Silver Starling
November 25th, 2009 - Written by stevek—
“An acclaimed five piece who pour their emotions into every track, Silver Starling has quickly found its way onto critics’ radars while audiences have been won over by the group’s brand of earnest and energizing rock.” – www.myspace.com/silverstarling
CONFRONT: Tell us a little bit about Silver Starling; how did you come up with your sound?
Slver Starling: It was a long, ongoing process largely conceived from experimentation. Marcus and Liam started playing shows as a duo, playing several sets a night of new material, a few covers, and at that time the songs were pretty open. Things would be different from night to night. Then, when we got into the studio and started to formalize things, cutting songs down, eliminating the more jammy aspect, it started to take more focus aesthetically. We just started to get all these production ideas and kept going and going. At first it was just Liam and Marcus, and then getting Marika and Peter’s ears on it, it started to become more well-sculpted. The sound continues to evolve out of the studio, I think, especially with the addition of guitarist, Gab Lambert..
CONFRONT: Your debut album is said to be a tribute to your friend, who died of pancreatic cancer. Is the album a concept piece? How has this tragedy coloured the music and your overall sound?
Silver Starling: I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a concept piece, but yes, it was largely informed by the experience of our friend’s death. That experience acted as a sort of catalyst for us to get all the emotions we were feeling out onto tape. More than anything, it brought us closer to everything in our lives; Not to sound too cliche, but it helped us notice and appreciate the small things. The beautiful moments we have day to day. So I think you can really hear that – the album covers a wide spectrum of feelings. It comes from a bit of a dark place, but there’s brightness and levity in the face of all of it too. It’s actually an optimistic album, I think
CONFRONT: The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ is the album that inspired Marcus to a life of music; but with bluesy and country-rock sounds, who are the musicians and artists who have most influenced the sound of Silver Starling?
Silver Starling: It’s funny. A lot of music fans seem to think that bands really aim to sound like a combination of band X and band Y, but people really underestimate the amount of spontaneity nascent in the process. Like I said, it was largely a process conceived from experimentation, and I suppose you can draw probable influences, but only in retrospect. I guess we could say that Marcus was listening to a lot of things like Beck’s “Sea Change” and “Mutations” at that time, so I think you can hear that. But then Liam loves Wilco, and no one else in the band really listens to them, and that’s a comparison we hear a lot. So whaddaya know about that.
CONFRONT: About music that hasn’t necessarily been an influence: who do you enjoy listening to?
Silver Starling: It’s hard to come up with a blanket answer, cos everyone in the band has slightly different tastes; that’s what makes it interesting. But recently, names like the Constantines, Deerhunter, Led Zeppelin, and the Kinks have been circulating heavily in the van. We all love the Smiths.
CONFRONT: What musical acts would you like to give a shout out to; who’s NOT getting the attention they deserve?
Silver Starling: I guess she’s just starting to get the attention she deserves, but for my money, the best thing around these days is Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-YaRdS. She actually just signed to 4AD, but really, look out for this girl.
CONFRONT: You are all experienced professional musicians. How has your different backgrounds and skills fashioned the band and what you do?
Silver Starling: Having Marcus able to record our stuff was a tremendous plus for the album. We could really take our time, do things at home and not be super stressed out about time and money. That’s a really conspicuous advantage, but as for everyone else, I guess it’s just such a pleasure to play together because everyone’s been playing for so long that songs are easy to put together. There’s not much milling about, and it’s really easy to communicate ideas. If someone’s dissatisfied with an arrangement or a certain part, there’s no hesitation in saying so. No one takes it personally. I suppose you could say it’s “professional” in that way. But that sounds bad. Everyone has a lot of experience being in bands and we all know how best to work it.
CONFRONT: Do you feel that Montreal’s music scene is finally starting to get the kind of attention we’ve been deserving?
Silver Starling: I think Montreal has actually been getting the attention it deserves for a while now. 2003, 2004, those were really active years for the scene, media wise, and if anything, I’d say that these days there’s a saturation going on due to all the previous media attention. Liam didn’t move here until 2003, and that was largely motivated by Montreal’s scene being centre stage at that time. There are a lot of kids who did the same thing, and now everyone and their dog has got a band here. Ultimately, it’s good. It makes for a tight knight, extremely active community of musicians, and there will be good stuff coming from this city for a long time. It’s nice to know that there will always be ears ready to hear Montreal bands.
CONFRONT: How does Montreal’s music scene compare to other cities in Canada?
Silver Starling: There’s a real community vibe that I’m not sure is as strong in other cities. Like I just said, the media attention has led to a bit of a musical stampede here, but that also ensures that there are a TON of good musicians here who seem to love to collaborate.
CONFRONT: Like a lot of musicians, you have both an official Web page, a MySpace page, and you’re on Facebook; how important do you feel the Internet is in getting you some exposure? How has it helped with your success?
Silver Starling: It was useful to have as a band that was getting some higher profile shows before we even had a record out. Like when we played Osheaga. That was before the album came out, but we had still managed to get some attention via our myspace. We were getting hundreds and hundreds of hits each day just by virtue of our name being on the poster. I remember at VFest in Toronto, also before the release of the album, there were kids singing along. That was a weird experience. I saw the effects of the internet at work. So in that way, we had garnered some awareness before our album came out. I might even go so far as to say some anticipation, from a select few fans.
CONFRONT: What were the first and last albums you bought?
Silver Starling: I won’t tell you who’s typing this, but I will say that the first was TLC’s “Crazy Sexy Cool”, and the last was Atlas Sound’s “Logos”. Other members may cite April Wine or The Beatles as their first albums, and maybe the new Dirty Projectors as their last.
CONFRONT: What were the first and last concerts you went to, as spectators?
Silver Starling: Hmm….probably some jazz thing. Marcus, Liam and Gab used to be big jazzbos in their salad days. Marika would have been taking in something more refined, you might say. Classical. Peter, I think, probably went to see Fred Penner even though he’s the same age as him. The last concert we went to? Fred Penner. Actually, one time I saw him at some bogus awards ceremony, and one of my friends didn’t know who he was. My other friend clarified by describing him as “The Beatles of children’s music”.
CONFRONT: How has the economy affected your life as working and touring musicians?
Silver Starling: It’s hard to say as such a young band. It’s possible that more well-known bands experienced hardship due to the downturn, but as a new band, you’re making so little money anyway that it’s hard to imagine making less. It’s blue on black.
CONFRONT: What’s been your weirdest experience touring / performing?
Silver Starling: I’m sure we’ve all got plenty of stories, as we’ve all been in a ton of obscure bands playing weird music in the weirdest places for the weirdest people, hell I know I do. As for Silver Starling, we’re still accumulating road experiences. Talk to us in a year. I dunno, being heckled by drunkards is always fun.
CONFRONT: What’s your musical guilty pleasure – the music that you like but you don’t really like to advertize that you like?
Silver Starling: Some would say The Doors. Some would speak of April Wine. Me, I always thought that “Mmmbop” kinda sounded like the Jackson Five and I don’t know what everyone got so worked up about. It’s not that bad. That and “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins. That breakdown in the last chorus? Amazing. Mariah carey = guilty pleasure. She’s amazing… or Beyonce, or Rihanna.. or Journey…
CONFRONT: When everything’s over and all is said and done, what would you like your legacy to be?
Silver Starling: We never think about things like that. Music is about the process and the experience. It’s about expecting nothing, playing because you love it, and letting the chips fall where they may. Should success happen upon us, that’d be great, but I don’t think anyone in this band hopes for some sort of iconic following, even though we all love that stuff. It’s the stardust of rock ‘n’ roll, “the legacy”, but it has to happen naturally if it’s to happen. I suppose then, maybe that’s what we’d want our legacy to have been: to have let it happen naturally; to have done what we felt like doing.
To learn more about Silver Starling, visit the sites below:
www.myspace.com/silverstarlingmusic
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