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Starnes and Shah choose Boston's indie music scene
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I recently sat down with Dania and Zilpha from the band Starnes and Shah, and they dished about their new move to Boston, their busy New England tour, and new record, ‘Pink, White, Blue, Green,’ which is releasing in May 2009. While chatting it up with the group over papaya martinis, I found out what makes Boston such a great indie music scene, and it’s not the groupies…
Liz: What were the beginnings of Starnes and Shah? What made you guys decide to make music together?
Dania: Starnes and Shah had started in 2005. I had played alone for a while since college. Zilpha and I went to the same school [Sarah Lawrence] but didn’t really know each other until after we graduated. I did a lot of coffeehouse shows in the city, open mics and little features. After I graduated, I was still working in Bronxville and needed a roommate, and Zilpha and I met each other through a mutual friend, and we ended up living together. For the first year, we didn’t play music together at all. I knew that she sang and played music but for some reason we never played together. Then we both moved to Queens, NY, and one day, I had written a song and heard Zilpha humming in the other room, so I said, could you indulge me for a second and sing along, and she did, and that was it. From that point on, I forced her to sing with me forever. [Zilpha laughs]
Liz: I’ve heard several of the samples provided on the website. Very creative stuff. How would you describe your sound?
Dania: I tell people it’s a vocal duo and usually people cringe when they hear that but really what we are is sort of indie/folk and now we’ve evolved into rock, but still a vocal duo. There’s no backup singer. There aren’t really any indie rock vocal duos out there.
Liz: What’s your process for writing music?
Dania: I write the songs. The basic lyrics and melodies. I see myself as the storyteller. And at that point, they’re half-cooked, but when Zilpha and I get together on them, they really come to life, because when I write songs the second voice is always missing. We come from very different musical backgrounds. I don’t know how to read music. I’ve never been trained to play anything. And Zilpha is a classically trained singer and musician, and had a music background in the church band and didn’t know who Zeppelin was when I met her. It’s been pretty educational in terms of the structured way to view and arrange music, which is really Zilpha’s strength. Each of our strengths is another one’s weakness and vise versa. It’s very collaborative.
Zilpha: The consistent thread for me [whether it be music or acting] has been relating to a story that’s already been created and trying to make other people present in the telling of that story. I want to complement the story, not compete or undermine or change it. It means a lot to me to be in a group and make music again with people who are receptive to what my strengths and interests are.
Liz: Have you guys been on tour a lot in the past, and how will this upcoming tour be different?
Dania: We were both working full time jobs in New York, so we weren’t able to go on tour, so we were a regional band at the time and played in New York, and we did a show in Austin Texas. We’re really looking forward to starting this Boston tour, because we’ll have some rock shows, some acoustic shows. The nice thing about living in Boston is that there are other cities nearby that we get to play at like Burlington, VT and Portland, ME. We have a radio show in New Hampshire and we’re setting up other performances there, and we want to continue to play in New York. We really want to extend our reach. Our goal is to be able to get in a van one day and go everywhere and anywhere.
Zilpha: I’m originally from Dallas, and I really hope that we can play a string of shows in the Dallas and Austin areas.
Liz: Is there a favorite venue that you’ve played at so far?
Dania: [without a pause] Our favorite music venue, I would have to say is Patty O’Reilly’s music bar in New York. This guy named Rick Johnson holds a great open mic there. He used to hold one at this famous club called the C Notes, which closed, but he arranges open mics around a feature act, which is great because the showcase interacts with everyone else, and the bar scene is great. We did it a few times with a full band. We’re definitely looking forward to discovering which Boston venue will be a favorite.
Liz: I’ve heard your previous record Summer in the Woodshed, which is available now on iTunes, and selected songs from your new record on your website [www.starnesandshah.com] and I noticed great similarities between you and the Indigo Girls. What are your musical influences and your response to this comparison?
Dania: I’m a huge fan of the Indigo Girls, and I dragged Zilpha to a few of their shows so she’s a fan too. My musical influences are scattered: I love Oasis, which I still get a lot of flak for, and I loved Pearl Jam. I still and will always love them. I love Tori Amos. She is a great singer/songwriter and she has a great band behind her. When we were performing in New York, I made it a mandate for the whole band to see her perform live. I love the band America and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. My romance is vocal harmonies. Since we’ve been in Boston, I’ve heard some great stuff recently from the local band Faces on Film.
Zilpha: I grew up listening to a lot of country music, which would surprise everyone, George Strait, and Randy Travis, a lot of Randy Travis. I was a big fan of girl harmony groups like Envogue and Ace of Base and ABBA thus triggering my Swedish phase. I like to pretend I’m Swedish. My dad actually looks like one of the ABBA band members. [laughter] My biggest influence has been the people I knew personally that wrote and played music as I grew up.
Liz: What made you decide to move from New York to Boston?
Dania: New York is a great city, but it can be exhausting to pursue your art and pay the bills. We wanted to find a city where we could really tap into the artistic community, but at the same time, we didn’t want to go too far from New York. Boston has an amazing music scene, and other great music cities nearby.
Zilpha: I think that we were really fortunate when living in New York, because we had a “not New York experience.” We had a very intimate work environment at Turtle Bay Music School, where everyone knew that we did our music thing on the side, and that was our passion. And I don’t think we would’ve had the balls to move to Boston, if it wasn’t for our supportive workplace that believed in us.
Liz: Did the groupies follow you from New York to Boston?
Dania: Ha, well the groupies are PG-13, so none of that. But we’ve had some awesome people, who were friends, fans and supporters, period. We have some really dedicated fans across the country. It’s hard to make that commitment and move somewhere for art, and say I’m gonna give art a go, but we’ve had so many friends come out and say ‘we support you and good luck,’ and that’s why we didn’t want to move too far from New York, because we have a group there that support us and believe in us.
Liz: So what can we expect from Starnes and Shah in the near future?
Dania: I’m really excited. I know the band is excited. We have a bunch of shows all over New England. We’re gonna get a Zipcar van and just go, try and document all of our trip, and post snip-its on our web site, and then we have our CD release party in New York, which is very exciting. For us, we’re coming out of our 9 to 5 lives and dedicating our lives into this project, so we want to document all of it.
Zilpha: I’m very excited about the shows that we have. We’re going to play with the Bella Birds at the Lily Pad, and I think its great that we’ve already reached out to a local band. Similar to putting together a great mixtape for someone, I feel like we’re putting together a really fun evening of folk and soulful music. And we’re playing at Midway café with one of the members of Hotel Universe, and we’re putting together a rock compilation to compliment his style.
Dania: I think the best part about it is being able to reach out to musicians in the area and form a community. We’ve been able to contact bands we like and say, hey, I like you sound, we should play a show together.
Liz: So I guess since you’ve come to Boston, you’ve been welcomed by other bands in the area and have already become a part of the local music community.
Dania: So far yeah. Right now, we’re ramping up about our first show on the 17th at Midway, but we’ve reached out to other bands and gone to see them play. Going to these shows makes me think, yes, indie music is alive and well in Boston. We couldn’t wish for anything better.
Liz: Fences the Plea is one of the songs off of your upcoming album, Pink, White, Blue, Green. The combination of the heartfelt lyrics and the strong build up sounded like an eclectic campfire for the advanced listener. Could you tell me what inspired the lyrics and music for this song?
Dania: Fences the Plea is a story of venturing into a new world. I visited Australia last summer. We both did. And I wrote this song before even going there, because Australia was a present place in my mind and my reality. The continent is so massive, and there’s something so open and wide about it, but in that space there are still people who feel trapped and encaged. And it’s a common love story, where someone feels a lack of freedom, but I thought it was really compelling to think of that in the context of Australia.
Liz: Pink, White, Blue, Green. It’s a very interesting title. Can you elaborate on where you got the title from?
Zilpha: We were discussing the title on one of our whirlwind weekends between Boston and New York on the Bolt bus [big plug, its great, it has wi-fi], and we were at Tick tock diner, and they have this retro table that was white with pink, blue and green speckles, and Dania asked me what the title should be and I said, pink, white, blue, green. And that also refers to the song Confetti [which has said phrase]. I always liked album titles that referred to a song in the album.
Dania: Pink white blue green is just about being all over the map at once and being in a small space at the same time, and bouncing crazily from one thing to the next, and to me that’s a metaphor for living in New York and trying to get out, but wanting to stay. We chose the album title because it was really representative of what we were feeling—unsure, all over the place, kind of loving it, a little bit scared, and it’s been an interesting ride and has been changing colors dramatically.
So, if you want to see Starnes and Shah live in Boston, watch them kick off their live tour on May 17th at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, or go to their web site www.starnesandshah.com for more dates. Keep a close watch for their record releasing in May 2009.
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