Photo: Press
“We played this one show downtown and people got so angry at the stuff I was doing onstage. It was just the normal stuff I do but some bar broads got pretty angry and I had to get escorted out because they wanted to beat me up or something, I was just like ‘What do you expect? You’re at a bar in Skid Row and you’re worried about ruining your hair’”
To call Starcrawler’s live a show a spectacle would be a bit of an understatement and injustice. They charge through their first UK show at London’s Old Blue Last with a relentless, frantic energy that’s almost unfathomable for such a new and young band. Their snarling rock’n’roll blew the Old Blue’s roof clean off – sounding like a twisted and incendiary mix of The Stooges, The Runaways and The Cramps but revamped for 21st-century wasters.
What made the show so special however was the manic, insatiable energy of front-woman Arrow De Wilde – clad in a hospital gown she spent the set frantically rolling about the floor, running into the crowd and spitting blood at the unsuspecting people in the front rows. After their set, I caught up with the band – comprised of Arrow, Henri Cash, Austin Smith and Tim France – to talk about their recent call to the spotlight.
Their current UK tour (including a stop at Great Escape) is in support of their debut single ‘Ants’, released by Rough Trade last week as a limited edition 7”. The single blew up instantly, seeing them pick up rave reviews across the globe and even some airtime on Elton John’s Beats 1 Radio show. Signing to Rough Trade for a debut single is a pretty remarkable feat for anyone but they explain they weren’t so lucky, to begin with: “We were shopping around for a while and at first no-one was interested, we just emailed loads of labels ourselves and no-one would write back”. Given the sheer chaos of their live show they soon built up a strong reputation across the LA live scene and signing to Rough Trade soon followed: “Once we started getting more traction live, people actually started showing interest”.
Just before heading out on tour they finished recording their debut album with Ryan Adams in his Pax-Am studio in Hollywood. When asked what to expect from the new record Austin says: “We really tried to capture what it’s like with our live performance, we tried to get as much energy into each take as we possibly could”. Now, if the recorded tracks pack even a fraction of the punch of their live show then it’s bound to be pretty special.
Arrow explains “[working with Adams] was awesome, it was so much fun. He was really excited about us”. Austin talks of laidback recording sessions with a strong sense of mutual trust when messing around with new ideas: “It was like just like this really friendly interaction where we were either like ‘no I don’t like that’ and we’d move on, or like ‘oh fuck, that does sound good”. “Pretty much every time he’d recommend something I’d be like ‘Ah I don’t know’ and then we’d do it and it’d be great”, Arrow adds. Henri recalls one distinct memory where “for a guitar solo he was like ‘take that custom shop Strat over there and just throw it on the floor and let it ring’”.
Everyone in the band grew up in Los Angeles and when talking about how the city’s rich musical and cultural history helped to shape them as musicians Austin claims: “I think music is very innate to the culture of LA. It’s very prominent with legendary punk-rock bands and singer-songwriters and stuff like that. I just think it’s a real musical city and I feel like almost everyone in that city has an element of musicality or it just influences their life in some way. All the best music comes from there”.
What’s so striking about these guys is how young they are. It’s rare to find a band with so much energy and potential despite still being in high school. It’s pretty clear, looking at their current successes, that it hasn’t hindered them too much but it has proved difficult when it comes to playing shows back at home: “In LA we sometimes have to wait outside the venue before and after we play and it’s such a drag”. Arrow recalls one show at a bar in Skid Row where they were only allowed in to play their set but still managed to cause havoc - her blood-spewing stage antics saw her kicked out and nearly winding up in a fight with some women from the crowd: “I had to get escorted out and they wanted to beat me up or something, I was just like ‘What do you expect? You’re at a bar in Skid Row and you’re worried about ruining your hair’”.
It’s pretty clear Starcrawler’s music and live performance is steeped in a 70s/80s nostalgia; the music itself recalling the scuzziest punk/rock’n’roll sounds of the era and Arrow’s live alter-ego channelling the debauched likes of Ozzy, Iggy and Alice Cooper. However, on this comparison Arrow admits “people will be like ‘oh you’re so like Iggy Pop’, I mean obviously he’s an influence but I think I have my own thing, I take inspiration from myself”. Austin explains that everyone in the group has their own influences: “Henri’s really into punk, I had an upbringing of 80s heavy metal and Tim loves a load of different things. We have all these weird musical influences and connections that mesh well together into this strange ball of anger and angst”.
When discussing future plans, there’s talk of the new album and forthcoming US tour with CRX (Nick from The Strokes’ new project) but in general Austin says “We just really want to get on the road more, play more shows, record more and keep going having fun, we’re not trying to get on a fucking double-decker bus or anything” to which Arrow quickly disagrees: “I want that! I want a double-decker bus, steak and champagne, triple platinum and a beach-house and wine. That’s my dream”. It’s met with laughs from everyone but you know what, after seeing them tonight and looking at their success so far, who knows? That might not even be too far out of reach.
