Music Review: Stella by Starlight

Usually a trip for Indian food results in a samosa or a curry, but juniors Sonny Byrd and Greg Laird brought home something much more-the seeds of Stella by Starlight.

"We were talking about music on the way to Sitar one day and decided to start a band," Laird said.

After combining their own guitar and drum abilities with those of senior Shuhei Yamamoto on bass and junior Nathan Fowler on keyboards, the lineup was set and the craft of indie rock was ready to be practiced.

Despite having indie sensibilities, the band did not shy away from playing top pop hits. Stella got its start playing the canon of modern pop (Beyonce, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, etc.) to appreciative student audiences.

"It was stuff people would be playing on their speakers anyway," Fowler said. "Like the Alpine Bagels mix."

Their campus profile was also heightened by appearing at large student gatherings, such as Devil's Eve and K-Ville.

"Outside of a college scene you wouldn't get that [big a crowd]," Yamamoto said. "We'd only been together for a few months, but we had a few hundred people there, drunk, like jumpin' up and down."

Despite the popularity of their covers among students, Stella by Starlight's own material is their real strength-one can hear traces of Keane, Death Cab For Cutie, the Killers and European synth-pop-it's nothing revolutionary, but it never fails to be listenable.

The band is currently in the process of releasing their debut EP, Made of Fire, on newly launched student-run Small Town Records. The studio has aided the band with a large variety of resources, most notably free recording time. But the band itself, especially Fowler, brought some of its own expertise into the studio realm.

"It was a lot easier since we have Nate," Byrd said. "Other bands are in there, you know, just fooling around and we have him going, 'Come on, man, let's suck it up with reverb,' and all."

Stella's success has brought them about two gig requests a week from local and campus venues, as well an appearance on the Most Popular column in MTVU's Best Music on Campus contest.

"We've gotten popular enough on campus to start moving off, we're playing our first gig at Club 9 on Tuesday," Laird said.

Yamamoto will be graduating in May, but the band still has a desire to see if this project could build into a career.

"I will personally stay with it as long as it goes," Byrd said.

Stella by Starlight is playing Friday, March 2 at 11 p.m. at the Armadillo Grill.

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