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I caught up with Dear Stars for a talk about their band and plans for the future.

The first thing I asked them was “how did you form”?  The band told me they met at Motherwell College while studying on a music and business course. They decided, after around six months, to try writing together and see what they could come up with.


When I asked them about their band name Billy told me “I used to be a solo acoustic act under the name Dear Stars so I had it before the band got together and always intended to do something with it. I’ve always wanted to write universal music that could relate to anyone and I think there’s something universal and inspiring about stars.”


The band’s inspiration comes from many different sources including Kings Of Leon, Muse, The Black Keys and Bombay Bicycle Club. They also said, “In terms of our own sound though we want to follow the roots of Coldplay, The Killers, Kings Of Leon”.
 

They currently have demos on their Facebook page(facebook.com/dearstarsmusic) but will be very busy for the rest of the year “Recording, writing and doing a lot of behind the scenes business stuff along with a few parties!!”

They also told me, “We will be heading to London before Christmas to work on our first single with Grammy Award Winning producer Dom Morley (who has worked with Adele, Amy Winehouse etc).”

When I asked Dear Stars about their best and worst gigs they proudly told me’ “Our best gig was on Thursday night we headlined King Tuts, (we were supposed to be the support band but got the headline slot as we sold the most tickets) the place was packed out and it was great to see such amazing support from everyone. The sound in Tuts is also second to none for small venues.” They added, “I don’t know that we’ve had a worst gig as we’ve chose our gigs based on demand from fans and so that they would always benefit us in some way.”

The guys believe in their own music so much that they would rather support their favourite bands and share the stage with other artists than join them permanently.

For their Festival Fantasy line up they told me they would definitely have Kings Of Leon, Coldplay, Muse, The Killers, John Mayer, Bruno Mars, Jay Z, adding, “To play alongside all these guys would be incredible". Since it’s a fantasy festival they would “also have the likes of Cameron Diaz or that girl from the new Transformers movie onstage for no reason other than that they are HOT!!! Now that’s a line up people would pay to see! Haha!”

When I asked them about the biggest trouble they had ever gotten into whilst gigging they laughed saying, “What happens in Feldy stays in Feldy”. When asked to explain all they would tell me was “Lets just say Liam (drummer) had a bit of a stalker fan for a while.”

It’s always interesting to find out what bands and musicians are excited about at the moment. Dear Stars told me “We have played with some amazing bands over the past 7 months. Our favourite has to be Toploader, they were amazing live and the nicest guys to chat to. We are also fans of Barrella Lights, Very original sound and Calum Muir, an acoustic songwriter from Ayrshire is up there with best! Also a young band from Largs called Contrast, they have some great potential”.

Finally I asked them if they had any advice for other up and coming local bands. Their reply was, “Learn the business! So many great bands in Glasgow don’t get anywhere because they don’t understand or learn the business side of things - its 80% business and 20% music. Of course if we had the option we’d prefer it the other way round but it’s just the way things go!"