PipemanRadio Interviews Starbenders at Aftershock 2023

0:01 Hi, you love then too, censure? Wow crazy you why become of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West Palm Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. Yes, this is the pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with You're with starbanders from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm Kimmy Shelter. I'm the lead singer in Rhythm get Player. I'm Emily Moon. I played drums. I'm Aaron I play bass. I'm Chris I play guitar. Nice. So Aftershock how does it feel to be an Aftershock cool festival? Right? Yeah, it's really awesome, super organized and just awesome bands, very very nice. So, since you're from Atlanta, have you ever performed or been at the Shaky Knees Festival. We've gone to the Shaking Ees Festival, but we've yet to play it, which is something that chaps our ause from Atlanta. I know

1:32 you should. That should be like a given, right. Yes, We're gonna send around a paper trying to get us on. Yeah. Yeah, just keep howking them till they're like yeah, we need them to leave us alone. Just put them on the bill. Yeah, this is unacceptable. You know what I didn't like about Shaky Knees is, Oh my god, there's no parking in your town. What is up with that? Any traffic parking car related activity in Atlanta is going to be a bitch. Oh, Like, especially where that festival is. It's funny because there were cops. I'm like, normal thing, Can I park here? He goes, I don't know. I'm like, well, you mean you don't know. Well, that's not our area. I'm like, but you're the one giving out tickets. Well you'll have to ask. Was it that they call it there that handles the traffic stuff? I forget. No, it's like some agency I don't even remember. But you have a Department of Public Safety something like that, some county thing. I'm like, really, the cops don't know what's legal and what's now. I don't care either. No, they didn't.

2:40 That's the point. So but here after shock, how cool is this vibe back here? Right? Like? This whole area, the artist media area. Most festivals don't have this. Yeah, it's really beautiful and it's it really helps us when places kind of take the artist and the media and everybody in the consideration, because we're out here all day, you know, and it really helps, like having nice places to sit and do these kinds of things in and did you see the food. There's a chef out there making fun. It's awesome, and you know, it just makes it fun. I know, right, why we're here. See, I think they're so smart because that's when artists want to hang in the press tent and stuff like this. Otherwise they want to avoid it, usually because too many people are asking them how'd you got your boom moon? Which you'll never hear me ask. So tell the listeners, if they haven't heard your music before, how you would describe your music? Not from a genre necessarily, because that's just boxes artists, and I'd like to hear how the artists express themselves.

3:45 I think we are an aggressive, ethereal, emotional, whimsical rock band. That's a great that should be a new genre, white spectrum of emotions and characters, if you will. It should be that way though, right, I mean, music is emotion, you know. I think a lot of our favorite bands collectively as a band were bands like that. They weren't bands you could really put in the box, right, Like The Cure is one of our favorite bands, and they always they had such a wide spectrum of sounds. So yeah, I mean it's kind of nice to say be able to say in that way because it's like, well, we kind of kind of like Blondie or like Bowie and this and that, and we were always you know, I think there's multiple ways to describe who we are as a band, and I think when you blend different influences, you can't be compared to another band because you're uniquely you. Yeah, and it's it's tough because that's that's how people like to ask questions or learn about things. They want you to tell They want you to tell them, yeah, they So it's it's hard because, as a friend of ours has referred to us, we're tweet ers, so we're between genres and things like that. I don't think we've fully been necessarily classified. So we just keep doing what's natural to us.

5:06 And we've been really lucky because the four of us matched one another really well in terms of our capabilities on our instruments. That's important, so we're able. We've always been just able to keep climbing and growing. Just as musicians, and we've been able to maintain and protect our joy in this which has been really important. Sounds like there's no ego too, because just you saying about the matching in musical instruments and stuff like that, Like, usually when there's ego, that's the death of a band, and I think there's with us. To me, it's always important to acknowledge the ego. But there's a quote about not redecorating the abyss. Yeah, you know, so we try not to do that. Yeah, it's good to have an ego, but not an out of control ego, maniac ego. Yeah. I think that it's one of those things where once you look at it, the dynamic changes. So as soon as you're you pull that ego out of your peripheral and into your direct line of sight, you're able to address it in a different way and get along better. Absolutely, you can invite your demons to dinner with you, right, and you end up understanding each other.

6:17 I think that's what happens a lot of times, is sometimes because they're not matched, they don't really understand the other person's perspective, and that's important. Yeah, we've been really lucky too, because I think each of us as individuals has had that hunger and that drive to get to where we're going. We're all seekers in our own different way, whether it be you know, all of us operate within different mediums. But because we're all each holding up four corners, nobody is necessarily occupying the same space at any given time, so we're able to like really play off of each other's strengths and weaknesses and that way, both in our personal dynamics and on stage as well. So since you have such a good chemistry together, how did you guys all meet?

7:01 Then? Kimmy and I knew one another before this, before this band. I just remember when she called me and said, dude, we're gonna do another band, let's do it. And so I mean that was on boarded. But when Chris and Emily came, that was that was the final piece that was are born on day. And so that's when the band really like started to take off, both musically and like career wise. That's when we started actually doing more things. So so it's like instant right like you knew right away. Also say this like it's less important like how we met and more important to note that like it was the stars coming together in aligning, and if anything had been a little bit different, we would not have Starvenders today. So I'm profoundly grateful that we all came together when we did.

7:51 Craigslist isn't dead, y'all. It might be dead now, but in twenty seventeen, it wasn't dead. That's actually how I met the nice that kind of reminds me of like, uh, bands in the old days and that you know, answered and ad like Metallica, Yeah looking for leady guitar player. Yeah, yeah, you know that's how Metallica start, Yes an ad, yes, you know, yeah, And I love that nowadays there's still bands like you that are using that because to me, that's organic. You know, it happens, you know, if there's a vibe, you know, if there's chemistry and then boom. You know, that's a long lasting band. Yeah, and that's why we keep fighting for it. And I think in our in this day and age, everything's disposable and everything's thrown out, you know, everything, everything's single use and yeah, you know, nobody even like views something like marriage as being like it used to be, like, oh you're with that person forever. Now it's like, oh, that's gonna be my third ex wife, you know whatever. But it's funny you should say that because there's two things I'll say on that point.

8:58 Is one is people go into marriagees nowadays with the idea of of if it doesn't work, I can get divorced, and that's good. There's an out, you know. And we're essentially married because we're an illegally binding contract with one another. That's right. So we just we just keep fighting for one another and it keeps making sense. And you know, it's been a long and winding road for us. But any time that we start to or I start to feel overwhelmed, I just read the lyrics to you know, ACDC is along way the top. If you want a rocky roll, Well you know what they say, it takes about twenty years to become an overnight success. Oh yeah, yeah. We're really looking forward to people talking about how we sold out. I know, right. So it's funny we were talking about Metallica. That's a perfect example because I went to like the first Metallica show ever, and so the twenty five of us which were their fans when they made the Black album or like fuck them, posters, we're not listening to them again. But you know what at the end of the day, where they were smart is yes, they may have lost us then and they gained millions and we all came back anyway. So you know, I think, listen, if you're going to be an artist, that whole sellout thing.

10:09 I used to be like that when I was a teenager. But listen, this is how you gotta make your living, if this is what you're really gonna do, So it's not really selling out, it's growing and maturing and becoming a career. You know. Yeah, yeah, I think honestly, like what's always guided us in the right direction is like serving the song and serving the band as an idea, and that's always kind of led us in the right path no matter how dark things got, even when you know, even a couple of years ago when nobody could tour, I think we always just like held strong to what this band really meant to us, and you know, and here we are. You know, that's a good point you brought up, because I think two things happened from that lockdown. Either bands disbanded or bands found each other or found their real calling. Because you know, you guys, as artists, you're on this hamster wheel and you really don't have time to stop and think where you want things to go.

11:11 Yeah, and that kind of forced artists to stop and think, is this really where I want to be going? Or do I want to shift tears? Yeah? Yeah, I mean and the record we just put out definitely has that introspective element to it, you know, like a lot of people that put out music in the same era, if you will, I think we, you know it did. We did take the time to really look into ourselves as a band, and what came out was this really visceral group of songs you know that I feel like, really represent us live and in the studio. I love that, you know, And I will say that what a tough time to come through being an artist. So if you're an artist still after that time, my hat's off to you, because I don't think people realize as how rough mentally and everything else it is to be an artist through that lockdown period. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think we had a lot of compassion for people on every walk of life.

12:11 But we continued to kind of talk about the metaphor of like the band playing as the ship goes down, and that's what musicians had to do during that time. We had to kind of like keep creating as like all of these systems were being challenged and all this kind of stuff. And so honestly, our producer mentor since se Nico Constantine, played a really big part in that, like because he he had his knee in our back the whole time, and like what's kind of like a really fearless leader for us at that time, and we were able to like keep pushing and keep moving and he found a way to make it so that we were able to do that financially and otherwise to keep be able to keep creating and our label as well. So between him and our label, like we were we were actually really lucky and we just spotted out and you know, we had an opportunity to get healthier during that time. Nice and look at some of the stuff that had been sort of unattended to. So you know, here we are at after Shock three. Nice. I love it. Tell everybody how they reach out to you guys on socials, on the web, by your merch check out your music tour days, all that stuff. Yeah, all you have to do is type starbenders into Google and there she is. The best way to reach us is on Instagram, but we're on all the socials, so just seek and you shall find. That's an hard thing nowadays. I think of artists like I remember back in days, we had to tape trading days and all

13:43 that, and now to be an artist it's a lot of fricking work now. Of those bands back then, I had to do that much work. Their biggest work was stapleing flyers on telephone poles. Yeah, now like social media, even like TikTok's a full time job. Man. It is like I have like mad respect for people to do tiktoks because it's like I don't have eight hours to do one minute TikTok. Yeah, it's definitely. It's definitely a new world. Yeah, you guys have to work so much harder. That's why people need to support bands, support you by buying merch, you know, because it's the only way you really survive. And you know, we're out here and we love all the people that still are loving music and rock and roll and comedy of these things, and people like you keeping things going and turning people onto cool new things, and we really appreciate all of it, and if you see us on the street, say, hey, we're all real nice. We might look a little scary, but we don't bite, but you might want. It's funny. I was talking to another artist I was friends with and we're talking about how people think metal heads are scary, and he was like, let's keep them thinking that. Yeah, metal heads are the absolute sweetest people. Well, and we're all metal heads here in this band too. But you know, it's really funny because are like softer, more ballad songs like those are what the metal guys will come up to us and say they like because we'll play the heavy shit and I'll be like you like that? You like that, man, and they're like I like the ballad right, Yeah, well listen as a total flash

15:15 metal head, one of my favorite ever Metallica songs is nothing else matters. Yeah, So that goes against everything that I should believe. I think it's songs like that you like. You need that contrast totally. That that's what's exciting about being a band that's open, and that's it gives you such a breath of like more possibilities as an artist. You should be able to be open and just create. You know instead. Oh, you need to create it, just like this or any other box they put you in. Yes, we like exercising our neuroplasticity and making sure that we stay limbly bimbly as we go forward. I love it. Any final words you want to leave our listeners with that we haven't covered yet, Rocking Aftershock. Yes, Chris is like teeth kick kick teeth, nice, dyslexia, We're stuff. Well you guys rock. I'm so glad you're here after Shock. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Payment. Oh yeah, thank you, love you have a great one. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Payment.

16:25 I'm w for c u I Radio.