After working feverishly all summer on new material, Shawn Christensen of stellastarr* took a moment to talk with QRO. On August, 23rd, stellastarr* will be trying out their new material live for the first time at Highline Ballroom, in a benefit for the KOR PROJECT art show (QRO calendar listing). Christensen talked about their new songs, KOR PROJECT, leaving RCA, playing new material vs. playing old, what they like playing live, what they don’t like playing live, old Luna Lounge vs. new, and much more…
QRO: You’ve been working on new songs?
Shawn Christensen: Yeah, we’ve been working on a few new songs, and we’re hoping to play them out in a couple weeks.
QRO: How’s the songwriting been going?
SC: It was going slowly for a while. I think we were sorting out a lot of stuff, deciding what direction we wanted to go. When you’re writing songs, after a while, especially the way we write, where a lot of our songs have different moods, you kind of have to get to a point where… you want all the songs have a similar theme to them. We just sort of threw out a lot of stuff, and then started writing all over again, in the middle of the process.
QRO: Where does “Warchild” [the song that stellastarr* posted on their MySpace page in January] fit in?
SC: That song is going to be on the record. That song is a very good sign of what a lot of the record will sound like. We’re going to record the record a little differently this time; we’re gonna sound a little bit more raw than the other records, a little bit more urgency, a little bit more aggression. It’s gonna be very much like that track; a lot of the songs are in that same vein.
QRO: How many songs do you have done?
SC: Well, you know… I never know. Somebody in the band keeps track of them. Sometimes I think it’s eleven, sometimes it’s fourteen. I don’t know how many. Sometimes we just go back on songs. We never decide when a song is finished. It’s always sort of a mystery to me, until we actually sit down. Sometimes you’re writing for so long, you forget about a song you wrote six months earlier.
QRO: Has the work on the songs been different than when you created stuff for your first two albums [stellastarr* and Harmonies For the Haunted]?
SC: The writing’s been different for each record. The first record [stellastarr*] was basically just a repertoire of everything that we had played out in little clubs for the three of four years before. And then, the second record [Harmonies] was a four-month sprint to come up with a record, when we were making it for RCA.
This one is much more… We’re taking our time. We’re thinking about the direction we want to go in. There’s not as much pressure, as we’re not in any time constraints, per se; no one’s breathing down our shoulder, wondering where the album is – except for our fans. That’s really the only thing that keeps us going right now.
QRO: Are you no longer on RCA?
SC: We’re no longer on RCA. We sort of had a mutual agreement to separate. We actually really have no hard feelings for them or anything; I actually still speak with a lot of the representatives over there. But we felt like it would be better if we released our next record on a label that has a little bit more of an intimate roster.
QRO: Do you have a label now, or are you looking?
SC: We’re sort of both, really. We speaking with certain labels, deciding how big a label we really want to go with. That’s really what it all comes down to, in the end, and what they’re going to do for you.
But personally, I always try to stay away from the business side of these things until we have the record. Because there’s a very strong chance we’re going to record this ourself, with a good friend of ours as an engineer. So we’re gonna have this whole album before we decide who we’re going to go with, so that we can have more control over it.
QRO: When do you think you’ll be recording?
SC: Hopefully, we’re shooting for November. October, November.
QRO: You talk about pressure. Is there any less pressure with this being your third record, being that it’s neither your debut nor your follow-up? Or is there a ‘third record’ pressure?
SC: I don’t know. It’s hard to look at things like that, anymore, to be honest. Actually, when we were making our second record, I never really thought about those kinds of things. You just try to make the record – if you think about that stuff, you’re just sunk. You just have to make your record, as best you can, and just decide what kind of theme you want to have on it, what kind of story you want to tell, and just go with it.
It’s never a good idea to look at it like, ‘Well, how’s this gonna be? This is your seventh record. You sold two million of your second one, you haven’t done any since. How’s that gonna feel?’ You just gotta write and not think about that stuff.
QRO: You’re playing one show at Highline Ballroom (QRO venue review) on August 23rd for KOR PROJECT. Why did you decide to play this one date?
SC: Very simple reason: We like to play out our new songs to a live audience, before we record them. That’s really the main reason. It sounds selfish, I guess, but we really just want to play them out live. Even if it’s one live show, or a couple live shows, which we might do, it helps get out the tweaks of your songs sometimes.
QRO: How did you and KOR PROJECT get in touch with one another?
SC: I have no idea. Our manager told us that he was speaking with them, and then we looked into them, and it sounded like it was a really great project, really great collaboration of the arts. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is involved with it, and it just sounded like a really good idea to us. We’d also heard about this venue, Highline Ballroom. I’ve never been there, but we heard it’s a really good place to play. It really just came together, very easily.
QRO: You all met at art school and are artists. Are you involved with any art for KOR PROJECT?
SC: I was going to put up a couple pieces up for this project, when we first agreed to do this gig. Unfortunately, I moved into a new apartment, and I had to move all my paintings back to where I lived, which is out of New York City, and I basically decided it was a bad time to move around the paintings, to put anything up. But I was gonna put a couple pieces up.
I’ve seen online some of the stuff, what they’re gonna have displayed there when we play, and it looked like some really good artwork.
QRO: Do you know if anyone else in the band will be doing any artwork with KOR PROJECT?
SC: I don’t know; I don’t think so. There might be something. If there would be, it would probably be Arthur [Kremer, drums], but I don’t think so.
QRO: What are your feelings about playing the new stuff live, for the first time?
SC: It’s just nice to play, instead of just us four, in a room, it’s nice to play to people. The response, realize what’s working, not working. I’m excited to play – We’re excited to play new stuff always.
That’s the age-old problem with a band: Every band wants to play their new record, when they’re playing out, but, of course, everyone in the audience wants to hear the hits. You’ve always gotta do an even balance.
But in this situation, we basically said, ‘This is going to be mostly the new record. This isn’t a tour, or anything, where we’re playing through a lot of our songs from all three records. Mainly playing out the newest record.’ People who go there, I think, are going expect a lot of that, and so we’re excited to play for them.
QRO: When do you think you would start touring again?
SC: We’ll probably do a couple spot dates over early fall, before we go into the studio. Then we’ll probably actually start touring early next year, whenever. Whenever we decide to release the record, really.
QRO: Are there any places you really want to go back to?
SC: There’s so many places we want to go back to. I’m a big fan of Greece; we had a great time when we went to Athens, great time in Tokyo – those are sort of my two favorite places that we did outside of the U.S. There’s all kinds of places.
There’s new places we’ve never been, that we’d like to go to. We’ve never been to Australia.
QRO: Any there any place you don’t want to visit again?
SC: There’s definitely places I don’t want to visit again. I’m not going to say where they are.
QRO: You played your first-ever show at the old Luna Lounge [on the Lower East Side, Manhattan], and your last show was at the new Luna Lounge [in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – QRO venue review]. How do they compare?
SC: I had a terrible experience our last show at the new Luna Lounge. The venue was great, but I had a lot of trouble on-stage, with the equipment. Which, you know, happens sometimes.
But the venue itself is great. It’s a lot larger than the old one we used to play. It’s not as intimate a place as it used to be, but it’s still, generally, a small club, as clubs go. But it’s different; it’s in a different area of town. It’s the same owners – that’s really the only thing that’s similar about it.
QRO: What are your feelings, generally, about the gentrification of the Lower East Side & Brooklyn, considering how long you’ve been active in there? The difference between what it was when you started out, and what it is now.
SC: Well, look, you know, Williamsburg is always developing into something bigger than it was the year before. It’s always more-and-more up-and-coming.
I think the problem with the Lower East Side right now, that I’m noticing, is that they’re starting to build condos in places that there were little clubs that had been around for thirty years or whatever. And I think that’s a huge problem. That’s actually a huge issue that I think you really need to think about in New York City, because you can’t have huge condominiums, huge skyscrapers, every inch of New York City, or otherwise it’s just not the same place anymore.
So, really, I think, people are drawn to Williamsburg, and Brooklyn, and Park Slope, and Prospect Park, and all these places, because they still have a lot of older buildings, and cobblestone streets in some places; that just have a more intimate vibe.
QRO: Are there any new songs that you really looking forward to playing live?
SC: Yeah, there’s a bunch of new songs we’re looking to play live. We want to play all of them live, really, but we don’t want to go overboard. We’ll probably, possibly play about seven new songs, and we’ll be excited to play all of them.
QRO: Are there any songs from the first two records that you really like playing live?
SC: “In the Walls” is always a big one for us; I love playing that song. I love playing “A Million Reasons” live. Every band has a song that they like playing live, and that’s not necessarily what people maybe want to hear; that’s “Million Reasons” for us. We like to play “Sweet Troubled Soul” live, off the second record, and a song called “Love and Longing”, and I guess “No Weather”, and “Jenny”. I guess “Jenny”s probably one of our number one songs we like to play live.
QRO: Are there any songs you don’t like playing live?
SC: Well a lot of the songs I personally don’t like playing live ended up being b-sides anyway. Which is, you know, sort of the nature of the beast. They became b-sides for a reason, for whatever reason that is, and they end up getting to a place where don’t really play them so much anymore.
There’s a song, “Untitled”, on the first record, that I don’t like playing live, that we get a lot of requests for. The reason for that is because we tried playing it three or four times live, and it just never really feels right, never comes out right. It’s such a song that has to be really close to you, that we just never really pull it off.
QRO: You’ve been playing for over seven years now. How much have things changed?
SC: I mean, everything changes. Everything changes when you start to tour the world, and you’re playing larger venues, and big festivals, then you were before. Everything changes, for good or for bad. For us, it’s all… It’s a great ride; it’s been a great ride. We’re gonna see how much further we can take it. It’s something we did, we’ve accomplished, that we’re trying to build upon.
It hasn’t changed any of us, personality-wise, I don’t think. I would hope not, anyway, but it definitely… There’s a point you get to, when you hit a certain age – that none of us have hit yet – you get to a point at a certain age, where you just say, “Look, I really wish I’d gone back in time and did this.” Hopefully, we’ll never reach that point, because we did it. We took the risk, and we tried to be successful, and we accomplished it.
That’s what matters: That you take risks.
QRO: Do you think you’ll be playing more festivals next summer?
SC: Yes, we’ll be playing more festivals next summer, definitely.
QRO: Do you prefer festivals over ‘regular’ indoor shows, or vice-versa?
SC: It depends on the festival. Generally, festivals are really fun. If it’s gonna be a festival in front of a thousand, or ten thousand kids, instead of a rinky-dink club in a town somewhere that we’re not that very well known in, obviously, the festivals will win out in the end.
I guess, generally, the festivals are really fun, but they also bring those bands… come in like sheep. You get one band on the stage, and then you move them off, and then you move the next band on; it’s like an assembly line, you know. I think that’s the only thing that’s a little bothersome about festivals, but in general, they’re always a good time.
QRO: Of your new songs, do you know what songs will be singles?
SC:
I never know any of that stuff. I can never answer those questions. I never think about that.
In fact, this time, it’s going to be harder than any other time, because there’s really nobody… We’re not with a label that’s sitting there saying, ‘Oh, that’s your single.’ We’re just writing our songs.
Although I will say, we had a really great response from that “Warchild” track. I don’t know, but that’s just one of fifteen songs or whatever that we’re going to have in the end.
To find out more about KOR PROJECT, go to www.korproject.com