A “no fucks given” attitude accompanied by an in-your-face stage presence complete with good old fashioned punk rock blood spitting is propelling L.A. based rockers Starcrawler to new heights. In just three short years, singer Arrow De Wilde, guitarist Henri Cash, Bassist Tim Franco and drummer Austin Smith have gone from playing small Cali bars to huge festivals like Reading Festival, CalJam and most recently Voodoo Fest in New Orleans. Substream was able to sit down with the band after their set at Voodoo to discuss the new album, working with Ryan Adams and the state of the music industry.
Substream: So how did Starcrawler form?
Arrow: Me and Austin started it first. It was just us jamming and we really didn’t know what to do because we didn’t have anyone else to play with that we really liked. Then I met Henri at school so the three of us started playing and then I called my friend Tim to play bass. He was only supposed to play a couple shows and now he’s permanent.
Substream: So Starcrawler released your self-titled debut album earlier this year which was produced by Ryan Adams. What was it like working with him?
Henri: It was amazing. He’s a cool guy and we recorded it live to tape which people don’t do anymore.
Arrow: It was a fun experience.
Substream: Recording to analog leaves a lot of room for error so did you face any challenges with that recording process?
Arrow: There were a lot of errors
Henri: Yeah there were a lot of errors but they were good errors.
Substream: The cover art for the album is one of my favorites. Did you guys have a hand in that?
Arrow: Yeah. I trust barely anyone with aesthetics stuff.
Henri: Everything is a part of the art and you can’t leave that up to other people that don’t understand.
Arrow: We obviously can’t do it all ourselves so we bring in other people we trust.
Substream: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve heard about yourself?
Arrow: A lot of people say I have this disease called Marfan [Syndrome] where a lot of people look like me which is tall and skinny.
Henri: I’ve had three people come up to me today and tell me that I’m in that movie Call Me by Your Name.
Tim: Everyone thinks we do a lot of drugs.
Austin: It’s our fast metabolisms I guess [laughs].
Substream: What is one thing you would change about the music industry?
Arrow: More money
Austin: There is a lack of authenticity with modern music and it’s not to call out modern artists but [music] is being made for the sake of just making entertainment and not for the sake of having something to say.
Substream: How do you feel about music being so accessible?
Henri: I think its cool, I mean, that’s how people found out about us. I just think you need to put some thought into it.
Substream: In a recent interview, Shirley Manson of Garbage said that Starcrawler is changing the status quo in regards to women in rock. How do you feel about that?
Arrow: I thought what she said was really cool. I never know what to say for that answer because I don’t ever think “oh I’m a girl doing this” or “Is this going to be hard because I am a woman?” That doesn’t really cross my mind. I feel like bands should just be bands. Also, we are mostly a guy band. I’m outnumbered here [laughs].
Substream: For someone who has never been to a Starcrawler show, what can they expect?
Henri: The unexpected.