Starbenders: Exploring The Darkness Of The Night

Creating an album is a tough task for any musician, but it can be even tougher when the musician wants to dive into darker themes and topics that relate to their past. The lyrical and musical exploration can be tough for them to dive into, especially when it comes to themes of addiction, mental health, and recovery. As dark as the themes are, they are relatable to their fans and listeners who go through these low periods and experiences the musicians have, resonating with their music and in turn, becoming a bigger fan of them. This is the case for glam rock quartet, STARBENDERS and their third album, Take Back The Night. With their first headlining UK tour on the horizon, we spoke with vocalist Kimi Shelter and drummer Emily Moon about the record, the tour, and the themes the band discusses within, like their latest single at the time of writing, Cherry Wine.

“It was almost like a dream sequence,” Kimi begins. “When I initially started writing it. I just had this visual and let it take me the whole way through where the song would go. So as I was writing it, it was like I was walking in the woods and I just kept going and imagining stumbling through the woods and tying it into a fantasy romance type of thing and the song just bloomed from there.” 

Take Back The Night is the third album in the band’s discography, their last album, Love Potions, came out in 2020 and was the first record with Sumerian Records. When asked about the differences between the two, Kimi says, “I think it’s more cohesive in terms of the songs as the songs for Take Back The Night were recorded in a closer window whereas, with Love Potions, you had some songs that were years apart as far as their recordings go. I think with Take Back The Night we pretty much recorded and produced everything in less than a year. So everything was super cohesive in that way, which I think gives it a different sort of strike in terms of connecting to people because you have more of an opportunity to be on the same wavelength. That’s definitely one of the things that makes it different and also, we’re just a better band when we made this record. That’s one of the cool things about being in the band and in general, we truly do just keep evolving and growing and getting better.”

As mentioned, Take Back The Night dives into darker themes as STARBENDERS explore the hardships they individually experienced in their lives, including addiction, loss, mental health struggles, and the many challenges life throws their way. When asked how the band dove into that for this record, Kimi explains. “We’ve definitely gone through a lot of adversity and that was something that we wanted to share on the record, we didn’t want to keep it a secret from people anymore. We understood that letting people into the full spectrum of what it is to be in a modern rock and roll band was something that would bring people closer and something that would also make us and our art feel more authentic, which is something that’s always been paramount to our journey.”

“It’s always difficult to be vulnerable and to let yourself go there and feel things,” Kimi continues, “but to me, all of the hard stuff and all the adversities are like an incredible catalyst for art and also for growth and cultivating more self-awareness. They’re all just tied together and you can’t have one without the other and I think that ultimately you have to make that decision as an artist. Are you going to let it rip and let people see your ugly side and your dark side in order to highlight the other half of what and who you are or are you going to try to hide that stuff? I think that’s something that was natural in our evolution to open up the spectrum of what it is and into the inner workings of what we do. It’s like everybody’s got a filter on their face and a filter on their life, and I think deciding to take that filter off is always gonna be scary.”

Onto a lighter topic, the band are to embark on their first headlining tour across the UK. This is not the band’s first time playing the country, as the band supported PALAYE ROYALE earlier this year. “We’ll have the opportunity for it to be more focused since we’re just playing the UK,” Kimi describes, “the tour that we did with PALAYE ROYALE was so quick and we were in all these amazing places, but for 12 hours at a time. It was super bittersweet because that was my first time being in any of those places. Because you’re in so many different places at a time, your brain’s barely keeping up so I’m really excited to be able to get to experience the whole of the UK this time. I wish we could do Ireland as well, that’s one that I’m sad we’re not visiting. I really wanted to have Ireland on the list, but we’re just gonna have to hit that one the next time around.”

So what can we expect from this upcoming tour? Emily jokes, “maybe I’ll wear a shirt. I don’t know if I will or which show it’ll be! I think that we’re definitely planning on having a different set for each of the different shows. We’re not just going to have the same set every night and for a lot of people, it’s their first opportunity to come and see us so we’re really excited about that, we’re excited to share our music with everyone. So all the normal bag of tricks will apply here! Also, bring your earplugs, you need them because we’re very very loud!”

Take Back The Night is out now via Sumerian Records.

Like STARBENDERS on Facebook.