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our name is stars. - the interview. The first question is simple enough, when did our name is stars. become a band?nathan.I think the three of us had no known each other for a good two or three years before we came together to form this band. We were all in bands for a long time, all of which were local or regionally bands, they never went to a large skill. And we had met each other through the other bands we were in. All three of us were in indie bands but they were all a bit different. Alex was in a indie folk, Jay was doing some indie rock, and I was making indie pop with my band. So I don't really know how we became this trio, but I just remember that Jay and I met up again in late 2010, both our bands had kinda broken up around the same time. Then in January or February of last year, we asked Alex to join. I guess we unintentionally formed our name is stars.Alex, why did you decide to accept the offer these guys made you to join their band or lack thereof?alex.It was an easy decision to make. I knew Nathan and I admired him as both a singer-songwriter and performer. And Jason, I wasn't familiar with his work at the time, but Nate sent me a few demos they were working on and I was blown away by Jason's guitar playing. After that I knew I had to join because it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and it's lived up to that. I never thought I'd be part of a band signed to a major record label.What do you guys consider to be the defining moment or most important moment for this band?jason.For me personally, it was the day we all met up in this really crappy studio in New Jersey. We were paying for our own studio time so we couldn't afford anything better, but I think once the three of us got into the studio and everyday for the week we had the studio rented out, we came out with more and more music everyday, that's when I thought we had something good going on or building on something that could have some value.alex.I think it was the moments within that time period that Jason is talking about. It didn't start that way because the first song we recorded together, nothing really clicked on it. I'm not sure if it was the song itself we didn't like very much, or the recording didn't sound good...nathan.[interrupting] I still love it! [chuckles]jason.I listened back to it the other day and I think it was the recording that didn't come out as we expected.alex.I don't think the song was bad either, but I think it was mostly just nerves.nathan.Yeah, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make this band work, unlike our six or seven bands before. I don't think we would have gotten a record deal if we hadn't been. But it made things tough for us. I think once we got the record deal and the financial backing of a label that believed in us, we were able to relax more and kind of really know what each of our roles were within the band. We aren't trying to impress each other anymore. I think when you know that behind that glass window, Ryan Ross Hernandez is handling the soundboard, you want to impress him and that's not a bad thing, but really we're just trying to work together and try to understand each other more than anything else. Which is tough at the start because we all have the same ultimate goal, but you never know the path someone wants to take to accomplish it. We weren't familiar with each other very much when we started the band, so we just had to work past it. And thankfully enough time passed that by the time we had signed a record deal, we all knew each other very well as people and musicians.Do you feel the sound of the band has evolved from those first demos you recorded, to now with your debut album?nathan.Absolutely. We're a band that I don't know if we'll be around for a year or a decade, but we constantly want to be evolving. I'd say the demos we first made were more about finding ourselves as a band. I don't think we've left everything behind from each of the former bands we were in just because we are signed to a label. There are still pieces of our former selves in the songs we're making now. What comes from our past bands, kind of brought us together to form this one, so we probably won't ever leave those influences behind. But we're all in, I want to say late-20s, so we're growing up as people and music listeners too. I know my taste in music has changed from when I was like sixteen, seventeen years old.jason.I feel like on one hand it feels like nothing is left from the past, because it's constantly about moving forward. But in the other hand, it feels like everything is just a big collage of what we've done. To get really specific, I feel like our debut record in this band, is more indicative of who we are than anything in the past. It's the first album where we felt that weight of indie rock had been lifted off of us because we don't want to make records like Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago," or even an Arcade Fire record. Our debut record sounds big and was really epic in the sense that our sound is established as really powerful on this record. It's more us than anything else we ever explored in.When did hip-hop influences and hip-hop productions come to the picture?nathan.Well I think we all found a lot of inspiration in hip-hop music. I remember we had a conversation about maybe getting a hip-hop producer to produce our debut record. I was in New York City last summer, and I remember talking with a few producers and I was talking about the whole hip-hop thing and stuff like that. So around then is when we started exploring that. But it didn't come to fruition until this past January or so. It was like for months before we started recording, we were catching lighting in a bottle and saving it up until we could make it come true.What hip-hop records were you into?nathan.Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", was a big one in getting us to think that we might be able to like borrow or be inspired by a lot of these sounds that are happening. It had a lot of theatrical elements that still felt like they had the finger on the pulse as far as the future was concerned. And even before that, "808s & Heartbreak", might get a lot of hate, but I feel like that record made a new style of hip-hop that others caught on to. Drake's "Thank Me Later" and "Take Care", both sound so fresh to us. Especially, "Thank Me Later", it didn't sound like anything else out there, that I had heard at the time. I guess we as an alternative or indie band, can kind of get away with making a bed out of all these sounds that we really just love.How did meeting Ryan Ross Hernandez and later him, not only signing you to his North Hill Records imprint, but also producing your record come about?nathan.It was last year, I think around November or December, he was recording his new album in Electric Lady Studios, the recording studio that Jimi Hendrix built. All the dots connected, because even though Ryan had never produced any hip-hop records, we knew that he had experience in both exploring other sounds in his own records, as well as working or producing for artists that weren't exactly in his realm. He's kind of guy that both as a artist and producer, wants to take risks and have as many colors to paint with as possible.our name is stars. and Ryan Ross Hernandez sounds like an unlikely collaboration. Why do you think it worked so well?alex.It worked well because we constantly want to be pushing ourselves. We want to do different things all the time. I think an artist like Ryan has really done it all, in terms of exploring sounds and making every record he puts out, to sound different from the previous one. He's made pop records, rock records, blues records, soul, Americana. We look up to people like that we are constantly evolving. Personally, I see the world of hip-hop as being in a really good space creatively. People are constantly trying to push borders and be the best. Not just as an attitude, but also the sounds, everything is a new unique sound. I'm mostly talking about Kanye West here. His whole approach that everything has to be unique and has to be high art. We wanted more than anything else adopt that attitude in the studio and respect for our work. The collaboration worked well because Ryan was as excited as us to explore that sort of hip-hop sound and approach. Ryan was almost like a mentor for us. It took us all aback when we realized that he had so much hip-hop knowledge too.jason.I think Ryan has like such an extensive knowledge of music that he can be successful in any genre he tries next. He introduced a lot of new things to our music that with any other producer, I don't think we would have ever found out about.nathan.Yeah, I feel like that's the thing. When you're working with someone like Ryan Ross Hernandez, you're not just getting a single-minded producer. You're getting a musician who who's capable of a million different things and a composer who's capable of a million different things. He wasn't trying to stuff our music into a single package. It was more so about learning what we wanted to do with the album and helping us to visualize that and accomplish it. And having him mold it as well. It was a musical experience.If we were to flip the coin, why do you guys think Ryan agreed to take a risk on you?nathan.I think this was a unique situation for him. He was able to fully handle the production aspect of things, on his own. I can't speak for Ryan, but when we got into the studio, it felt like this was the kind of sound he always wanted to explore but never could before. I don't necessarily think he was looking for it when we met because he was and still is very invested with folk and Americana music form the 70s, but he's a smart guy, so I think he realized that this was something completely new for him to try. I think instead of signing an established act, he wanted a band like us which he could help put on the map.Is it true that the first song you sent Ryan was a song that had no verses, just a chorus?nathan.[laughs] That is true. I think I met Ryan in New York City, at his apartment. We had a few drinks and I think it was a Thursday night, we talked a lot about music we liked, that we didn't like. He hadn't heard any of our songs, but his people were telling him that it'd be good for him to sit down and just talk with me. He played me some of the stuff he had recorded for his new album, and it was completely different from what we were doing, so I got a little worried. But he told me to send him whatever we were working on to his e-mail, then the following morning I sent him an e-mail with one of our demos and I sent him a song that had no verses or a bridge, it was just the music and a chorus. Which was thankfully enough to impress him.What's the name of that song? Is it on the debut record?jason.It's called "A Night in New York City," and it will be on the album. It won't be the first single, but the label seems pretty intent in making it the second single, which we don't mind because we love that song. We love every song on this record, which is why we don't mind whatever single North Hill Records decides to go with. I think that our music is a departure of what's on the radio right now. A lot of the lyrics that are in hit songs right now are about not giving a fuck, partying, getting drunk. I think that all of our songs have a positive feel to it, without having to dumb down to the lowest denominator. And the way these songs sound is a big thing too, just because it's alternative and I think people are ready to hear that on the radio.What is the first single then?nathan.The first single is a song called "Let's Gamble on Lucky Street". I think that song best describes who we are as a band. It's one of those most, no, it's über-personal to me, yet I think it gives people stuff to relate to. It has a good message and it's not a love song. That was important to us, we told Ryan and Nadia that they could go with whichever song they wanted for our first single, as long as it wasn't a love song, and thankfully they heard us out. Probably if the decision was up to us, we'd still go with this song to be the first single.You guys can't say if you have any collaborators on the album, but who are some artists that you guys would love to collaborate with in the future?nathan.Hey Lolita. I just heard their labelmates of ours. I was a big fan of their EP and I think Arianna has one of the best and most distinctive voices in the industry. I think it'd be cool to collab with them.alex.I'd have to say Isaac Lovelock. We've heard all the verses he's dropped on other people's records, and I think it'd be really inserting to see what he could do on one of our songs.jason.I think if I said Nadia Berry it would be too obvious, but her solo records have been spectacular. Whether she goes for pop records or indie rock records, she definitely has a clear vision in what she wants to do and I respect that.Lastly, what do you expect to accomplish with this record? Each of you can answer this question.alex.I just hope people listen to it. We don't have any goals in mind, we'll let the record label make their own. But we just hope people enjoy our record and hopefully come out to see us on tour this fall.jason.Yeah, I think artists are defined by their live shows. We could make the best record in the world, but if we can't go out every night and prove it to people, they won't care to come out to shows because they can find the same thing by just listening to our record. So we already have a touring band in place, and we've been rehearsing a lot the last few days. We're ready to hit the road.nathan.Well the other day we talked on Skype with Ryan and he told us to keep calm, relax, because we were about to go on an upward spiral. We trust Ryan and the label to all in their power to get this record out there, and gives the proper backing to be successful and be around a while. We don't want to drop just want album and disappear. We feel our debut album is just the first stepping stone for us. But we still want our record, even if it's just a debut, to be around forever. |
