Music Interview: JUNKSTAR Band – HMV New Music Selection 2012
Music Interview: JUNKSTAR
JUNKSTAR are a hotly tipped electronica influenced guitar band, based in London, UK. They have released 2 singles, their most recent KICKING K (Genepool/Universal) - charted at number 2 in Amazon's new download chart, competing against Evanescence, Paul Weller and The Vaccines for the number 1 spot.
Backstage Pass were given behind the scenes access to get to know more about JUNKSTAR. We met up with them in their dressing room before a gig at The Surya Centre on the Pentonville road (Kings Cross) to find out a little more about them!
You can check out the video footage for the highlights and read a transcript of the interview below!
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Who is JUNKSTAR?:
JC: Who is JUNKSTAR? I’m on vocals.
ANNA: I’m vocals and synths.
KATY: Bass!
EMY: Guitar!
SIMON: Drums!
JC: The band was formed when I met Anna in Islington, North London and we decided to start working together after having a few drinks and thought a band would be a good idea! Then we met Emy, who comes from Sicily. Katy and Simon are the latest members to join and we’ve all been playing shows and making music for about 18 months now!
How would you describe your sound?:
JC: I think we’ve got a lot in common with bands like The Wombats, White Lies. Simon and myself are big rock music fans, which probably has an influence on our music. I think we’ve definitely got a modern sound with a guitar-synth crossover!
What words best describe your band members?:
The band came up with the following words to describe each band member.
EMY: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Pizza, Italian.
SIMON: Fisherman (much laughter from the band – apparently he REALLY likes to fish), Coventry, Accurate, Drum-machine!
ANNA: Smelly (in a good way!), Clever, Very Patient.
JC: Energy, Boundless, Blonde, Enthusiastic and Crazy (again in a good way)
KATY: Hungarian, Pink, Vampire, Awesome Bass Player!
What’s currently on your iPod? Any surprise musical tastes?:
JC: Oh, I’ve got some really embarrassing ones on there!
SIMON: I’ve been listening to The Last Shadow Puppets a lot recently.
ANNA: I don’t have an ipod! (much surprise from the band at this!) But I love listening to Duran Duran! I listen to loads of different stuff though!
JC: JUNKSTAR of course!
ANNA: Yes, of course! That’s on there!
KATY: What is an iPod?
JC: What is an iPod! Are Hungarians not up-to-date on this technology?
KATY: (Laughs and shakes head)
What tips would JUNKSTAR give to aspiring musicians?:
SIMON: Never give in, just never ever give in.
JC: I think for every 10 things that go wrong, 20 go right! Simon’s right, keep on keeping on!
EMY: Don’t sign anything unless you’re absolutely sure about what you’re signing!
What would you all be doing if you weren’t musicians?:
JC: Hmmm, that’s a good question.
SIMON: I’m either fishing or drumming, always fishing, always drumming, so probably fishing!
ANNA: I’d probably be writing.
JC: Umm, I’m not sure, I love performing,
EMY: (interrupting) Pornstar?
JC: Ha! Yes!
ANNA: Or a philosophy lecturer!
JC: Possibly! I’m just not sure I could give up music! I wouldn’t give it up for anything!
KATY: I wouldn’t either, but if I HAD to I would probably be travelling. I love to travel that’s my second love.
EMY: I would probably have like a Bed and Breakfast
(Band laugh somewhat surprised by this!)
JC: Would we be allowed in?
EMY: No! You are all too noisy!
ANNA: It’s your dream to have a B&B?
EMY: Yes! In the mountains, in France!
JC: He goes on about this every day! One day I’ll come to him like “Guess what! We’ve got a record deal with SONY!” and he’ll be like “So what? I’ve got a B&B!”
EMY: Yeah! I just want to be by myself! (grins cheekily)
Any embarrassing on-stage moments to let us know about?
SIMON: First note of hitting my drum kit at the start of a gig at Glastonbury, and my bass pedal exploded! I was just there looking at it and slowly everyone in the band just looked round while I had to try and put it back together again! It was just awful!
JC: I did a gig in Clapham where I decided to make a big entrance by running out and jumping onto stage, but while I did my guitar strap ripped and my guitar flung out! I was just able to hold it but had to do the rest of the song on one leg!
EMY: That happened more than once too!
KATY: You were lucky that you didn’t fall over! I did that once! I was wearing really high heels and fell over, and had to finish the song lying there on my back! I was really embarrassed!
(Band Laugh)
JC: What about you Emy? Any embarrassing moments?
SIMON: (jokingly interrupting) every gig?
(Band Laugh)
EMY: Yes, every single one! Especially playing with you guys!
(Band Laugh)
What has been your best gig so far?
JC: We toured Italy last month, it was a great mini tour! We got to play Rome which was amazing, the people were really friendly. We love London too, nothing beats coming home!
Is there a specific message behind your music?:
JC: I think a lot are about our relationships. A lot of the songs exist in that sort of area although there’s one called Samba City that Anna wrote which is inspired by a William Blake poem!
ANNA: I think a lot of our lyrics are quite dark and poetic.
(Band ponder this mmming and nodding)
SIMON: (adding) after we’ve rewritten them!
(Band laugh)
What do you think will give you an edge over other bands?
JC: Katy’s hair! That definitely gives us an edge!
SIMON: I think it’s just that we’ve got a bit of experience. We’ve got massive record collection, done a lot of recording and played with lots of bands. We never settle for a single bar in the song if it doesn’t please everybody.
JC: That can be a double-edged sword though, because sometimes we can over-analyze things don’t you think?
SIMON: No, I think our album is brilliant!
(Band Laugh)
JC: That’s true! Go buy it! It’s not released yet, but will be coming out later in 2012! You can find details on www.junkstar.com
What does 2012 hold for you?:
JC: We’re playing at Lost Weekend, a UK festival. The Klaxons and Hoosiers will also be there so that should be a good one! We’re doing some promo stuff in Europe, towards the end of the year. We might be releasing a single shortly before our album release later – still working out a title for that but you can find all the details on our website!
Check out the following links to find out more about JUNKSTAR!
www.Junkstar.com
www.facebook.com/junkstarband
You can also view JUNKSTAR's music video for their single Kicking K!