PipemanRadio Interviews Starbenders at Aftershock 2023

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Hi, you love then too,
censure? Wow crazy you why become of

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America. It's time for the Adventures
of Pipe Man on W four c Y

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dot com. West Palm Beats is
number one internet radio station. Here's your

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host, the pipe Man. Yes, this is the pipe Man here on

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the Adventure's Pipe Man W four c
Y Radio. And I'm here with You're

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with starbanders from Atlanta, Georgia.
I'm Kimmy Shelter. I'm the lead singer

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in Rhythm get Player. I'm Emily
Moon. I played drums. I'm Aaron

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I play bass. I'm Chris I
play guitar. Nice. So Aftershock how

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does it feel to be an Aftershock
cool festival? Right? Yeah, it's

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really awesome, super organized and just
awesome bands, very very nice. So,

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since you're from Atlanta, have you
ever performed or been at the Shaky

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Knees Festival. We've gone to the
Shaking Ees Festival, but we've yet to

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play it, which is something that
chaps our ause from Atlanta. I know

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you should. That should be like
a given, right. Yes, We're

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gonna send around a paper trying to
get us on. Yeah. Yeah,

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just keep howking them till they're like
yeah, we need them to leave us

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alone. Just put them on the
bill. Yeah, this is unacceptable.

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You know what I didn't like about
Shaky Knees is, Oh my god,

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there's no parking in your town.
What is up with that? Any traffic

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parking car related activity in Atlanta is
going to be a bitch. Oh,

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Like, especially where that festival is. It's funny because there were cops.

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I'm like, normal thing, Can
I park here? He goes, I

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don't know. I'm like, well, you mean you don't know. Well,

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that's not our area. I'm like, but you're the one giving out

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tickets. Well you'll have to ask. Was it that they call it there

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that handles the traffic stuff? I
forget. No, it's like some agency

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I don't even remember. But you
have a Department of Public Safety something like

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that, some county thing. I'm
like, really, the cops don't know

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what's legal and what's now. I
don't care either. No, they didn't.

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That's the point. So but here
after shock, how cool is this

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vibe back here? Right? Like? This whole area, the artist media

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area. Most festivals don't have this. Yeah, it's really beautiful and it's

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it really helps us when places kind
of take the artist and the media and

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everybody in the consideration, because we're
out here all day, you know,

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and it really helps, like having
nice places to sit and do these kinds

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of things in and did you see
the food. There's a chef out there

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making fun. It's awesome, and
you know, it just makes it fun.

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I know, right, why we're
here. See, I think they're

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so smart because that's when artists want
to hang in the press tent and stuff

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like this. Otherwise they want to
avoid it, usually because too many people

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are asking them how'd you got your
boom moon? Which you'll never hear me

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ask. So tell the listeners,
if they haven't heard your music before,

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how you would describe your music?
Not from a genre necessarily, because that's

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just boxes artists, and I'd like
to hear how the artists express themselves.

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I think we are an aggressive,
ethereal, emotional, whimsical rock band.

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That's a great that should be a
new genre, white spectrum of emotions and

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characters, if you will. It
should be that way though, right,

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I mean, music is emotion,
you know. I think a lot of

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our favorite bands collectively as a band
were bands like that. They weren't bands

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you could really put in the box, right, Like The Cure is one

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of our favorite bands, and they
always they had such a wide spectrum of

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sounds. So yeah, I mean
it's kind of nice to say be able

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to say in that way because it's
like, well, we kind of kind

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of like Blondie or like Bowie and
this and that, and we were always

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you know, I think there's multiple
ways to describe who we are as a

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band, and I think when you
blend different influences, you can't be compared

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to another band because you're uniquely you. Yeah, and it's it's tough because

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that's that's how people like to ask
questions or learn about things. They want

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you to tell They want you to
tell them, yeah, they So it's

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it's hard because, as a friend
of ours has referred to us, we're

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tweet ers, so we're between genres
and things like that. I don't think

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we've fully been necessarily classified. So
we just keep doing what's natural to us.

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And we've been really lucky because the
four of us matched one another really

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well in terms of our capabilities on
our instruments. That's important, so we're

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able. We've always been just able
to keep climbing and growing. Just as

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musicians, and we've been able to
maintain and protect our joy in this which

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has been really important. Sounds like
there's no ego too, because just you

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saying about the matching in musical instruments
and stuff like that, Like, usually

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when there's ego, that's the death
of a band, and I think there's

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with us. To me, it's
always important to acknowledge the ego. But

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there's a quote about not redecorating the
abyss. Yeah, you know, so

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we try not to do that.
Yeah, it's good to have an ego,

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but not an out of control ego, maniac ego. Yeah. I

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think that it's one of those things
where once you look at it, the

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dynamic changes. So as soon as
you're you pull that ego out of your

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peripheral and into your direct line of
sight, you're able to address it in

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a different way and get along better. Absolutely, you can invite your demons

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to dinner with you, right,
and you end up understanding each other.

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I think that's what happens a lot
of times, is sometimes because they're not

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matched, they don't really understand the
other person's perspective, and that's important.

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Yeah, we've been really lucky too, because I think each of us as

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individuals has had that hunger and that
drive to get to where we're going.

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We're all seekers in our own different
way, whether it be you know,

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all of us operate within different mediums. But because we're all each holding up

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four corners, nobody is necessarily occupying
the same space at any given time,

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so we're able to like really play
off of each other's strengths and weaknesses and

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that way, both in our personal
dynamics and on stage as well. So

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since you have such a good chemistry
together, how did you guys all meet?

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Then? Kimmy and I knew one
another before this, before this band.

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I just remember when she called me
and said, dude, we're gonna

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do another band, let's do it. And so I mean that was on

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boarded. But when Chris and Emily
came, that was that was the final

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piece that was are born on day. And so that's when the band really

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like started to take off, both
musically and like career wise. That's when

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we started actually doing more things.
So so it's like instant right like you

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knew right away. Also say this
like it's less important like how we met

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and more important to note that like
it was the stars coming together in aligning,

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and if anything had been a little
bit different, we would not have

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Starvenders today. So I'm profoundly grateful
that we all came together when we did.

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Craigslist isn't dead, y'all. It
might be dead now, but in

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twenty seventeen, it wasn't dead.
That's actually how I met the nice that

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kind of reminds me of like,
uh, bands in the old days and

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that you know, answered and ad
like Metallica, Yeah looking for leady guitar

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player. Yeah, yeah, you
know that's how Metallica start, Yes an

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ad, yes, you know,
yeah, And I love that nowadays there's

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still bands like you that are using
that because to me, that's organic.

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You know, it happens, you
know, if there's a vibe, you

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know, if there's chemistry and then
boom. You know, that's a long

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lasting band. Yeah, and that's
why we keep fighting for it. And

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I think in our in this day
and age, everything's disposable and everything's thrown

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out, you know, everything,
everything's single use and yeah, you know,

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nobody even like views something like marriage
as being like it used to be,

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like, oh you're with that person
forever. Now it's like, oh,

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that's gonna be my third ex wife, you know whatever. But it's

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funny you should say that because there's
two things I'll say on that point.

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Is one is people go into marriagees
nowadays with the idea of of if it

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doesn't work, I can get divorced, and that's good. There's an out,

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you know. And we're essentially married
because we're an illegally binding contract with

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one another. That's right. So
we just we just keep fighting for one

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another and it keeps making sense.
And you know, it's been a long

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and winding road for us. But
any time that we start to or I

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start to feel overwhelmed, I just
read the lyrics to you know, ACDC

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is along way the top. If
you want a rocky roll, Well you

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know what they say, it takes
about twenty years to become an overnight success.

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Oh yeah, yeah. We're really
looking forward to people talking about how

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we sold out. I know,
right. So it's funny we were talking

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about Metallica. That's a perfect example
because I went to like the first Metallica

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show ever, and so the twenty
five of us which were their fans when

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they made the Black album or like
fuck them, posters, we're not listening

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to them again. But you know
what at the end of the day,

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where they were smart is yes,
they may have lost us then and they

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gained millions and we all came back
anyway. So you know, I think,

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listen, if you're going to be
an artist, that whole sellout thing.

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I used to be like that when
I was a teenager. But listen,

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this is how you gotta make your
living, if this is what you're

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really gonna do, So it's not
really selling out, it's growing and maturing

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and becoming a career. You know. Yeah, yeah, I think honestly,

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like what's always guided us in the
right direction is like serving the song

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and serving the band as an idea, and that's always kind of led us

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in the right path no matter how
dark things got, even when you know,

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even a couple of years ago when
nobody could tour, I think we

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always just like held strong to what
this band really meant to us, and

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you know, and here we are. You know, that's a good point

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you brought up, because I think
two things happened from that lockdown. Either

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bands disbanded or bands found each other
or found their real calling. Because you

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know, you guys, as artists, you're on this hamster wheel and you

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really don't have time to stop and
think where you want things to go.

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Yeah, and that kind of forced
artists to stop and think, is this

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really where I want to be going? Or do I want to shift tears?

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Yeah? Yeah, I mean and
the record we just put out definitely

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has that introspective element to it,
you know, like a lot of people

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that put out music in the same
era, if you will, I think

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we, you know it did.
We did take the time to really look

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into ourselves as a band, and
what came out was this really visceral group

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of songs you know that I feel
like, really represent us live and in

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the studio. I love that,
you know, And I will say that

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what a tough time to come through
being an artist. So if you're an

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artist still after that time, my
hat's off to you, because I don't

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think people realize as how rough mentally
and everything else it is to be an

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artist through that lockdown period. Yeah, I mean, you know, I

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think we had a lot of compassion
for people on every walk of life.

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But we continued to kind of talk
about the metaphor of like the band playing

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as the ship goes down, and
that's what musicians had to do during that

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time. We had to kind of
like keep creating as like all of these

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systems were being challenged and all this
kind of stuff. And so honestly,

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our producer mentor since se Nico Constantine, played a really big part in that,

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like because he he had his knee
in our back the whole time,

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and like what's kind of like a
really fearless leader for us at that time,

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and we were able to like keep
pushing and keep moving and he found

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a way to make it so that
we were able to do that financially and

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otherwise to keep be able to keep
creating and our label as well. So

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between him and our label, like
we were we were actually really lucky and

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we just spotted out and you know, we had an opportunity to get healthier

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during that time. Nice and look
at some of the stuff that had been

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sort of unattended to. So you
know, here we are at after Shock

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three. Nice. I love it. Tell everybody how they reach out to

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you guys on socials, on the
web, by your merch check out your

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music tour days, all that stuff. Yeah, all you have to do

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is type starbenders into Google and there
she is. The best way to reach

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us is on Instagram, but we're
on all the socials, so just seek

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and you shall find. That's an
hard thing nowadays. I think of artists

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like I remember back in days,
we had to tape trading days and all

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that, and now to be an
artist it's a lot of fricking work now.

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Of those bands back then, I
had to do that much work.

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Their biggest work was stapleing flyers on
telephone poles. Yeah, now like social

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media, even like TikTok's a full
time job. Man. It is like

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I have like mad respect for people
to do tiktoks because it's like I don't

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have eight hours to do one minute
TikTok. Yeah, it's definitely. It's

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definitely a new world. Yeah,
you guys have to work so much harder.

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That's why people need to support bands, support you by buying merch,

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you know, because it's the only
way you really survive. And you know,

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we're out here and we love all
the people that still are loving music

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and rock and roll and comedy of
these things, and people like you keeping

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things going and turning people onto cool
new things, and we really appreciate all

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of it, and if you see
us on the street, say, hey,

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we're all real nice. We might
look a little scary, but we

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don't bite, but you might want. It's funny. I was talking to

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another artist I was friends with and
we're talking about how people think metal heads

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are scary, and he was like, let's keep them thinking that. Yeah,

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metal heads are the absolute sweetest people. Well, and we're all metal

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heads here in this band too.
But you know, it's really funny because

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are like softer, more ballad songs
like those are what the metal guys will

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come up to us and say they
like because we'll play the heavy shit and

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I'll be like you like that?
You like that, man, and they're

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like I like the ballad right,
Yeah, well listen as a total flash

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metal head, one of my favorite
ever Metallica songs is nothing else matters.

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Yeah, So that goes against everything
that I should believe. I think it's

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songs like that you like. You
need that contrast totally. That that's what's

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exciting about being a band that's open, and that's it gives you such a

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breath of like more possibilities as an
artist. You should be able to be

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open and just create. You know
instead. Oh, you need to create

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it, just like this or any
other box they put you in. Yes,

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we like exercising our neuroplasticity and making
sure that we stay limbly bimbly as

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we go forward. I love it. Any final words you want to leave

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our listeners with that we haven't covered
yet, Rocking Aftershock. Yes, Chris

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is like teeth kick kick teeth,
nice, dyslexia, We're stuff. Well

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you guys rock. I'm so glad
you're here after Shock. And thanks for

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being on the Adventures of Payment.
Oh yeah, thank you, love you

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have a great one. Thank you
for listening to the Adventures of Payment.

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I'm w for c u I Radio.