December 2001
A few months ago Starsailor were one of the young bands to be featured as Band Of The Week at mtve.com. The English foursome has now become one of this year´s most successful newcomers as their debut album "Love is here" has climbed charts all over the world.
We met up with the seemingly hangover bandmembers James Stelfox and Ben Byrne to talk about the new album and how their lives have changed after meeting fame. They´ve gone from playing together as teenagers to one of Britain´s most acclaimed bands.
"First we mainly tried to capture our own sound. Our ideas are a lot stronger now than what they were. Everything has just gone BOOM"
Welcome to Sweden. How have you liked it here this far?
We really like it. We played at the Hultsfred festival this summer.
We enjoyed that a lot. The weather there was good and the women were beautiful.
Do you find it a lot different to play in Sweden compared to when you
play in England?
Yeah, a little bit. The audience are a bit more relaxed here.
Has the reactions from the audiences changed a lot now when the album
"Love Is here" finally is out?
In the UK everything has just gone "Boom" and we�re getting more and
more attention from other countries as well especially now with the tour.
Prior to when you released the album you received a lot of hype in the
press. How has that affected you?
In some ways it has helped us because the press has obviously made
a lot of people aware of our name and become curious of what we�re like.
I guess some people have questioned why we�re getting all this attention
so soon.
Do you think there may be some bad effects of being "too hyped?"
That�s possible but it doesn�t really matter now since the album�s
out. We�ve done what we�ve set out to do this far so I don�t think the
hype can damage us now.
How would you describe your music to someone who haven�t ever heard
you before?
Someone once said that it is a cross between Neil Young and the Verve
and that�s something which describes us quite well, we think. It�s a melancholy
type of music.
When you began writing the songs on "Love Is Here" did you have any
concepts that you wanted to portray in the music?
We wrote most of the album is March 2000 except for a few songs like
"Good Souls" we made 3 years ago. At that time there wasn�t any interest
so we basically wrote it for ourselves about things that felt relevant
to us at the time.
How does it normally work when you write the songs?
First James comes in with a melody and some lyrics and presents it
to the rest of us and then we just jam the song with different riffs and
sequences and try different rhythms and patterns. "Good Souls" was from
the beginning just a jam, that�s why it took so long to finish. At one
point it was like 10 minutes long and we realized we had to break it down
and choose one of the versions. And after many hours of jamming we found
the way we wanted it to sound when we put it on the album but we could
still maintain the same groove to it.
Do you feel like your music has changed a lot from when you began playing
together?
Yeah, everything has since we started playing together in different
bands about five years ago. The first three years we used mainly to capture
our sound. James was only 16 when we started. Now we are more mature in
ourselves and in our music. Our ideas are a lot stronger now than what
they were.
What are your main influences?
From James point of view since he writes the songs it is definitely
Jeff Buckley and Neil Young. We also listened a lot to the Stones, The
Eagles, Led Zeppelin and bands like that.
It seems like you feel more connected to music from the 60�s and 70�s
than modern music?
Yeah, definitely even though there are a lot of bands out there that
we respect a lot.
On the English pop scene you�ve been compared to Coldplay and Travis.
Does that apply with your own thoughts?
Everyone says "They�re gonna be the next Coldplay" and things like
that. That is probably the question we get asked the most. The only similarity
as we see it is that we play sort of slow acoustic based songs. The way
we use our musicianship is completely different than theirs. James has
a completely different way of singing.
You recently won the Q Award for �Best New Artist,� you beat big bands
like the Strokes and Turin Brakes.� Has that had any effect on you yet?
Yeah our heads have become a lot bigger now. [Laugh] Honestly when
we got there we didn�t expect to win so it was a great surprise.
I understand it was quite a big event. Have you gotten used to parties
like that?
It was a big celebrity bash. We�ve gone to a few but this is probably
the biggest one yet. We kinda partied with Radiohead, Coldplay and Travis.
It was quite fun.
You recently completed the video for your new single "Lullaby" [which
is available right here]. How did you like the process of making the video?
The production was based over two days. James did a lot of outside
scenes and we did some live shots and filmed some sequences outside. Were
quite happy with the result. It turned out well.
Do you enjoy the concept of making music videos?
Yeah, It�s a bit long sometimes though. It depends on what you drunk
the night before. [Laugh] 20 years ago music videos didn�t exist but now
it has become necessary so we will continue making videos I�m sure. People
usually come to us with ideas for a video and directors approach us with
an idea. We�ve been lucky having directors that we can trust.
You grew up in a small town out in the country. Do you think that has
helped you to get a perspective on things?
It has helped us to find our sound a bit. We didn�t really have much
to do over there so we just concentrated on making music and becoming better.
Does it feel like you�ve succeeded now when you�ve released an album
and are touring all around Europe?
It�s a different reaction now. We�re really happy about having come
this far. It�s like having the best job in the world.
What are your plans after this European tour?
After this we�re heading over to play in New York and LA and then we
are going back to support the Charlatans on their US tour in January and
then we are back in England for February and back around Europe for March
and April. Then we go back to the states in the summer. We will probably
play here in Stockholm again in March or April.
What do you play when you run out of songs?
Well, we like trying out some new stuff. Sometimes we also play covers
by Gram Parsons and Van Morrison. James sometimes plays some Neil Young
and Jeff Buckley songs.
What are you current goals with your music?
Just to keep writing, making sure that what we do is relevant. We don�t
want to play this album and burn out. We want to keep writing new songs
and make more music. We�ve got to move on and make sure we�re happy with
what we�re doing.
