A sound without a name : Star FK Radium
This trio gives music journalists a hard time. Consisiting of guitar, drums and a violin and playing strictly instrumental songs, Star FK Radium from Washington are not your everyday band. It’s difficult to find a genre to put them in, quick judgement is nearly impossible. The debut record “Blue Siberia” was recently released in the US but also has been reviewed in europe by diverese magazines from indie to metal. Bill, Matt and Alissa talked to Buzz Pop about their musical ideas and plans for the future.
Buzz Pop: Guitar, Drums and a violin seems to be a rather unusal set up for an Indie band. How did you come up with the idea?
Bill: I don’t see us as an Indie band. Guitar, drums and violin has been done before as with The Dirty Three out of Australia, but we sound very different from them. It is an unusual line up but was not planned. it kind of came about.
Matt: I think the idea just came up with itself. We formed a band and those are the instruments that we play. It was not preconceived. However those instruments do work well together, for some really specific reasons.
Alissa: Bill has always been the creative leader of the group. he’s been writing music for many years and as his compositions leaned more and more towards instrumentals, he sought to create a band to support the songs he was writing. Bill and I had known each other a long time, but my violin had been living in a closet for longer than that. We experimented by writing a violin part to one of his songs (later named “life in slow motion”). Bill and Matt then had an opportunity to play his song “travel” together at a show, and it really just clicked. within a month or two we were officially a band.
Buzz Pop: Your music is completely instrumental. Was the idea rather to create an atmosphere then tell a story? Do you tell stories with your songs?
Bill: We are entirely instrumental. We created an atmosphere by sheer luck. We discovered this after recording with our producer, Jason Rubal. He took our sound and imparted this tremendous soothing but sad quality of violin. We were driving back from northern Michigan just past dusk in the winter listening to our cd. It is a remote area with bleak monochromatic landscapes. Our music really struck me then as a “voice” of the environment, almost an angelic validation of our inner sadness. Two separate concepts, but I felt both. It was really hard to come back to Washington, DC after that trip and be blasted by so many colors and distractions.
Matt: They might tell stories but it is arbitrary since there are no words. However even vocal music can be viewed as arbitrary if you give yourself enough creative license in interpretation.That being said, people can tell what an instrumental song is about, at least to themselves.
Alissa: The music we write is simply the music that comes to us and feels right in us as we create it. we do tell stories with our songs, but often times we discover the story after we have written the song. and likely, each person who listens to our songs hear a different story.
Buzz Pop: When I listened to your record the sound is calmative in some way but in the same time the songs seem to show a nervous atmosphere beneath the surface. Do you like to play with contradictions?
Bill: We have heard from others that our music has a calmative and at times nervous quality. Alissa and I like to write melody arrangements for violin and guitar that compliment each other and at times push boundaries.
Matt: I love contradictions.
Alissa: We like contrast. It is as fundamental as our three instruments and the voice that each brings to the music. Contrast is everywhere in the world around us; moments in life can be beautiful yet full of sorrow, or anxious yet calming or reassuring. i don’t think things are usually simple and straightforward even if they appear to be from the outside, and we try to express the fullness of that.
Buzz Pop: What inspires your songwriting?
Bill: I very much like to come up with pleasing to my psyche acoustic guitar pieces while striving to push boundaries. Our cover track “Blue Siberia” was the wonderful result of hours of frustration. Out came this simple but complex picking sequence and I excitedly phoned Alissa to play it for her. She was like “so what”. To her credit, I believe cell phones cannot accurately convey a tune. “Blue Siberia” has gone on to be one of our more successful songs. All of our songs must get through our committee of three to be performed.
Matt: Our songs are not outward expressions of our inner selves. To me, it’s absolute music inspired by itself. Our songs aren’t about rainbows or girlfriends or anything.
Alissa: Life is inspiring.
Buzz Pop: Do you consider your music to be Avantgarde?
Bill: I take that as a compliment. Yes I do.
Matt: Oh I think so. I definitely think our music pushes current artistic boundaries.
Alissa: Yes!
Buzz Pop: Is there a scene you can rely on? Do you see yourself as part of any scene?
Bill: We’ve played in indie venues, had Matt’s drums the focus of a legion of Michigan drumline enthusiasts, had lovers of violin drool over Alissa, did an interview for a Trip Hop blog and actually have a number of metal music journalists really like what we are doing.
Matt: I don’t think of it that way at all. We’re not looking for a niche to fill. We’re just being creative and if people like it, then that’s great. I put zero thought in to what scene we can rely on.
Alissa: We are part of a social music scene in dc, but musically speaking, we haven’t found many peers in what we are doing. but we definitely enjoy being unique.
Buzz Pop: I can imagine it could be pretty difficult to find support for your music, since your sound isn’t easy to describe or to be put in some genre. How do you judge your chances in the commercial market?
Bill: If enough music enthusiasts could experience what we did in Michigan on our long and lonely drive perhaps a promoter would beat a path to our door. It really was that good, but it takes a while for anything new to catch on. We realize that and keep focused on writing and playing gigs.
Matt: Sometimes playing in to a common genre that is easy to describe could be a hindrance to doing well on a commercial market. Is the market really looking for more of the same? Or are they looking for something different?
Alissa: I don’t want to make any bets. I think there are so many things that happen in life in ways that you don’t expect, and I think the future is wide open for us right now. but how we will get there? I really don’t know yet.
Buzz Pop: If you could decide what 2010 would bring for Star FK Radium, what would it be? Where do you want to see your band at the end of the year?
Bill: We have been very pleased and somewhat shocked by the response to “Blue Siberia”. Writers from Germany, Italy, the UK, Denmark, Poland, Canada and the US have offered to write reviews. Many are already posted. 2010 will be a continuous refinement of our sound through regular performances while we likely will get more review offers. By mid 2011 we’d like to be in front of the magic the right promoter can bring.
Matt: Well its half way over. I would like us to have written more really creative stuff by the end of the year.
Alissa: I would love to play internationally in 2010, at least once. I’m eager to see how europe would receive our music. I’m also incredibly excited to go back into the studio and record the next round of songs, but I think we’re talking 2011 for that.
