Starbenders: Bending The Genre Norm

Imagine you’re stuck in the middle of the classic and modern rock world. You’re being greeted by the likes of David Bowie, T-Rex, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett from the former, DOLL SKIN, HANDS OFF GRETEL, THE CRUEL KNIVES, THE HORRORS from the latter. Suddenly it all collides and another life-form comes to be under the name of STARBENDERS. This band have been making waves all over the shop with their brand of putting everything together, mixing it up and pulling out something completely new and special. Now with their first full-length release with Sumerian Records, the band have graced us with Love Potions.

If you’re a stickler for genres, sure, go ahead and put a label on them, the closest you’ll get is glam-punk. If you do, just think for a moment that you’re taking away something completely special that makes this band who they are. They’ve gathered pieces of inspiration along the way, and turned it into something completely new, and after speaking with vocalist/guitarist Kimi Shelter about the album and how it is a story of a band that lives between to worlds, she mentions that it’s about how no strict confine to a genre anymore. “First of all, genre alone, I think genre is dead. I think that it is a thing of the past to try and commit your band to one genre and things like that, so we’re inbetweeners just in that alone because most people can’t put a finger on exactly what our sound is.”

Shelter continues to say with enthusiasm “I think a lot of new, exciting artists are that way. A lot of people have a hard time describing what genre Billie Eilish is, or even POPPY, or even all these young artists and I think that the day of the genre is dead.”

It’s easy to back the words that Shelter says, there was a time prior to this where labelling a band and putting them in their box was a simple task. Yet, if it wasn’t for bands indulging into their creativity, imaginations and beliefs then we wouldn’t have the greats who broke through the moulds and gave bands like STARBENDERS their chance to shine as they should. Yet even in 2020, creativity and doing something a little more ‘out there’ can still be deemed as scary for the outside world. For Shelter, her experiences pour into the music and thankfully, regardless of if you believe or not, people seem to understand that this is very real in other peoples lives and shouldn’t be discounted. The idea of having that creativity given to her by her experiences taken away and stripped down is more terrifying to her, than the idea of talking to faeries to others.

“I’ve been talking to faeries since I was a little kid, my mom used to send me to the New Age doctors and things like that, they couldn’t figure it out, they put it down to imagination, but it was always something else and it’s always felt like something else. There’s something metaphysical and there’s always multiple energies in the room and vibes and things like that when we’re playing, it’s real hard to explain but most people kind of take our word for it or they feel it.” Shelter continues, “it can be scary, it’s really overwhelming for a lot of people. That’s why a lot of times you hear about children having these kinds of experiences because the veil is thinner for kids. As I grew older, I tried to close it and tried to prevent things from coming through because the system tries to make you feel like something’s wrong with you, or you need to be diagnosed with some sort of behavioural thing, but really you’re just incredibly creative, imaginative. I think if we tried to go into the past and diagnose a lot of our heroes, they’d probably have like 10 different diagnosis within five minutes. Sometimes you’re just an artist and that’s the only diagnosis you need.”

Creativity is freedom for some, and others not. It is either in your DNA or it isn’t, which ever way you lean does not make you different to the other. Whatever qualities you hold should be taught to be embraced and not put down to fit into the role of a societal norm, because there is no normal. “If you’re just like a little creative kid, you should put or an instrument in their hands, not Ritalin and things like that. I think that the young artist is squashed before they even know that they have the power to create.”

It’s obvious that STARBENDERS are a band that encourage each others creativity, but the positivity in Shelter‘s voice never cracks when talking about other artists out there, and knowing the band have this platform to inspire others to embrace who they are and do what they want to do. The band go far beyond the lines of just letting people experiment with their creativity and imaginations with this though. They encourage every ‘norm’ that we know of to be broken, and for a new one to be set in its place. One where people are free to do as they wish with themselves with no judgement. From Shelter and Emily Moon (drummer) often being topless in videos and photo shoots, to the men in the band wearing make-up. It isn’t to do with making a statement boldy, it’s done subtly but it holds a lot of power. They’re doing it because to them it’s comfortable and natural, and it should just be ‘Oh, this is normal’ as opposed to a big deal being made about it.

The thing is with this band is that they’re not afraid to break down the boxes that were made for people in society. They’re happy and they’re comfortable with who they are as individuals, and as a collective. For them to encourage others to do the same, and to find their creativity in this world is inspiring in itself and while their music is loud, and pure rock and roll, how they go about this means of changing things for the better, is done more quietly, no big bold statements. To them, no bold statements are to be made, because it’s normal for them, and it should be for everyone else. This band are going to change the way the world sees and interprets everything, and it couldn’t be any more exciting. “Unfortunately, you have to be very brave to be different, and anybody who’s out there being different is a hero. We commend them and we get inspiration from people living that life, and we try to do our due diligence and our part as well to just be who we are and deal with what comes next. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not, that’s just life in general.”

Love Potions is out now via Sumerian Records.

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