By Jin Moon
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Stellastar* |
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Shawn Christensen was 18 when his parents bought him an acoustic guitar. He had just broken up with his girlfriend, and he decided to write a song about it. No one ever heard this song, but it was the first tune Christensen, now the lead singer and songwriter of stellastarr*, wrote about his relationship troubles. And as stellastarr* loyalists know, it wasn't his last. There were "Jenny," "Moon Girl," and of course, fan-favorite "My Coco."
"I was kind of depressed for a couple years, so for a while writing songs was therapeutic," says Christensen, who cites Bob Dylan and David Bowie as his major musical influences. "But when I first started out on guitar, it was also more just an addiction. I couldn't go a couple hours without picking up the guitar and just sort of strumming it for a while."
Writing lyrics and music came pretty naturally to Christensen, but singing was another story. When he formed stellastarr* with friends bassist Amanda Tannen, drummer Arthur Kremer and guitarist Michael Jurin, Christensen didn't start out on the mic. "I didn't know how to sing. So I was auditioning female vocalists and feeding them lyrics," Christensen says. "But my policy in music is if you don't make it up yourself, then how can you really be truly 100 percent passionate about what you're performing?"
"So I kind of felt bad because why should they feel passionate about the lyrics they're singing [if they didn't write them?] So I just figured I'd sing temporarily until we found somebody," Christensen says. "We just never really found anyone."
Over the past year, stellastarr* has grown an amazingly loyal group of underground followers in the New York scene. Through their tours with hot acts like the Raveonettes, Longwave, Sahara Hotnights, The Mooney Suzuki and The Black Keys, stellastarr* have steadily become darlings of the New York music scene, infecting listeners with their catchy tracks, sprinkled with touches of new-wave, punk, and pop. They also recently headlined and sold out a show a the Bowery Ballroom, and won rave critical reviews for their performance at ASCAP's 2003 SXSW showcase, which turned out to a defining moment for the band.
"If you don't play these festivals or if you don't [play out of your local scene], then no one's going to come and see you," Christensen says. "We didn't realize that just by going into a festival that people would come out like that. We'd figured we'd never been in Texas, and so no one was going to show up to see our show. We were wrong."
In fact, after stellastarr*'s dynamic performance at SXSW, the band burst into the UK rock scene with critical blessings from well-respected British publications like NME based on their solid live shows and the incredible buzz on their three song EP, Somewhere Across Forever. Now the band is set to release their debut full-length on RCA Records in September and tour with the Raveonettes again through the fall.
"Moongirl"
This song for a long time was just an instrumental song that I had written four years ago by myself. At the time I had nothing to say, but I felt like it was just a great riff on its own. I felt the music could breathe on its own without being [messed] up with vocals. And then later in stellastarr*, everyone liked the song.
At the time, I was really introverted and kind of a recluse. I couldn't really relate to a lot of the girls I was meeting. So I wrote lyrics to this song about a girl that doesn't exist -- from another planet. I felt that I could tag on those lyrics towards the end of the song so I wouldn't mess up the instrumental part. It sort of matched the mood for me because the song had kind of a space-like quality.
"Untitled"
This song is called "Untitled" because there was a time when I wasn't interested in the titles of songs so our drummer Arthur was naming the songs for a while. I'd write the lyrics and then let him name them.
So he named that one "Untitled" for two reasons: no one could really agree on a title and because the song is about starting over and reintroducing yourself to the world — like someone without a name. Arthur thought "Untitled" was a metaphor for not having a name.
"My Coco"
"My Coco" is about those first few months when you meet somebody and everything's just new, great and spontaneous. You know when you start dating someone, and everything's great? It's giddy and amazing and explorative, and you can't wait till she calls you? Coco is actually an ex-girlfriend though that's not her real name. Eventually, the relationship started going in a downward spiral, and I lost all that initial giddiness.
"Jenny"
Jenny (that's her real name) is a girl that, in my opinion, messed up one of my best friend's lives -- just by being a bad influence. So I just wrote a song about it.
I actually don't know either of them anymore. Up until the last year or so, I've never been able to write about a current event. So, when I wrote "Jenny" it was about something that had happened three years earlier. It was easy for me to reminisce and look back at it with a fresh view.
In a way, writing about past events is kind of like hiding because find yourself unable to write about what's currently going on in your life. I needed to start doing that, and come out of hiding.
For more information on stellastarr*, please visit the band's official website.
