Starcrawler are back with their new album, She Said, out now on Big Machine Records. While it’s their major label debut, the five-piece, whose collective age barely hits triple digits, didn’t feel the pressures of recording for an established label.
“When we made the record, we weren’t on a major label, so we kind of just made the record for ourselves,” says guitarist Henri Cash. “It started in quarantine; our deal with Rough Trade ended, and so we were kind of on our own. Then, when we started writing the songs, we didn’t know when we were gonna be able to play shows again. We resorted to creating to create because we didn’t want to not do anything. And so we were making a record for ourselves.”
Playing together since their early teens and as a band who hit the road as much as they could, the pandemic meant they were home for a lot longer than they were used to. “We’d been on tour for five years before that and never had more than two weeks at home,” Cash says. “So, all of a sudden to have nothing to do; we’re people that love to go do things and play shows. We were missing the adrenaline and everything that we do because playing shows, it’s the whole energy in the room. It’s the whole reason why, as a kid, I wanted to play music because we grew up in an age where you could see concert shows (on YouTube) like The Ramones and The Clash and see the crowd and be like, ‘I want to be there.’”
So, deep in one of the many lockdown phases, Starcrawler started creating to create. “We were writing songs through the window,” Cash says. “It was a reason to see each other, and then it branched from there to writing on the porch. Then it was like, we’ve got the songs; now let’s get together. We got an Airbnb, and we all isolated together and really got down into it and got playing again, and that was really crazy.”
Now that live shows are a thing again, the band haven’t wasted any time getting back on the road, playing their own intimate shows wherever they can, as well as sharing stages with everyone from Jack White to Nick Cave to emo legends My Chemical Romance on their U.K. comeback tour.
“Even if the crowd doesn’t know you, just playing on a stage that big is super cool,” says vocalist Arrow De Wilde. “Also just getting to play with you some of the people that we grew up listening to,” Cash adds, “because we never get to see our own show, but knowing that people like that admire what we do in our show, it’s like, well, I love watching them, so if they think we’re doing something right, we’re probably not crazy. Maybe.”
And while both Arrow and Henri say that getting back on a stage after so long was a daunting experience, they both say that recording new music—and allowing people to hear it for the first time—is truly nerve-wracking: “Showing it to the first person,” Cash says, “I feel like you don’t know if it’s shit or not”.
De Wilde, however, dislikes this feeling for a different reason: “I always get nervous to show people songs. Not because they might not like it, but because I know they’re gonna start talking halfway through and start asking me questions. That annoys the fuck out of me,” she laughs. “I almost don’t show anyone because for me, when I listen to a song, I’m in full mode of listening to the song, even if it’s not my song. Like Lemmy would always say, ‘There’s no such thing as background music.’”
Cash agrees with De Wilde’s pet-peeve: “I don’t like being there when somebody is listening to it. I feel like they should make it illegal, so you can only send somebody the thing, and they listen to it in their car in their own time and then get back to you.”
Speaking of cars, Starcrawler fans who also share a love for MTV’s greatest export should recognize the cameo at the end of their “Roadkill” video: Jackass’ junkie circus clown turned sober but no less silly stuntman, Steve-O. And that wasn’t their first collaboration with Johnny Knoxville’s band of infamous idiots, as De Wilde shares.
“The Jackass thing happened kind of randomly. We got an email saying that Jeff Tremaine liked the band, and they would like to hear a version of “If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough.” We sent it to them, and they liked it and used it (in Jackass 4.5). It was super cool.”
“And then because of that, when we did the “Roadkill” video, we already shot everything, but we really wanted a cameo at the end, and we were just trying to think of who it could be, and we were like, ‘What if we asked Steve O? Maybe he’s heard our song for Jackass? It’s worth a shot,” she says.
“We hit up his management and sent him the video and the song, and then his manager wrote back and was like ‘Steve’s down; he’s free this Sunday,’ and we were like, ‘Oh shit.’ We didn’t honestly think they were gonna respond because we don’t know him at all, you know? So it was totally on a whim. But it was awesome; he’s super nice.”
Having already had two songs featured in blockbuster flicks (their cover of The Ramones’ “Pet Semetery” played over the end credits of the 2019 remake of the Stephen King classic), signing to a major label, and touring with genre giants, what does the future hold for Starcrawler? World domination, perhaps? In the meantime, the band are doing what they do best and touring their new album as much as humanely possible. “I’m excited for a U.S. tour,” Cash says. “I think it’s gonna be just great to do a whole month-and-a-half-long tour. So that’s super exciting. And then we’re going to Korea!”
“Oh yeah, we’re playing the DMZ bordering North and South Korea,” enthuses De Wilde. “And then next year, I’m excited; I have no idea what to expect, but we’re going to play the Dominican Republic. They’re definitely places I haven’t thought that we’d be able to play, so I hope we get to do more of that kind of stuff—traveling and getting to meet different people from different places.”
And in case you were wondering, despite still being babies compared with the majority of bands they’re sharing stages with, Starcrawler have matured, like, well, cheese. “We actually put cheese on our rider now. We used to have a really bad rider, literally just candy and chips. And it gets old pretty quickly,” Cash laughs. “Yeah, it was fun at first when we were in high school,” De Wilde agrees, “But it gets kind of gross.” Cash eagerly proves how the band have grown from their time on the road: “And then you start to feel shitty when all you eat is candy. So now cheese is on the rider, and crackers.”
Photo courtesy of Starcrawler
