Videos

Stars And Sons – Futureproof

• 21st Jul 2010

Brighton’s Stars and Sons will release their much-anticipated debut album, ‘Good Morning Mother’, on 6 September (Twice Burnt Records). This follows the release of a new single, ‘Futureproof’, on 23 August, on top of radio support from the likes of Lauren Lavern, John Kennedy, Marc Riley, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens.

Stars and Sons began with Mike Lord, a 23 year old former bin-man and classical music graduate from Colchester (he was sacked from the zoo where he worked because postcard sales were too low). An early love of musicals – he was an understudy to Jesus in primary school, and never looked back – eventually shaped an obsession with Stravinsky, The Avalanches, and Sergeant Pepper. All this and more is cut and pasted into this debut record, which Lord wrote and largely produced himself; on the dole, in his bedroom, and much to the worry of his poor mum, whose former childhood pleas to keep the noise down partly inspired the album title. The record was eventually finished off with Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Kylie) in a converted church at the foot of Mount Snowdon.

‘Good Morning Mother’ is a bold and fantastically technicolor debut record, managing to be supremely accessible and just plain weird simultaneously. The chaotic piano thump of recent single ‘If It’s Good For Me’, Mike says, “is about the sort of helpless frustration you feel being pushed into certain consumer decisions on a basis of fear.” And then there’s the album’s final two tracks – the breathless ‘4 Stars’ and the cinematic ‘Outside My Feet’ – which must rank as the first songs ever to be written about a day in the life of Grand Theft Auto. Yet for all its eccentricities, ‘Mother’ is a supremely focused, expertly crafted effort. ‘Fights Already Fought’ builds from its shuffling samba beginnings into an expansive wall of sound, whilst ‘Comfy Now’ is a spooky and epic affair, betraying Mike’s orchestral experience (well, he played the drums, and by his own admittance he was often out of time).

Despite the overflowing ideas and sounds surrounding the album, ‘Good Morning Mother’ – brilliantly – still sounds like a bunch of guys just having a blast amongst themselves. Having assembled the skeleton of his songs, Mike Lord formed Stars and Sons with friends, initially requesting them to do away with any singular identities and pose in masks with his face on them. Behind the masks eventually lay Sandy Buglass, Stuart Provan, Luke Sital Singh and Paul Steel. Together, they take the DIY approach to music to quite remarkable heights. A limited five hundred copies of ‘In The Ocean’ were released, ALL of which were hand-painted by Mike, in the bedroom that he made the record. Their music videos, too, are largely band-led affairs, both surprisingly accomplished and brilliantly surreal (In The Ocean’ features an underwater dance scene with a girl in a Scarlett Johansson mask).

Having supported the likes of Hockey, Okkervil River and Dr Dog, Stars and Sons played a sterling set in their hometown of Brighton at this year’s Great Escape Festival. They have also won a loyal following with extensive UK tours, and recent London shows at the Old Blue Last, Monto Water Rats, Borderline and Club NME. They will announce further UK tour dates shortly. Mike has also recently guested on a track for Boemklatsch, as part of a Dutch techno album, which may or may not influence Stars and Sons’ second album (on which work has already begun….).