October 2001
Starsailor are about to take over the music world, what with their light
and lovely epic tunes and stuff. Before they set sail Virgin.net grab a
quick word and a shandy with the new saviours of British music...
God bless America
Guys, last time I saw you we were boozing in your luxury hotel, playing
Elvis' tunes on a grand piano and singing to ladies until the early hours
- is it right to suggest being a rock and roll star is the best job in
the world?
[James Walsh]: "Perhaps, yes, we really cannot complain about our career
choices, it is all rather enjoyable stuff. I would thoroughly recommend
it."
Your success has progressed so quickly, how do you envisage things transforming
in the next few years?
[James Stelfox]: "I think we just aim to get better. This new album
has really captured where we were in 2001, but we just want to keep moving,
re-invent ourselves with each new release. We know and feel we are going
to keep getting better."
You were due to fly out to the US did you cancel because of the horrific
events in New York?
[James Stelfox]: "Yeah, we have cancelled indefinitely. We were going
out to play with Coldplay but with all that has happened we feel it would
be inappropriate and disrespectful."
How do you feel about what has happened? Did you have any close friends
or family involved?
[James Walsh]: "Our agent and press offices are based in New York,
we got a phone call from him to say he was OK but a lot of people he knows
and works with were caught up in the attack."
[James Stelfox]: "When we spoke to him we just said just forget about the gig, forget about the music, deal with your priorities - it is devastating. It has hit the whole world. You do not expect to go to work and face danger and horror. What hit me were the pictures on TV of people in Iraq and places celebrating and cheering, that just cut me to the bone."
[James Walsh]: "I think the sad thing is, and I'll probably get abuse for saying it, but people really seem to have embraced this tragedy because America is just across the water. When something gets blown up in Israel there is a five minute piece on the news and then that is it."
James Stelfox : "But the death toll in this case is so horrifically
high."
The "beautiful ring" to Bryan Adams
The images were so shocking the global reaction is hardly surprising,
but you would agree that our media is under a very heavy American influence?
[James Stelfox]: "Totally, yeah. You also never expect a country like
America to get hit - other places where there are religious wars going
on all the time you grow accustomed to horror stories - the fact that the
States have been hit directly is news in itself. We should probably stop
talking about this, it is all bad."
Had America been a key market for Starsailor? Is success there important
to you?
[James Walsh]: "Yeah, it is pretty important. It is important for us
to concentrate our efforts in Europe at the minute as well."
The States are so big, it is such a huge, huge market.
[James Walsh]: "I think what is important is doing a lot of three/four
month stints touring and promoting. They say that in order to make it in
the States you need to give at least a year of your life, but I think if
you just go over there for a year and forget about Europe and the UK, people
will just think we have given it all up - we feel we owe it to our fans
to be loyal, to remember where we started from - and not to neglect our
audience to go chasing another dream in the US."
I presume a lot of your musical influences are American?
[James Walsh]: "Yeah, our dream is to play with Ryan Adams of Whiskeytown
- that would be the ultimate for us."
As opposed to Bryan Adams crinkled-faced Canadian lumberjack rock singer.
[James Walsh]: "Well that would be lovely as well, Starsailor featuring
Bryan Adams has a beautiful ring to it."
Superstarsailor
Do you find it difficult to get time to write when you are touring
and promoting so much? Is this something that concerns you?
[James Walsh]: "I think we have a good balance. I would not want to
force it when we are in a period when it is not as necessary.
"This album is going to take a lot of touring and promotion and will change a lot of things, so I think it is better to just wait and see what inspires me and to write organically, instead of panicking and think I have to get the next album done.
"I think we need to concentrate on our new material. It is that classic thing whereby you have five years to write the first album and then one year to write the next."
[James Stelfox]: "Speaking to Fran Healy from Travis, I think he has a really good outlook, when they were doing the second album he was struggling to write for a bit and he said you just have to keep playing, keep working at it to try and catch the magic."
Since you have entered the music business have you met more "good souls"
or assholes?
[James Walsh]: "Good souls, definitely. I think it is people in music
who have a more down to earth attitude towards us and get on better with
us - they have met thousands of musicians and famous performers before.
So long as you are polite and a nice person you will get respect, whereas
I think people in the street have an expectation of you to be quite outgoing
and have this "star quality".
"Sometimes you do not always exude this when you have just crawled out of bed. Other bands like Travis, The Doves, Ed Harcourt have been really cool, we can get on in a really balanced way and they don't hold the false expectations other people might hold."
So what expectations can we hold for Starsailor - bigger than Celine
Dion?
[James Stelfox]: "Bigger, brighter, stronger... just wait and see."
Celine you have been warned, Starsailor are sailing straight to the top. Bon voyage lads...
