How JFK and the Cold War space race inspired an album

Interview: Public Service Broadcasting's frontman J. Willgoose Esq explores the history behind the band's Cold War era-inspired album The Race For Space

Public Service Broadcasting are as much a science project as they are a band. The duo create musical pieces exploring science, history and discovery using samples from vintage documentaries alongside more traditional instruments. Their latest album, The Race For Space, scavenges from the original Apollo transmissions, vintage Soviet documentaries and the actual signal broadcast by Sputnik 1 to tell the story of the 1960's Cold War-driven mania for space travel.

On the eve of the album's launch at Leicester's National Space Centre, we sat down with frontman J. Willgoose Esq to go through the historic and scientific inspirations behind each track.