 
Published: July 28, 2007 3:10 PM EST
By: Isaac Joseph Davis Junior
(Juniorscave.com)
Music Spotlight: Starla
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mellow pop/ rock with many flavors, tempos and passionate lyrics. | |
I think you will enjoy this next artist. Starla, who has been described as mellow pop/ rock with many flavors, tempos and passionate lyrics, certainly has the talents to entertain young and old. Check out this recent Q & A that Music Now had the pleasure to interview this very talented songwriter/singer.
Main Website
http://myspace.com/starlacd
CDBaby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/starla
Q. What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?
A. I am so blown away when a song I created with just me and my guitar turns into this whole new song that sounds just like I heard it in my head-instruments and all. Now with the age of pro-tools and the Internet, I can write my music, record it and have people all over the world listen to it!
Q. What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?
A. People want music for free. I guess we’re all guilty of that. No matter because I don’t write music to live---I live to write music. That’s what keeps my sanity, especially when I can shout out about injustice, greed, abuse, etc.
Q. What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming
recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects,
etc).
A. I am trying to finish my 3rd CD. Do you know what it's like to find the right engineer, the right studio, and the right producer that can actually hear the song in your head? I found that person with this CD, but his computer took a crash dive. I am so going through withdrawal. I have four songs ready to record. The last song I recorded was really out there. I only used a cookin’ bass guitar and hot jazz drums with my spoken word vocals—it’s called “beyond this cage”.
Q. What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a
recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the
show/recording?
A. That’s easy--on the famous boardwalk in Venice Beach, CA. I just had to be part of the tradition as I sat there with my drummer and my guitar case open for tips. When you’re a street performer you don’t have the luxury of a mic or any amplifiers, so it’s raw live.
Q. In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have
lived); affect the music you create, or your taste in music?
A. I don’t think it’s so much where I live or lived as it is my strange lot in life. I seem to be one of those people that get put into someone’s life when they’re going through sad or tough times, plus I’ve had some definite trials and tribulations in my own life. For instance, one day I was working on the set of the movie “The Great White Hope” and I was in a room of about 200 people and out of the blue Jamie Fox (whom I had never spoken to) came up to me and asked me if I though OJ Simpson killed his wife. I answered a definite YES. The strange part is that my own father shot and killed my mother when she tried to divorce him that’s where my song “If Only” came from. I suffered deeply for 3 years from depression when my parents died and that’s when I wrote a song called “Demons in my Mind”(1st CD). Then there was the time I was teaching traffic school and one day I was cleaning up after class and some student about in her 40’s came up to me with tears in her eyes and confided in me how her husband of over 20 years just up and left her for a much younger woman. She had no idea anything was wrong in the marriage I could feel her anguish and I tried to console her. That week I wrote “Broken Promises and Heart”.
Q. When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about
it?
A. Actually, yesterday. I still have to finish the lyrics. You see a friend of mine just had her lung removed and she’s been given 5 years to live. The song is about dying and don’t be afraid because there’s gonna be a better place without pain and where the answers become so clear.
Q. As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less
interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other
people...and why do you think that is?
A. Definitely more because I had to upgrade my computer to upload my songs and listen to music. So now when I’m on the computer, I listen to Internet radio or look up music webs. There really is some GREAT music out there keeps me humble.
Q. Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)
A. Its always about what mood I’m in. I definitely don’t know what music like mine is but in general I listen to anything from rock to classic rock to swing jazz to fusion jazz to classical to new age to Motown to oldies to goth to show tunes. I’m not a big fan of alternative since it’s so being pushed down our throats in movies and TV shows right now. I call that music “alternative to melody and rhythm”. I can’t understand anyone that doesn’t have a big stereo in their household I even have speakers in my backyard.
Q. Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and
think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time
favorite recordings by this band/musician?
A. I thing probably the best songwriter/musician/arranger in my opinion was Duke Ellington. Did you know he had classical albums and a Brazilian album? He was true music. I would have to say that “Daydream” is one of my favorite songs of his.
Q. What's the saddest song you've ever heard?
A. “This Is the Way We Go To School”
Photo used in this story was provided by Starla Angus.
Starla
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