kingdom and Indonesia.

GlobalGrind got a chance to interview the lead singer of the group, Justin Richards and check out the band’s performance at Highline Ballroom. Justin gave us details about how the band came together, which hip-hop artists they want to work with and the band’s involvement with the Keep a Breast Foundation.

Check it out!

Can you tell us a little bit about the band? How you initially formed and where the name came from?

It was first started by Nick a few years ago. He was kind of just going about it by himself as a solo artist. He had a more electronic feel. He’s always been fascinated by outer space, so he wanted the project to involve that subject matter. He had started going on tour and back then, we had the same manager. So we went on tour together. When my band started to slow down we were already writing songs for Rocket. Eric, the bass player, is actually good friends with the old manager. We kind of just met Andrew Cook through the producer who recorded our last record, “On Your Side.” We’re really lucky; we all get along so well.

Are you all based in the same city?

No, we still all live in our hometowns.

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How is the tour going?

It is good; the first show is always kind of smoothing out the whole set up. It is a lot of fun though. It’s really humbling to think about how far we’ve come.

Are you able to watch any of the opening bands perform?

I watched Anarbor perform. They play before us. We will definitely watch the other bands perform. We are fans of all the bands.

What can your fans expect from the live show?

We have a lot of fun! Hopefully they can see that and have fun with us. It’s a pretty upbeat show. We only slow it down for three songs. Hopefully the fans get really good vibes; we want everyone to enjoy themselves.

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If you had a chance to collaborate with a hip-hop artist, who would it be?

That’s hard; we really love hip-hop. I really like Big Boi and Cee-Lo. Wale and Wiz Khalifa are awesome too!

What made you guys cover “Single Ladies?”

We were chilling in our drummer’s house and just decided to cover the song. A lot of bands do punk covers of rap songs, but it’s funny because a well written song can be executed in any style of music. So we just went with it and gave the song a cool vibe in the process.

Can any of you guys do the “Single Ladies” dance?

I can do it, not well though. Nick is a pretty funny guy, so I’m pretty sure he could pull it off.

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Who are some other artists that you’re listening to? Any up and coming artists?

We listen to a lot of country. There’s this duet called the Civil Wars that is just beginning to take off. It’s really soft, southern, acoustic music. They have great voices. We also listen to Ryan Adams and Ray LaMontagne.

If you weren’t making music what would you be doing?

I don’t know. I’ve done this for so long that I can’t imagine doing anything else. Maybe cooking. I would like to think that I could act, but I doubt it.

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Could you tell us about how you got involved with the Keep A Breast Foundation and the reason behind it?

We really like to get involved with any type of charity work we can. Breast cancer is something we have all dealt with in some way. We really wanted to get the message out and to educate the youth in breast cancer awareness.

Thank you for your time and good luck with the tour!

You can check out the last few shows of the tour if you are in any of these cities:

April 19 Toronto, ON The Mod Club Theatre
April 20 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop
April 21 Pittsburgh, PA Altar Bar
April 22 South Hackensack, NJ School Of Rock
April 23 Foxborough, MA Showcase Live