INTERVIEW: Starbenders Talk New Drummer, Upcoming Album & More
Starbenders, was back in the Netherlands recently. The last time we had the privilege to see them, was February 2023 when they opened for Palaye Royale. This time they got to open for Mothica. We had the chance to sit down with the band again, right before they had to go on stage to give another great performance.
Hi, it’s been a while since we talked. How have you been?
Kimi: We’ve been great.
Aaron: Very good. Very good.
You just did your first headlining shows in Europe, how have those been?
Kimi: They were great. Helsinki and Athens were super cool and big moments for us in a lot of ways. Playing Helsinki was so cool, because of all the history and our love for that kind of music.
Last time we talked, your song The Game was about to be released and currently, it’s, on Spotify, as your most popular song. How has that, if at all, influenced the trajectory of your band?
Kimi: We just keep making more music, so we never really stay focused on stuff we’ve already written, so we are always on to the next thing, but thankfully we always set the bar higher and higher. I think The Game was such a high bar as a musician, especially for me as a singer. So, we just started growing from that point forward.
So we can expect new music soon?
Kriss: Yeah, currently working on it. We have a new song coming out at the end of the month, which you’ll hear tonight.
Kimi: It’s the first song that we got with our new drummer; she’s making her debut with us. And the song is called Tokyo.
You got a new drummer recently. Has that, and if so, how has it been affecting your creative process on stage and in the studio?
Kimi: She’s so talented, and the cultural exchange has also been really cool for us. It’s funny because she doesn’t speak English. She’s learning, but we communicate through just Google translate and the music, and you’re not ever trying to recreate the past. So that’s been really cool because we’ve also been a band for 10 years, it’s nice to kind of be able to make the new version of this thing that’s still us, but it has just this different flavour to it. But it’s been really awesome marrying her into the band.
Kriss: This battle felt really right, right off the bat, you know, the first time we played together it already felt like kind of everything worked really well, so that was really encouraging because we’ve been in the band for so long, you kind of are wondering what it’s going to be like with something new, but it felt really right.
Aaron: If you change an ingredient, the recipe is going to be a little different, but it’s still the same. Just as a bass player, as a rhythm section, I’ve been going with it.
Talking more about new music, can we expect more collaborations like the one with Remington?
Kimi: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s a big part of modern music in general. The world is open and available. And so is Starbenders. We always wanted to collaborate with someone you wouldn’t expect, like a Dua Lipa or something.
Are there any specific creative elements or ideas you want to incorporate into your music?
Kriss: With the new song, we’re kind of going for a little bit more of a dark wave kind of influence than we’ve had in the past songs but are leaning more into it. We’ve done stuff with string, like an orchestration-type thing before. But I’ve always thought it’d be cool to go even further than that. Because we’ve only kind of dipped our foot in those waters a little bit. It would be cool to see what it would be like to do some kind of orchestration thing.
Aaron, you’ve been doing a lot with painting shoes and stuff. How’s that started? And how’s that been for you?
Aaron: It’s been great. It’s just something I started doing when I got sober. And, you know, restless minds are restless hands. I’m wearing a pair right now. I like colour, I like creativity, it’s a universal language.
Qi, you’re new in the band. What is one of the biggest problems you had to face or adjustments you had to make when joining this band?
Qi: Learning English
Kimi: She can speak it much better already in a few months. She’s learning very fast.
And last time we spoke, Kriss, you talked about Hungary and how you were really excited to go there. Now that you’ve been there. What was the show, and your time there like?
Kriss: It was very incredible. I went there a day early to visit some family I hadn’t seen in a long time, and some family members I hadn’t met since my childhood. I didn’t really go to Hungary a lot as a kid. Even though my parents were Hungarian. So, I made it a point to make the most of being there. And show there, I brought my family out. It was just really emotional, and I got to speak to the crowd in Hungarian. We played our asses off in front of a big Hungarian crowd, a sold-out crowd. So I relished every single moment of that show.
And also last time we spoke, you mentioned that Amsterdam would be great in the summertime. Now you’re here at the end of summer, has it lived up to your expectations?
Kimi: It’s beautiful, but there are so many mosquitoes. I’m from a place in the United States, where there are not a lot of mosquitoes. We got torn up.
And what’s your favourite snack on the road?
Qi: Noodles, Chocolate, cereal, ice cream.
Kimi: I love hunting down good avocado toast.
Kriss: I like finding a local pastry shop that’s special. And that has decadent type of pastries.
