Starsailor (band)
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Early history
Bassist James Stelfox and drummer Ben Byrne had been playing together in the north of England for a number of years. When their regular singer fell ill, they recruited young singer and songwriter James Walsh from a school choir. He was influenced by Jeff Buckley and his 1994 album Grace in his singing style. The band then named Waterface had tried a number of guitarists before they asked long time friend Barry Westhead to join the band in 2000 on keyboards and Walsh also taking up the guitar. The band started to build up a reputation. The band name changed to Starsailor after the 1970 album Starsailor by Tim Buckley.
A journalist from the ‘’NME’’ saw a gig in 2000 and gave the band a glowing review. "One live encounter was enough to convince many sceptics that here was a band who were genuinely special, blessed with a singer whose voice thrummed like an emotional telegraph wire, that swerved the pitfalls of indie melancholia and were clearly in love with rock’n’roll and all its possibilities." Its performance at the Glastonbury festival added to the bands reputation and led to a bidding war amongst UK record companies. The band signed with EMI in 2000.
Recorded History
An indie rock quartet heralded on the release of their debut single, "Fever," in February 2001 as "Britain's best new band," Starsailor has continued the rich lineage of Travis, Coldplay, and others. Formed in Wigan by music students James Walsh (vocals/guitar), James Stelfox (bass), and Ben Byrne (drums), the band went through several guitar-heavy embryonic lineups before the arrival of Barry Westhead (keyboards) cemented their sound.
Influenced by Tim Buckley (whose 1970 album gave the band their name), Van Morrison, and Neil Young, they played their first London show at the Heavenly Social in April 2000. At the same time, a demo tape containing the tracks "Fever," "Coming Down," and "Love Is Here" began circulating rapidly around the music industry. By the summer there was a queue of record companies to sign the nascent band. EMI won the race for their signature. After spending January 2001 on an NME-sponsored tour with JJ72 and Amen, Starsailor released their debut single, "Fever," to unanimous critical praise.
A sold-out headline U.K. tour at the end of March preceded the release of their second single, "Good Souls," in April. Once again it was ecstatically received and reached the Top 20. As the single was released, the band went to Wales to record their debut album. They re-emerged in June to begin a summer of festival appearances sandwiched between an American tour supporting Doves and a couple of headline dates of their own.
Already this year they've enjoyed two Top 20 hits (with a demo-version of 'Fever' and the epic 'Good Souls'), been on Top Of The Pops, played their first British headline tour, been invited to play with the Manic Street Preachers and recorded a magnificent debut album (about which more later). The speed of their success has been startling - but hardly unexpected. They've just got the skill of connecting with people.
And it's not hard to see why. The first time you hear them, it's an intense experience. Their songs have a directness and melodic power that belies their youthfulness. The impact of their music is as bruising as hearing Nirvana for the first time - just stripped of the volume. Their songs - tales of love, hope and redemption given focus by singer James Walsh's acrobatic vocals - combine naivety with a shattered worldliness reminiscent of an early '70s Neil Young.
"About two years ago, I remember reading an interview with some band who admitted that Jeff Buckley was an influence," he recalls, "so I just went out and bought his album and I realised it was miles better than anything else I'd been listening to. From there, I started listening to Tim Buckley, Neil Young and Van Morrison. Our music isn't really about him, he was just a catalyst. When I heard him I found someone who genuinely touched me, and I knew that's what I wanted to do."
"We were in a cocoon really," smiles Walsh, thinking back. "It's the same now as it was when we used to play together in Warrington, we haven't been tainted at all by everything that's happened. Being at Rockfield was a bit like The Band recording in Woodstock. They isolated themselves from modern music and came up with something you can tell they all really enjoyed playing on. It's the same for us..."
The band appeared on the NME Brats tour in 2001 – the first band to do so without having released a single. They received an NME Award for "Brightest New Hope" the week the band’s first single "Fever" was released. It reached the Top 20 on the UK singles charts. The band started a UK tour and shot a video for its next single "Good Souls" which again went top 20 in the UK and also made the Portuguese charts.
In May 2001, Starsailor entered Rockfield Studios for six weeks with producer Steve Osborne. Lead singer Walsh has said that they wanted the album to have a really live feel between Jeff Buckley’s Grace and Neil Young’s Harvest. Their debut album Love Is Here reached number two on the UK charts in October 2001 and had a further three songs from it reach the UK charts. The album was released internationally in 2002 although it failed to achieve the same success in other markets.
Starsailor travelled to Los Angeles in 2003 to record tracks for its second album Silence is Easy with legendary producer Phil Spector. However, the recording session was interrupted with the arrest of Spector for suspected murder. Two tracks produced by Spector appear on the album released in the UK in August 2003. The title track reached the UK top 10 and made the top 40 on a world composite chart in late 2003. "Born Again", the next single, has also reached the UK Top 40 while "Four To The Floor" reached the Top 40 of the UK and Australian charts in 2004. The Silence is Easy album was released elsewhere in the world in 2004.
After achieving their first U.K. Top Ten hit with the single "Alcoholic," Starsailor's debut album, Love Is Here, was released in September 2001 to much critical fanfare, and a European tour closed out a highly successful year. The following year kicked off with the American release of Love Is Here in January, and a few weeks on the road for a brief North American tour, ending with a performance at the SXSW festival in March.
The result of their endeavours is 'Love Is Here', a stunning debut album that truly defines the Starsailor sound ."As far as the whole vision of the record is concerned," explains Walsh, "we wanted it to be somewhere between Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and Neil Young's 'Harvest' - a really live sounding album, but with subtle bits of sonics over the top. We've done some quite odd things on it - there are strange sounding guitars and Portishead-esque atmospherics on some tracks. We didn't want to do anything too retro."
Their song "Way To Fall" plays during the end credits of the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
A music video of "Bring my love" is being featured on DVD 2 of the 2 DVD set of Oldboy, released in Germany and Austria. The video consists entirely of clips from the movie.
As of April 2004, Starsailor are recording their new album in Los Angeles.
It's this honesty and directness that sets Starsailor apart from their peers. 'Love Is Here' will be the pinnacle of what's already been a wonderful year for them. Preceded by the release of a third single, 'Alcoholic' (one of their most emotionally turbulent songs, another sign they're determined to follow their own path), it's the sound a band delivering on their promises. They're not going to disappoint anyone.
Band Members
As of 2004, the band consisted of:
- Ben Byrne, drums;
- James ‘Stel’ Stelfox (bass)
- James Walsh (guitar/vocals)
- Barry Westhead (keyboards)
Discography
- Love Is Here (2001 UK – 2002 Internationally); #2 UK, #129 US
- Silence Is Easy (2003 UK –2004 Internationally); #2 UK
UK hit singles
- 2001 "Fever" #18
- 2001 "Good Souls" #12
- 2001 "Alcoholic" #10
- 2001 "Lullaby" #36
- 2002 "Poor Misguided Fool" #23
- 2003 "Silence is Easy" #9
- 2003 "Born Again" #40
- 2004 "Four to the Floor" #24
Did not have any US Top 40 hits so far.
External Links
- Starsailor site (http://www.starsailor.net/)
- Starsailor fan site (http://www.starsailor.8k.com/)
- MTV biography (http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/starsailor/bio.jhtml/)