From left to right: Amanda, Michael, Arthur, Shawn
Tiptoeing through the stellastarr* world, SUPERSWEET jumping jacked and performed a neck braking roly-poly all in the aim to stealthily discover the secret revelations of the new album Civilized. Like a prying mother reading teenage diary dreams, we uncovered tales of hidden mistresses, chameleon charms and how singing “whoa” can be therapeutic to your soul. So read in track-by-track form, the singled out deliberations from the mouths of stellastarr* unearthed with acrobatic force for your inquisitive eyes.
1) ROBOT
Amanda Tannen (bass, vocals): 'Robot' was actually a song we wrote after we had finished the record. We were recording b-sides and writing for the fun of it, when this lovely song came to be. Fully written in a couple hours, it popped it’s mechanical head out, surprising all of us. We originally recorded it as a B-side, but we fell in love quickly. It was unlike any other. Not happy with treating it as a mistress, we felt the urge to fully commit. So much so, that we decided to make it the opening track of the record.
(June 02, 2009)
2) FREAK OUT
Shawn Chrstensen (vocals, guitar): No relation to Rick James in any way. Although we might throw in a "I'm Rick James, bitch!" in the chorus somewhere. But you'll have to play it backwards and sacrifice a small donkey to hear it.
I really don't know where this song came from, but it came up quickly. Arthur and I were jamming on it a few weeks before we started recording and then everything else came into place and then it was like, it's going to be on the record.
This is one my favorite songs for the moment. Maybe it's because it's I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about here. What do these lyrics mean? Can somebody please tell me? I'm sure someone will explain it to me when the song's released.
(May 12, 2008)
3) TOKYO SKY
Shawn: If we hadn't settled on 'Robot' to open the record, 'Tokyo Sky' would've been it. This song was first recorded by Mod Alien last year, and then re-recorded by Tim O'Heir for the record. We tend to open our sets with it almost regularly, and it will definitely be a staple in our live sets from here on out. The song splits in two halves, with the first part slow grooving, story telling, big band drums. Then the second half switches gears to a speeding bullet.
(June 09, 2009)
4) NUMBERS
Shawn: The reality is, 'Numbers' is a complicated track. And it's hard to hear through all the rampant batshit to find the song underneath. Over 16 tracks of guitars: phasers, distortion, delays, reverbs, octave shifts, pod overdubs and general balls out chaos. Mandy's doing this spooky spaghetti western vocal that we haven't gotten to yet because we're still wiping the guitar shit off our windshield. One thing's for sure, this song's probably the fastest 'rock' song we've ever written, which isn't saying much, since we don't usually go for that thing. And it's not hard core by any means, but for us, it's not common territory.
(May 08, 2008)
Arthur Kremer (drums): This song started out as something entirely different when we were first writing it. Had an entirely different beginning and about nine other parts. Let's just say it was hanging out with "the wrong crowd". Yet somehow it grew up to be fine little tune.
(May 19, 2009)
5) GRAFFITI EYES
Shawn: Today, we worked on 'Grafitti Eyes' which came together rather quick in the studio, for once. It was called the 'Mandy Song' for a while because she wrote the bass line and spearheaded it, basically. And it came out pretty excellent, I must say. Another fun, uplifting track. Arthur plays a fucked up organ on it that sounds incredible.
(May 16, 2008)
6) PROM ZOMBIE
Amanda: When we started writing this album, the one thing we knew we wanted out of it was a bunch of fun. This song was one of the most fun to write and record. Party time in the studio! I had a really hard time not cracking up while recording my vocals on this one. It is a definite drinking song, everybody lift a glass, sing a-long and get down and dirty. I'm sure we’ll be playing this one live a bunch. Come on out, and get rowdy!
(June 30, 2009)
7) WARCHILD
Shawn: 'Warchild' or 'War, Child', depending on who you ask. And, of course, we uploaded it here on MySpace last year, so many of you are aware of it. It's the oldest of the songs we've written for this record, so when Tim O'Heir mentioned mixing next, we were like, uh, oh yeah THAT song. But it's got some huge guitar sounds on it and I hope it comes out slamming.
(May 16, 2008)
8) PEOPLE
Amanda: This is a funny one. If you had been tuning in a little over a year ago we posted the demo version of this song. It had a totally different feel. While in pre-production for this album we decided to change the chorus and in turn, it changed the whole vibe of the song. For some of us, it took a while to get used to. After it's metamorphosis we unanimously agree that it is one of our favorites. Singing loud "whoas" always put me in a good mood... try it!
(June 16, 2009)
9) MOVE ON
Shawn: Well, a lot of bands have songs with the word 'move' in the title, so here's ours. Didn't really plan it or anything, it just happened that way. The vocals are like a loud whisper throughout the track with both me and Mandy. Kind of like the beginning of 'My Coco', only the whole way through. It's tough to balance because the guitars are also loud and thick. Lot of distortion. I'm definitely losing all sense of sound and tone at this point.
Sometimes a song comes along that's worth fighting for. And I've really fought to the death for this one. It's not talked about too much among the band members because it's very pop, uplifting. These are terms that scare people off, I know, but I don't really care about the social classification of a song as long as it's good. A good song is a good song, regardless if it sounds indy or dark or happy or hollow or top 40 or dancy or messy. And this is a good song. (May 14, 2008)
Michael Jurin (guitar, vocals): See, some songs are like chameleons. They can change shape and color, vibe, mood and conclusion. This song did all of these and probably more. In the very beginning Shawn had a vague vision of a glossy sun drenched pop song. But like a sun glare, he could not look directly at it to see its shape. Eventually we found it with me playing a scale climb through an echo petal, while a cheap drum machine preset hinted at a pounding beat. More changes. More shapes. Then it hit us and we were already done.
Fun Fact: The album version vocals are the same ones recorded for the original demo recorded one year ago by Mod Alien. BUT one line of the chorus lyric is different. I believe we took that from a vocal take we never used on the demo.
(June 24, 2009)
10) SONIJA CRIES
Shawn: Even though it's the last song on the record, it is actually the first song we wrote for this record, and still has remnants of the head space we were in during Harmonies for the Haunted. It's probably the only 'slower' track on the record, and doesn't quite sound like the rest, but we liked the recording so much we put it on.
The song was first demoed in Philadelphia on a tape with Darren Morze in 2007, and then re-recorded two years later for this record with Tim O'Heir.
(May 26, 2009)
Photography: Kriangkrai Srithongthai