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X-clusive: Stellastarr* Begin Work On New Record
After three singles, a whole heap of praise and a seemingly never-ending touring schedule, all lead singer Shawn Christensen wants to do is sleep. For a long time. Failing that, an exclusive chat with Xfm Online about his band's rise to fortune and the next twelve months in the life of Stellastarr* will have to do.
"A lot of my songs are based roughly on real people," Christensen explains "and the new single 'My Coco' is just the same. Its about that feeling you get when you just start dating someone and everything's great, and there's no worries… but with a hint of 'its all gonna go to shit at some point' buried deep in there somewhere."
It's six months since Christensen's whirlwind really began. In September 2003 the album 'Stellastarr*' was released and the British press embraced the band as the latest product of New York's thriving music scene. But after playing the album live for almost a year, the band seem ready to retire to the studio to begin work on its follow-up.
"We have about 20 songs we're working on at the moment for the new album, and as we've been on tour for so long, even some those have been gathering dust for a while. 'Stay Entertained' was written right after we finished the first album, so it has a very similar vibe with some distortion guitars on it, but other new songs like 'On My Own' are a lot more layered and melodic.
"I'm definitely moving away from distorted, heavy songs. I think there's a time and a place for them, but I'm just not a fan anymore. I'm more interested in softer songs that are more strongly melodic."
Whilst the band have completed a number of variously-sized UK tours since their conception, the band are still yet to gain the same level of popularity in the USA outside their home city, New York.
"The UK is much more open armed than the USA. It has a much more friendly vibe at the gigs and people coming to see us who genuinely like the band" Christensen reveals. "When we get back to the States, we'll do our first ever headline tour there, but without any real radio play there people still really have no clue who we are.
"But after that we'll be back in Europe for the festivals which will be great. We've played Reading before, but this time round we want to do T in the Park and Glastonbury especially, that'd be great."
Tagged as Stellastarr, archive
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