Introduction
In my review of Star Circus, I mentioned that they were a band I had missed previously and that I was delighted actually to see this time around. I thought they were excellent with good songs and harmonies that gave off good-time vibes. I was rather excited to catch up with them and find out more about them and what makes them tick. Most of the answering was done by singer/guitarist and mainman Dave Winkler and bassist/backing vocalist Sophie Aurelia Young with the odd comment provided by the new guy Reuben in the press room.
Now as there were 3 folks at times answering I have at some points typed …//… and then a name to show the change of speaker. At times more than one person was talking so again I tried to catch everything and show the different members’ answers and comments. I hope this shows the friendly and conversational nature of the band members. We chatted about all sorts of things including the issue of venues closing, what is most important in music, places that have left them with great memories gig-wise and the legend that is Tony Wilson. This is how the conversation went down!
So We Begin
CGCM: Thank you for giving us some of your time after your excellent set there. Can I ask how it was for you onstage?
Sophie: Happy with that. Great crowd response, especially when we had the girls dancing for us, they dance at a few festivals. You could see the crowd pick up when they came on which was really nice but overall a great response and I am really happy.
Dave: I agree, it was a lot of fun, it is always great playing outdoor shows, we haven’t done many of them yet but we hope to do a lot more…//… Sophie: Yeah, absolutely. Very greatful to Raz, John and Dave as we love this festival so much.
CGCM: So if I might ask on behalf of folks like me who don’t know much about you, could you give myself and the readers at CGCMa bit of a rundown about yourselves?
Looking Back And Forward
Dave: So Star Circus started about 4 or possibly 5/6 years ago, something like that. I was playing on a bunch of different projects but I had a load of songs that I felt didn’t quite fit those bands, along with some songs from previous bands and I wanted to make an album with those. It was an album project really and getting nearer the release of the album I realised that it really needed to be a band thing and go beyond just being a project. I put the band together with Sophie and Reuben joined about a year ago, in fact it is just a year ago.
Sophie: We are now at the stage of writing the second album which will be more of a band project rather than the last which was a bunch of songs that Dave had accumulated over the years, you know more a solo thing whereas this will be a band Star Circus sound.
CGCM: Do you think with writing together it is changing the direction a bit?
Sophie: Think it is slightly heavier, as the first album had a sort of power pop element with catchy choruses, this one seems slightly darker…//… Dave: There is still those elements to it, but it will be a band album. It is riffier…//… Reuben: it still has a lot of light and shade…//… Dave: yeah we try to keep things varied and eclectic…//… Sophie: There are still a lot of the same influences as the first one but perhaps more band input on the direction on the new one.
Influences?
CGCM: So what are the influences you are most drawing from, even individually?
Dave: The basis of where we started are bands like Thin Lizzy, Queen, Guns ‘n’ Roses, you know timeless sorts of bands, you know bands that weren’t afraid to bring different things to the table even 10-minute epics, that whole being varied. Also bands that have that anthemic style, their songs are anthems, songs that are melodic and fun.
Reuben: I would say we have recorded half of the upcoming album which should hopefully come out early next year, we have demoed half of it and it is sounding really great. I like that every song sounds like it could be a single…//… Sophie: yeah, although we haven’t picked the singles yet…//…Dave: it could be any of them…//… Sophie: we all have different ideas of which ones should be, which is I suppose a good thing…//… Dave: yeah that is what we are going for. I think we are happy with how it is sounding.
CGCM: I think my favourite song is “Love Is The Enemy” as it reminds me of classic Rick Springfield…
Thanks!
Dave: Well thank you for that. A couple of people have said that. A couple of things, firstly he is brilliant, I have seen him live a couple of times including a gig in New York on one of the couple of times I have been over there. He is a massive influence, that kind of power pop/hard rock thing. He is more geared towards writing great songs rather than histrionics and that is most important to me, the song takes centre stage more than anything else. I like to try for Rick Springfield mixed with Thin Lizzy type sound, so thank you for saying that, you hit the nail on the head.
CGCM: Seriously if I had heard that song and didn’t know better I would have thought it was a new Springfield song, it is that good…
Dave: I will take that. It was the first single we did, a month before lockdown and all that shit happened. We had a launch gig with an old line up, Willam was there, Sophie was breathing fire at the time, we managed one accoustic gig and nothing for ages and that song was kind of a mission statement for us…
Can You Repeat That?
CGCM: Sorry but going back to that line, “Sophie was breathing fire”
Sophie: So yeah, when Dave started the band and did his first single I didn’t even play bass yet (laughs), I wasn’t in the band at the time, I did the opening set with the fire dancing and fire breathing and then into the band’s set…//… Dave: She does play keyboards on a couple of songs along with some backing vocals on the first album, but we only really met halfway through recording the first album. So it was a lockdown thing where we had a bassist but he went back home to the Czech Republic, so I was “em do you want to play bass”, I mean she has been playing music all her life…
CGCM: So you (talking to Sophie) played other instruments and thought you could try your hand at the bass.
Sophie: I played the violin and piano growing up so I have a musical background so when I was asked about playing bass I just worked super hard at it as it seemed like a good project to do (laughing as she is talking). I got really into it and after 6 months of hard work we had our first gig
The Bands They Have Played With
CGCM: That’s brilliant. So have you played many shows since you all got together?
Sophie: I would say a fair amount nationally, we haven’t gone international yet. We have had the chance to tour with some really cool artists, highlight last year was supporting Spread Eagle from New York, they had some hits in the 90s, lovely lovely people as well and we had an amazing time doing that. We have had a few nice one-off shows with some bands like Tygers Of Pan Tang, and Tigertailz, I probably shouldn’t start listing them as I might miss one and end up feeling bad about it (laughs)…//… Dave: oh and Midnite City who are lovely dudes as well as a great band.
CGCM:I take it most of the bands you have played with have treated you well? There have been horror stories that I have heard (laughing)
Get Along Early For Supports
Sophie: We are very lucky that we have had no bad experiences with anyone we have supported or toured with, everyone so far have been very accommodating and their fans have also been very supportive of us, you know coming early to see us knowing we have been hand-picked by the headliners and the fans respect their choices.
I think in London there is a tendency to just go and see the headliner and not hang out early enough to see the support, but so far everyone we have played with has pushed the whole lineup to fans to try and help us progress which is great…//… Dave: I do get it from the point of some in London when promoters put fist bands on at like 6:30 or something so people have a choice to try and get something to eat before the gig, or work out if they want to wear their work clothes depending on their jobs (Sophie laughing and agreeing about the problem).
Curfew
If there is a 10pm curfew then I understand some people not getting there on time. On a Saturday or Sunday then maybe not so bad, folks should try and get along to see the support. Please don’t sit in the pub upstairs…//… Sophie: yeah come down and experience what you paid for, you never know they might be the next big band.
Dave: One of my first gigs in the 90s were Reef and they had a band called Kula Shaker supporting them who for me eclipsed them massively, a really great act at the time. A year later they were playing venues twice the size of the band they were supporting you know…//… Sophie: If no one had shown up early then no one would have known…//… Reuben: I think sometimes the smaller bands are a little bit more dangerous than perhaps the more mainstream act, so I often enjoy supports more.
CGCM: Even here, the amount of bands I really dig that are in the tent, and of course, we see bands going from the tent in previous years and are now playing the bigger stages.
The Joy Of COTW & Gig Playing In The UK
Sophie: Yeah, like us. We played the tent last year and we are very grateful to be invited back. There have been a few who have jumped up here as they had a good response in the tent and for those bands it feels like you are moving in the right direction and the belief that you can draw a crowd to a bigger stage.
CGCM: I think with the organisers here, they obviously care and look after bands, hell even folks like us in small media sites reviewing are treated amazingly well. I also feel they understand that for our music to not only continue as a viable thing but actually grow we need to help bring bands through the system
Sophie: Absolutely. It is something that I really admire these guys here for. They have the Trailblazer stage for really new bands and they also have events, I think in Bradford where they audition bands and handpick good bands so the event never ends up with just the same middle to big bands on the scene. This is a good place to discover new people and who knows in a few years they could be the next big headliner at one of the bigger festivals. Without festivals like this you have no chance of playing outdoors, you are just stuck in the pub or club scene.
R.O.C.K. In The U.K
CGCM: So how do you find things when it comes to gigging around the place? Are you able to find enough open venues to play and how extensively have you played even in the UK?
Sophie: We are London based and do have quite a few venues in different sizes we can play. The main focus at the moment is trying to support bands at a higher level than us. A lot of places have shut in London but there are still venues to play. Just need to keep supporting them.
Dave: I feel if there is a demand for the music things will open in place of those. It is sad when we lose venues we loved (sighs heavily and tries to find the right words) been going to gigs for years in London, we know all the venues that have fallen in the last 20 years or so. I think on the whole something always rises from the ashes especially if there is a demand for it.
Less
Sophie: There are still places left but less than there used to be in London. As for where we have played, pretty much the whole of the UK…//… Dave: Edinburgh 3 times, Glasgow twice (CGCM: How the hell have I missed you…)//… Dave: I have no idea (laughing)) We will come back around as it has been nearly a year since we played Scotland, we are overdue to play…//… Sophie: Always love playing Scotland…//… Dave: probably Bannermans or Classic Grand in Glasgow. Those places are great.
Inverness was a beautiful place when I played there years ago. Still to play Cardiff although we have played Wales elsewhere which is terrible as that is where my mother is from…//… Sophie: I like playing Wales, everywhere we go the people are just super friendly. For instance The Patriot (in Newport) it seemed the entire crowd was in from the start supporting the opening band…//… Dave: That was a GREAT show. It was the last of the Spread Eagle shows and it was fantastic.
Intermission, Or Where Things Get Silly
(Due to my mentioning another Welsh town Dave proceeded to say the name of town with the longest name in the UK in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. He did joke that he might try to say it when in Wales at a gig to see how accurate he is and see if he gets things thrown at him. He also said that you can sing the name of the town to the tune of Billy Joel‘s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” which he proceeded to do. We all ended up laughing. Sophie quipped that this was the kind of “shit I have to put up with in the car”. Dave then takes the piss out of me saying “you have to transcibe this” …hell no, I copied and pasted… whilst we all laugh even more.)
CGCM: What is next after this? Take it you are going to finish the album and then perhaps do some gigging?
Dave: We are about halfway through…//… Sophie: Writing-wise wise it is nearly there and quite a lot of the recording has been done. We are planning on releasing the first single from it “Chained To You” next month (as this interview was recorded a while ago the song is now out, it is a belter and the video for it will be at the bottom of the interview for you to check out).
Banger
Dave: it’s definitely a bit of a banger…//… Reuben: we have filmed the video for it already…//… Sophie: and we are hoping to release it all early 2025 and hopefully we will get some interesting opportunities to play after it is out…//… Dave: we do have some dates later this year with Spread Eagle and Kickin’ Valentina who put us in touch with Spread Eagle, and they are great guys as well along with doing Hard Rock Hell near the end of the year. ..//… Sophie: and after the release we hope to do more extensive touring.
CGCM: I have one more thing I want to ask about and that is you worked with Tony Wilson of Friday Rock Show fame. How did that come about, how was it?
Dave: He produced the first album, as I said it started out as an album project, it was kind of his and mine and he was the guy that saw the most possibility in the songs and was very excited to be involved. I had planned to see if I could get him to do the radio end but he has done production work with quite a few artists. He had a strong interest in the songs.
Mate
Sophie: he’s a good mate of yours as well…//… Dave: yeah we go to gigs together and stuff. He’s going strongly and I don’t think he would mind us saying that we organized the music for his 80th birthday which was a fantastic night with local great musicians playing as well…//… Sophie: in a local dive bar…//… Dave: yeah he’s just an amazing guy to be involved with and a living legend (he absolutely is for many of us of a certain age in the UK!), he has been involved with radio since the late 60s in some capacity, producer of Tommy Vance.
CGCM:It was that show, I listened to it, taping it so I could go to the record store the next day to buy albums. Much of my collection comes from listening to him and also Alan Freeman who he also worked for.
Dave: The reason I got into Bon Jovi was due to the show playing the whole 10 minutes of “Dry County”. I had heard singles before when I was 10 or 11 but that song floored me. I saved up to buy that album.
Notes
At this point we just started comparing notes of the music we listened to as kids and how we liked rock without knowing we were rockers. For me it was so interesting to see how Dave had the same pull into the scene. We then chatted about pop music and what was really cool and he said “I could go on for hours about this” (Sophie laughed and agreed he could).
I laughed saying I wouldn’t attempt it as we had been chatting over half an hour already and I have short stubby fingers that couldn’t cope with that amount of typing. We were all laughing and agreed we would meet up again, even off record and have a bloody good chat about music in general. It was a real treat to meet the band and I found their insights interesting and educational as well as fun. Lovely people who have a passion for rock. Definitely my kind of people. On behalf of CGCM I thank them for their time and wish them all the very best going forward.
All photos by Ian Owen For CGCM!
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