Interview with Mighty Stars, 21 February 2005

NB - Please introduce yourself.
MS - Well, I'm Rob the wise-cracking bass guitarist, Matt's the scallywag vocalist, the George Harrison look-alike on guitar is Ian and Gary Lee's the Star that hits the drums.

NB - How did Mighty Stars start?
MS - Matt and I met at a party. We spent the whole of the evening ignoring everybody else and talking to each about music. We got on so well and had so much in common that we decided to immediately form a band! It wasn't that long before Ian and Gary Lee were recruited to Mighty Stars cause, Ian was already a good friend who decided the Stars were the band for him after he heard the key change at the end of 'Suzanne' and Gary Lee was chosen for his rock n roll name.

NB - You play for quite some time now and you have only 1 regular CD-EP released. Did you contact some labels and what were their reactions?
MS - We really like to do as much as we can ourselves DIY-style. CDRs are great - it means you can get your music out to people very cheaply. We're not one of those bands who sit around waiting for some be-suited coke-addled record executive to hand us a recording contract so we've put out a few CDRs with proper sleeves ourselves.
Avebury Records in America have stuck out a 5 Track EP by us, they were on holiday in England and searching for bands and they caught us when we played some sleazy dive in London. As soon as we leapt offstage they grabbed us and demanded that we’d give them something they could put out. What we’d really like to do is get a 7" released, there are a few people who are kind of interested in helping us but if they don’t decide soon we’re just going to go ahead and do it ourselves!

NB - Do you play live often and where?
MS - The Stars play live quite a bit, that's important for us as we really like getting out there and playing our music, we always seem to get into some kind of scrape when we play live, something's always happening and there's always a heap of stories to be told afterwards! We do a fair bit in our hometown Bristol but we also try and get out and play out-of-town and up and down the country. The out-of-town gigs are a true test, the audience hasn't necessarily heard of you before so when they like you they really do like you it's not that they feel obliged to like the band because they're your mates! We've played the Cavern Club in Liverpool twice, both times were really amazing, I think we were all pretending we were the fab four and secretly doing our best moptop impressions!

NB - You played in Holland 1-2 years ago. How did you like Holland and Dutch audience? Can we expect you again?
MS - We had a fantastic time in Holland! Bands seem to get treated so much better in continental Europe! A lot of the time here in England you never get fed, the promoters will never buy you a beer or even acknowledge you and you're very lucky to get GBP20 petrol money! We try and be a bit more picky about the gigs we choose these days and we try and play for people who we know are in it for the right reasons, people who're not just there to make a quick buck out of three bands who have nothing in common with each other! The Dutch audiences were really great, initially they're a bit reserved but by the end of the evening they're really friendly. We're trying to organize a few more foreign jaunts, I think Spain is where we're hoping to head out to next and there are plans for the Stars to return to Holland in the autumn/winter.

NB - Tell me about yourself - what do you do except for playing in Mighty Stars, what are the things you like, things you hate...
MS - We all work in really boring office jobs; this can be really frustrating especially when all we want to do is play music. We managed to get a bit of inspiration out of this and wrote 925 - a gloriously dumb no-brainer of a song, an anthem for everybody who hates their job whether it's working in an office staring at the computer all day, stacking shelves in the supermarket or flipping burgers!
The Stars get a lot of inspiration out of girls. You can get a lot of mileage out of girls! You can write songs about not having a girl and wanting one, you can write songs about being with a girl and being really happy, you can write songs about being with a girl and it being really crummy, you can write songs about splitting up with a girl and it being really horrible and you can also write songs about splitting up with a girl and it being a wonderful relief!

NB - You play some kind of punky power pop with 60s and 77 punk influences. But it's not very easy to compare you with other bands. What would you say are you biggest influences?
MS - People always pick up on the Buzzcocks and Undertones influences, of course they're there but I wish they'd listen a bit more closely as that's not what we're all about! I really dig Billy Childish and trashy 60s garage teen bands. There's a touch of Mod about us too, we love the Small Faces (they were a bit like us - all a bit short in the height department!), the Creation, the Eyes and all that British Beat. As well as the punky noisy stuff we also like melodies and harmony: we're all big fans of Teenage Fanclub and the Beach Boys and I love Big Star, Badfinger and lots of Power Pop bands like The Sights, The Singles and The Shazam (well, any band that begins with an S s'alright with me!!)
There's a lot of stuff we like that I don't know if it gets into the music of the Mighty Stars but maybe it does creep out in some small way. Ian and I are big Fall heads, Matt likes Belle and Sebastian, and keep this quiet - Gary Lee has a fondness for Rush!

NB - I really like your lyrics. Who writes them?
MS - Matt and I come up with the initial ideas for songs and lyrics, either on our own and sometimes together, we then bring these ideas to the band and we all work on them and bash 'em into shape! I like this way of working and it seems to work, with four people all having their say it makes the songs a lot more interesting than if it was one person's creative vision!

NB - What are Mighty Stars doing at the moment?
MS - We're very busy writing some new songs and getting ready for a few upcoming gigs. We're also trying to organize some foreign shows. We'd also like to do some more recording as soon as we can and then get another single out! We also want to record an album, it’ll be no more than 30 minutes long with no more than 10 songs, it'll either be an all-time classic or one of those records that gets lost and then hailed as a work of outright greatness 30 years after it came out!

NB - What is going on in UK? Any bands that you can recommend?
MS - WWell, the NME keep trying to force lots of hopeless sub-Libertines rubbish down our necks but here in Bristol there are a number of great groups. The best is Bucky who are a manic two-piece who sing breakneck-paced songs about libraries, horses, the Beatles and Mary Wilson's demise after falling out with Diana Ross. They are very unpretentious and make a really refreshing change to all those NME haircut bands, it's this unaffectation that makes ‘em the most punk-rock band ever!

NB - Anything you want to say to No Brains Readers?
MS - Yes, eat yer greens and listen to Bucky!