STAR SCREAM is a collective of human beings from the South East of England who use guitars, drums, white noise, strings, feedback, shouting and pianos to conjure up melodies to mesmerize in the 21st century.They exists in an age of copyists and bandwagon-jumpers, Its sole purpose is to sound unlike anything else you've ever heard whilst sounding exactly like everything else you’d ever want to hear.
1. Can I get a backstory on the band/ band biography?
Adam: Star Scream is a
collective of human beings from the South East of England who use guitars,
drums, white noise, strings, feedback, shouting and pianos to conjure up
melodies to mesmerize in the 21st century.
Adam Lightspeed
(Vocals & Guitars) and Aoife (Bass & Keyboards) met at a Muse video
shoot for ‘Feeling Good’. After a day of jumping around repeatedly to the same
song we decided that the next video shoot we went to should be for one of our
songs – although neither of us had ever written any music at this point – and
so Star Scream was born.
We played together
as an Electro two-piece for a while before our inner rock demons took over and
required that we recruit a drummer to beef up our live sound. We had a few
drummers come and go before we met our new drummer Sky London, but now we sound
better than ever. He brings a new refreshing new energy to our songs and his
playing style is so unique he fits in perfectly with Star Scream.
2. How did you guys come up with your band name?
Adam: When we were a
two-piece we used to tell people that we were called Star Scream because ‘Adam
is the Star and Aoife does the Screaming’! But now Sky is in the band that
doesn't work so well (unless he’s the space in the middle?). So we’ll just say
it fits our aesthetic and that Transformers are cool.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your
music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Adam: We’re spread
across the South East of England, half in Hastings & half in London, so we
have the best of both worlds when it comes to music scenes. Hastings is an
extremely diverse place with lots of weird and eccentric people and London has
every sort of music you could ever want 24 hours a day – This juxtaposition of
locations and scenes is a big influence on our music, which in itself is a
complete melting pot of different musical styles and genres.
4. What lyrical theme do you guys use in your music?
What message do you want to send?
Adam: We don’t like to
explain too much of what our songs are about, we leave that up to the listener
to decide what each song means to them. Every song on Sexploitation has its own
story, which all tie together - if you look close enough you can see the
journey. Lyrically it’s an album of extremes and excesses – it’s about being
pushed to breaking points both emotionally and physically and how you deal with
these situations.
5. What bands have influenced your band and its sound?
Adam: Every single thing
we ever hear influences our song writing, classical music, radio jingles,
anything that makes the spark of an idea go off in our heads that we can twist
and warp into Star Scream songs. There are lots of bands that you can hear in
Star Scream, but no band that sounds like us.
6. Is there any story or concept behind SEXPLOITATION
title?
Adam: It’s a commentary
on how everyone is a product to be used, whether that is in love, physically or
as a commodity. It’s also a knowing title that we are here to be exploited and
that sex sells.
7. Who produced SEXPLOITATION and what was it like
working with them?
Adam: Not only did we
write and record all the music and lyrics, but we also also produced &
mastered the album in our own studio, which we built - ‘The Oratory’. We also
set up our own record label and publishing company ‘Roseblood Recordings’ to
release/unleash Sexploitation, it’s our soul.
8. Who did the cover art for SEXPLOITATION and how
much input did you have on it?
Adam: We did it all
ourselves, along with all the accompanying artwork for our merchandise.
Sexploitation is more than just an album; it’s a whole story and world for
people to buy into, and we want to have as much influence over that world as we
can.
9. Do you guys have any new music in the works as far
as a follow-up release?
Adam: We've already got
another 50+ songs recorded that we couldn't put on Sexploitation (we we’re
toying with the idea of doing a triple album at one point!). So a second album
is already in the pipeline as well as an alternate reality version of
Sexploitation where the songs are re-imagined into different versions of
themselves.
10. You released a video for the songs, Die On The
Floor and When Crimson Lips Spell Murder can you tell me about those songs and
video's concept?
Adam: Die On The Floor
is probably the most low-budget video ever made! It cost us £0.00. It was more
an exercise in trying to capture the raw energy of three of us playing in a
room together without any fancy effects or tricks. It’s about the electricity music
generates between people.
When Crimson Lips
Spells Murder is a story about revenge set to the artwork of one of our
favourite ever comic book artists – Bruce Timm (Batman The Animated Series) –
Yes we are massive nerds. It’s both beautiful and deadly.
11. What are your upcoming touring/show plans?
Adam: We have our album
launch party on Friday 31st May at Aces & Eights Saloon Bar in
London, it’s going to be an awesome night with cakes and balloons and we’re
going to play an acoustic set AND a rock set – it’s a way of us giving back to
all our fans and friends who have supported us while we've been making the
album.
Then we’re
planning a tour of England for August, heading to some places we haven’t been
before so that will be really exciting.
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we
buy your stuff?
Adam: We’re still really
into owning physical albums and for Sexploitation we made a very special
gatefold Digipak CD with a 12 page booklet of accompanying artwork for the
album and that is really the best way to enjoy Sexploitation – you can get it
from our website www.starscream.co.uk. Digitally we’re on iTunes, Amazon, and
virtually every other music site you can think of!
13. What is it you'd like a listener to remember the
most when hearing your music for the first time?
Adam: We don’t want them
to remember anything when hearing our music for the first time, we want them to
forget - To forget about everything else in day-to-day life and loose
themselves in our world. Star Scream is a band for the imagination.
14. What can the fans expect to see from you in the
future?
Adam: A lot! We’re
always trying to do things differently from everyone else so who knows, and
with another album already in the pipeline and tours being booked it’s an
exciting landscape ahead.
15. Any final words of wisdom?
Adam: See you in the
future. If you wanna know more you can connect with us via;
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