March 2002
Starsailor: Seven Seas of Sigh
There are old ears on Starsailor�s shoulders, but they�ve turned them to good use. Raised on a diet of Nick Drake, Led Zeppelin, and a dash of Queen, the unabashed classicism of the English quartet�s Love Is Here debut has struck a chord with American audiences. VH1's Brian Ives asked singer/guitarist James Walsh, bassist James Stelfox, drummer Ben Byrne and quiet keyboardist Barry Westhead about the music that makes them tick and the problems of being anointed the next Coldplay.
VH1: So how did you get together?
Ben Byrne: We grew up together. We first started playing in bands when we were about 11 or 12.
James Stelfox: I�ve known Ben since we were five or six years old really - probably a bit too long! We grew up listening to Led Zeppelin. Ben was listening to Queen. We went through school and to college together, too. We met Barry doing the same course. Then, about five and a half years ago, we stumbled upon James, who�s a little younger than the rest of us. But we got talking about mutual love for Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, and decided we had to play together.
VH1: Most Americans are completely unaware of Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley. How do a bunch of guys in their early �20s develop those influences?
James Walsh: We influenced each other. I was always reading articles in the music press where bands like Travis touted Jeff Buckley as a strong influence. That inspired me to discover his music. Stel turned me on to Nick Drake.
Stelfox: Our parents had really great record collections, so we�re quite lucky that way. We missed out on the really crappy stuff.
Walsh: Having older brothers and sisters helped, too. I�d sneak into their room when they go out, nick all their records and listen to them. That�s how I got into a group like the Charlatans, who we went on tour with, and things like New Order and Joy Division.
VH1: How did you come up with the name Starsailor?
Stelfox: We were called names before like Waterface and Morph, but they were pretty laughable. So we couldn�t go with them.
Walsh: We had to do the posters for the first gig. It was like, �What are your favorite Tim Buckley records?� We listed them and someone said that Starsailor was the best. So we went with it.
Byrne: Everyone thought we were gay, initially.
VH1: Why Tim Buckley?
Walsh: Because he was a lunatic that was able to take his music to the edge without sounding like he was forcing it. It�s easy to make odd noises with your amp and your pedal and the technology these days. But to create that sound in 1971 was pretty inspiring to me. To be able to squeal like Tarzan and still be in tune is a talent, I think.
VH1: Do any of you like groups that no one else in the band can really tolerate?
Walsh: Ben�s the sole Queen lover.
Byrne: Brian May came to watch us when he played L.A. It was amazing for me. I met him later. He�s a lovely bloke. Dead sweet, like.
Stelfox: Ben tried to force Queen down my neck when we were growing up. I used to go round his house for dinner and he�d be like, �Let�s listen to Sheer Heart Attack.� I thought, �Oh, no!� So I�d always leave dinner early because Queen would just bore me.
Walsh: Some of Stel�s bass player albums are a bit confusing to me. It�s like, �Where�s the song?� Instead, it�s sort of bum-ba-bum-bum �
Stelfox: James doesn�t like my Jaco Pastorius record.
VH1: So what CDs are you listening to right now?
Stelfox: If I�m honest I�m going to have to say Lauryn Hill. I fell asleep listening to it last night. I just love her voice.
Walsh: Talking Heads� Stop Making Sense. It�s the first time I�ve really discovered them. I�ve only heard the big singles, �Psycho Killer� and �Once in a Lifetime.� It's great to find out how innovative they were as a band. The constant one is Joni Mitchell�s Blue. It�s always good on those long bus journeys at two o�clock in the morning to relax you after a show.
Byrne: David Bowie�s Hunky Dory. I can�t stop listening to it at the minute. I�m really into P.J. Harvey�s last album as well.
Barry Westhead: Miles Davis� Kind of Blue. It�s always been there for the last eight years on and off. [Jazz pianist] Bill Evans, too.
VH1: Is there a lot of interaction between you and your fans? Do you turn them onto your enthusiasms?
Walsh: A few people have approached me and said, �I went out and bought a Tim Buckley or Nick Drake album because I read that you were into them.� What�s great about our band and endearing to young people is that we�re the same age. There isn�t that condescending trait a lot of people grow up with, where they look up to their heroes as if they�re some unbelievable entity. We just see ourselves as ordinary people with a special talent.
VH1: You�re touring America right now. Do you find there�s a big difference between the U.S. and U.K. music scenes?
Stelfox: Yeah. America�s so big. The main difference is radio. In the U.K. we only have one station, Radio One, which is broadcast throughout the country. You get to America and every state has stations. You could be popular in New York or L.A. and unknown in the middle part of the country.
VH1: Does it intimidate you that the press has branded you as the next big thing?
Walsh: I feel a pressure to perform! The way I write lyrics and melodies is to do something and then move on. If I haven�t got anything new on the go, then I�m pretty useless, really. It�s a strange mind-set, but it�s what keeps it moving. If we just sat down and thought, �Oh, we don�t have to do anything ever again because we wrote these songs,� it wouldn�t be right.
VH1: A lot of people liken you to Coldplay and Radiohead. Is that a compliment?
Walsh: We can�t say anything when people compare us to Radiohead apart from �Thank you very much,� because they�re musical geniuses. But it can be frustrating sometimes. Coldplay only broke six months ahead of us, but to the media it seems like they�re our mentors. It doesn�t really happen that way!
Stelfox: We�ve been playing longer as a band as well. Coldplay are only three years old, and we�re five or six. It�s strange to hear �You�re the new Coldplay� when really we�re not.
VH1: You�re a rock band, but you�ve said you wanted to have hits like a pop band like �N Sync or S Club 7. Your fans are still by and large indie rockers. How do you feel about that situation?
Walsh: It�s important to us to be popular like that. At the same time,
it would be nice to get out of the whole soap opera of it. Sometimes it
frustrates me that someone like Spiritualized�s Jason Pierce, even though
he�s a lot older and been making records a lot longer, is thought of on
a completely other plane and we�re all lumped together with Travis and
Coldplay and the like. You just want to be yourselves. It�s a double-edged
sword. You want success, but you don�t want your every word made into a
headline.
