New York City-based rock outfit stellastarr* will play in Portland at Berbati's Pan
debut album in September and has toured extensively since then.
Courtesy
tomorrow night. The band released its self-titled
stellastarr* stops to chat
about chance at starr*dom
New York band stellastarr*
plays Thursday in Portland
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
New York City-based rock band
stellastarr* joined the national music
scene with the release of their debut
album on RCA Records in September.
Since then, the four-member band has
toured extensively across the country.
Recently, drummer Arthur Kroner
found time while on the road to talk to
the Emerald about the origins of the
band, touring and audience reactions
to the music.
Emerald: What sort of influences
do you think the band has?
AK: Well, that's kind of a hard
question to answer. I don't mean to be
vague, but everybody comes from a
different background. Me personally,
1 think everything is an influence to
me — even stuff I don't like. You
always learn something. It's never
really a thing where I hear an artist
and I want to sound like him or play
drums like him. I'm more interested
in the creative solutions that artists
come up with. It's sort of inspirational.
Say someone like Bjork, you know,
someone doing something interesting
and creative and expressing
themselves in a way that people can
connect to it. That's very inspirational.
Emerald: How did you guys get
together?
AK: Me, Shawn (Christensen, lead
vocal/guitar) and Amanda (Tannen,
bass) all went to school together. We
started a band together, kind of a
joke band. We were all novices,
didn't know how to play our
instruments. After school ended, we
went our separate ways. I kept up
with Shawn and kept nagging him to
start a band again. We got in touch
with Mandy again, just called her out
of the blue and asked her. Mike
(Jurin, guitar), we met after he
moved into my old apartment in
New York. I went back to get some
mail and told my old roommate 1
was starting a band. He told me that
the new guy living there was a
guitarist. So we invited him along for
rehearsal and he was fantastic.
Emerald: So it just kind of clicked?
AK: Yeah. We really just got
together to have fun, you know? It
was something to do on a Tuesday
night. We were never thinking that we
ought to go out and get a record deal
and be this big band. We just wanted
to get together, write some songs and
have some fun. •
Emerald: How does it feel to start
out that way and to now come into
something bigger?
AK: It's great. But it's hard to look
at the big picture though, you know,
because when you're inside of it,
things move really slowly. We didn't
just get a record deal after our
second show; we've been doing this
for four years. It was really building
up gradually. Now it's kind of like a
job, but when you step back and
look at it, you think, "This is
incredible. We're touring the world
and people are loving us and
throwing money at us." It's really
the opportunity of a lifetime.
Emerald: What would you say is
the strangest concert experience
you've had?
AK: One of the strangest was one
where we played the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in Cleveland. This was
for a contest. Shawn and Mike broke
both their guitars and their back-up
and I really hurt my wrist playing
drums. It was just a disaster. We lost
the contest as well.
Emerald: Who did you lose to?
AK: Some band, I can't remember
the name. That show was rigged or
something. But I'll let bygones be
bygones. Another show in Orlando
was like that. I broke my kick pedal,
Shawn lost his voice. I kept dropping
sticks, breaking sticks and all. But the'
crowd was just going wild, they loved
us. We couldn't get through a song
and they were screaming their heads
off. I think we played four or five
songs and just had to leave because
we couldn't perform. They loved us
though. It was weird.
stellastarr* will be playing Friday
at Berbati's Pan, located at 10 S.W.
Third Ave. in Portland. Tickets are
$8 in advance and $10 the day of
the show.
Contact the senior Pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
CLAPTON
continued from page 8
former Beatle George Harrison and
his wife Pattie Boyd and the loss of his
4-year-old son, who fell to his death
from a 53rd story window. On this al
bum, he takes Johnson's original vi
sions and meshes them with his new
vocal and guitar innovations.
Songs come to life with a full band of
drums, bass, Hammond organ, piano,
harmonica and guitar. Two rollicking
standouts are "They're Red Hot" and
"32-20 Blues." The former is a jumping
tune about hot tamales for sale, driven
by piano and drums. Its hopping piano
could get anyone bouncing. As a vocal
ist, Clapton hardly exudes the spirit of
his 59 years — instead, he comes off as
youthful and jovial.
Given the genre (and Johnson's cir
cumstances), most songs are woeful.
"Me and the Devil Blues" is a declara
tion that "me and the devil are walkin'
side by side," which is probably how
Johnson and Clapton felt at their low
est moments. The unrequited love bal
lad "Kind Hearted Blues" is a generic
lonesome brood declaring, "I love my
baby, my baby don't love me." The al
bum makes a declaration of sadness, as
most track names end in the word
"blues" — "Traveling Riverside Blues,"
"Stop Breakin' Down Blues" and
"Milkcow's Calf Blues," plus the few
others mentioned.
Clapton makes use of modem mu
sical instruments and technology such
as an electric bass and overdubbing to
shed new light on Johnson's sound.
But there are times when he overdoes
it. In "Milkcow's Calf Blues," booming
guitar and drums erase any blues
essence, while a weak background pi
ano tries to keep the old sound alive.
"If I Had Possession Over Judgment
Day" is overpowered by a confusing,
unbalanced mix of all the aforemen
tioned instruments.
The collection's last track, "Hell
Hound On My Trail," is a hopeful
look to the future, and therefore a
powerful finale. It shows both musi
cians' perseverance through hard
times by way of Clapton's passionate
interpretation of the lyrics, "I got to
keep movin', I got to keep movin'/
blues failin' down like hail, blues
failin' down like hail."
"Me and Mr. Johnson" is a re
spectable homage from one blues
lover to another. Clapton leaves his
mark on Johnson's compositions by
adding a little of himself to the songs,
though he does it not in a vain way
but rather to express an emotional
connection to Johnson's work.
Contact the Pulse reporter at
natashachilingerian@dailyemerald.com.
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