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NEWS : STORIES
When Starsailor first landed on U.S. shores, it was a little difficult to separate them from the rest of the recent British arrivals. They loved good songwriting and big emotions, but so did Coldplay, Travis, and Radiohead. Starsailor might have been
The band still wanted to get an "in" on rock history, and they found it in the unlikely form of Phil Spector. The venerable producer had furnished hits for the Righteous Brothers, the Beatles and Ike & Tina Turner. He was also a legendary eccentric with a handgun fetish who hadn't made a record since 1980. But he loved Starsailor, and thought the band's "Silence is Easy" could be a new national anthem. So the mutual admiration society went to work together at London's Abbey Road studios. Spector lent his famed Wall of Sound to "Silence is Easy" and "White Dove," but the relationship began to unravel, and the band fired him. Shortly afterwards, the producer was arrested and charged with the murder of Lana Clarkson. Starsailor carried on alone, and the impressive Silence is Easy reeks with confidence. Opening with "Music Was Saved," it's a grand collection of heartbreaking ballads and anthems in waiting. And yes, the title track is every bit as good as Spector imagined it. Will it turn Starsailor into Coldplay? Walsh and bassist James "Stel" Stelfox aren't under any illusions that they'll be dating Gwyneth Paltrow soon. But they can grin at the fact that they've made the first great rock album of the year. The reflective Walsh and his more candid chum spoke to VH1 about going mad on the road, surviving Spector, and the American edge to their music. VH1: You're that rare singer who really seems to enjoy the act of singing. James Walsh: Yeah. I think it's just from childhood, really. I used to enjoy going to church, because it gave me the chance to sing unashamedly. At school, if you broke into song halfway through a football match or something, you'd get your head caved in. VH1: How wrecked were you by the time you were done promoting Love is Here? James Stelfox: It was 18 months of solid touring. By the third American tour, we got fed up with each other. It's hard being on a bus with your mates for 32-hour drives. You've watched all the DVDs, read all the books, CDs have been played too much, so there's nothing much you can do apart from drink. Once you start drinking, you start arguing, and then you start fighting. So when we got home, we took a month off from each other, and got back into it after that. JW: The U.S. was definitely the hardest nut to crack. We were kind of naïve as to how much work we were going to have to do to sell records. In England, we sold three times as many albums, so it was frustrating to come to the U.S. and travel its length and breadth, do interview after interview, and not see great results. But I think we've got everything in perspective now. We're starting to enjoy it more. VH1: What was the closest you came to becoming Spinal Tap? JS: We did a show at the Sundance festival in Utah. We all went out onstage separately, and we all got into fights with different people [in the audience]. Then we got back onto the bus and fought with each other. JW: We were playing at a party for film people and nobody knew who we were or cared, really. No one was watching the band, so I was getting increasingly frustrated and calling them all the names under the sun. I had an argument with the drummer afterwards, because he said if I'd been nicer to them they'd have really loved it. [Watch Clip] VH1: Musically, how did you and Phil Spector match up? JS: We didn't really know, because he hadn't worked for 20-odd years and we were this young band. We knew it was going be interesting to see what he was going to bring to the mix. JW: We thought we were going to make a modern classic, another "Make It Easy on Yourself" or "River Deep Mountain High." We probably misjudged how much respect the public at large has for Phil Spector compared to the amount of respect that the small music lovers' community has for Phil Spector. [Watch Clip] VH1: You must have been familiar with the horror stories about him. JS: Yeah. But we were in England and you can't have guns, so we were all right! JW: We wanted that, in a strange kind of masochistic way. We wanted Phil Spector the perfectionist who would have our drummer Ben in the studio until six in the morning saying, "Get this drum part right!" or "Make sure this is the best bass that you've ever played." We were kind of disappointed that we got the complete opposite, really. JS: We wanted him to lock the keyboardist Barry up in a gimp suit and whip him, but it never came out like that. [Laughs] VH1: Did he tell you any good stories about the people he worked with? JS: Oh yeah. We'd have an hour with Uncle Phil every night; we'd have dinner with him, then sit around and hear all these great stories about Ike & Tina Turner, Lennon, and his love for Paul McCartney. JW: He used to see Keith Richards walking around L.A. a lot. There was this diner that Keith would go in sometimes, and the waiter would give him a free breakfast. So he kept going back to this diner because he'd get a free breakfast. These tourists were in one day, and said to the waiter, "You know who that is? That's Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones." The waiter was like, "You're joking!" They said, "Why?" "I've been giving him free breakfasts all week - I thought he was a crack addict!" [Watch Clip] VH1: As eccentric as he was, were you shocked to hear that he was up on a murder rap? JS: [sarcastically] We blame ourselves. We can't sleep at night, because of what we drove him to. JW: Well, he was off drinking. He was completely sober, and then after working with us he started drinking again, so... I'm of two minds, really. Although I would never suspect him to go that far with his madness, obviously there's more chance of Phil Spector doing something like that then one of the presenters on Good Morning America. VH1: You've covered both "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" and "Thunder Road." What's the common ground between Dylan, Springsteen and yourselves? JW: We're still striving for some common ground. I think it will take us another few albums before we can stand alongside those people. Our aim with this album was to be able to stand alongside Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur, to be able to regard those bands as our peers, instead of us being in the next division down or whatever. VH1: Where's the more interesting music being made at the moment - rock or hip-hop? JW: OutKast is definitely the most interesting and innovative music that's out there. The Super Furry Animals and the Sleepy Jackson really mix it up. They've both made really eclectic albums, but these sorts of bands always get pushed to the back of the queue. It's too hard for some people to take in and appreciate. They just need something generic like Nickelback or Staind. Although I wouldn't want to be rude about Nickelback, because I'm sure they've got as much passion about what they do as any of us. VH1: It's strange that you draw on influences like Dylan and Springsteen, yet sound a million miles away from American rock bands. JW: America is like a magical place when you're growing up. American places sound more interesting in songs than British roads and streets and things. California just sounds better, like in "California Dreaming." I don't think "Lancashire Dreaming" or "Warrington Dreaming" would work. [Watch Clip] VH1: Does the U.S. still have that degree of magic for you? JS: It always does. If someone said five years ago, "You'll be on your fourth tour of America and sell out shows in New York and L.A. and Washington," that would be like a dream come true. For a British band - apart from Oasis who don't give a sh*t about anything - it's an honor to be here. JW: We've built up a small fan base in America, and it's really passionate about the band. It's amazing that you see the same faces at most of the gigs and think, "You must really love the band and the music to drive six or seven hours to come see us from gig to gig." That doesn't really happen too much in England. We're quite honored that people think that much of us!
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