Photo: Tonje Thilesen
HeRobust - Grief Case (Star Slinger’s WWHRD Remix)
Elizabeth Fraser [Cocteau Twins Rework]
Nicki Minaj - Moment 4 Life (Star Slinger Remix)
What are your thoughts on Bandcamp? There’s a big difference between five or so years ago when any new musician would go on MySpace to showcase their unsigned music, whereas now, so many people are going over to Bandcamp. How has that helped?
[Laughs] With Star Slinger, I don’t think I will. Not unless it’s hidden under tons and tons of reverb.
It has definitely helped a ton. There’s actually a restriction at Bandcamp. At the moment, you can only give away two hundred free downloads, meaning an album or even a song counts. After that, people have to start paying for it to get more free downloads, which I think is a bit sly. I mean, I guess that does encourage putting up your music for sale. Which is always good, because, if that becomes the norm, musicians will be better off. And, of course, iTunes is doing better and better each year, so it’s good. I’m astounded how iTunes can be so big and yet people are giving away albums for free on Mediafire.
Yeah, no. And really, I think it’s trial and error. I thought I was a good singer, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I noticed that your main website, starslinger.net, does that. If people want to get your music for free they can download it from Mediafire, and if they want to pay, they can buy it from your Bandcamp. It’s nice that you cater to both crowds in that respect. Absolutely. If there was one thing you could tell anybody that they wouldn’t be able to guess about you, what would it be? Damn. Um...I’m trying to think...[laughs]. Oh, god. Well, I would say I used to sing. Really? Well, attempt to sing. So yeah, I guess this instrumental thing I do is a big revelation for me. How did the singing come about? Well, I used to be in, like, punk and emo bands. Not like the typical emo crap that you hear on the radio. Just stuff like Cap’n Jazz, that old 90s stuff. I was going to ask if you were ever planning on using your voice in your music.
Obviously.
Now, if you were ever going to consider stepping aside from the Star Slinger project and working on something else, what would the departure be for you musically? What other sounds would you be interested in creating? I suppose right now there’s not really any other idea, I’m just really focused on this. But I still play guitar. Just leisurely, around the house. I’m still learning bits on guitar just for fun. And it’s always good to be musical, as well. A lot of people say I rip off other people’s music. I know myself, that I’m a musical person. So it’s more like an homage, to me, than stealing parts of songs. I like to make the most of what I’m hearing on other people’s records. You can learn from it, and it’s not necessarily stealing or taking—it’s more a way of enjoying what you’re hearing. Definitely. I wish that’s the way the industry thought. But unfortunately, there are going to be a lot of people, especially record labels, that will say it’s plagiarism. You get the accusation. But I guess with hip hop, it’s always been the case of, “This is code, we do sample records.” The same with house music as well. Those two genres I’ve always gelled really well with. In the U.S., there are staple music cities, like Brooklyn or San Francisco and other West Coast areas. Have any of those sounds ever really translated over to England? What’s popular right now in England? With England, it’s really crazy. I think our scene is so behind your scene, or scenes. Ours is very, very restricted. Bands like The Wombats and Bloc Party, it all sounds to be like Gang of Four with the drumbeats. With the same sort of energy, but it’s kind of boring. I think the bands in the U.S. are just amazing. The level of quality is just unmatchable. I think it has to do with [the fact that] we are a small country with a small number of minds. 131