Almost exactly five years have passed since Starcrawler was featured on LA Weekly’s cover, and it was seen then as the logical successor to Ozzy and the Runaways. What prompted that idea was the striking aesthetic and theatrical performances it stuck with, and also the unrelenting rock ‘n’ roll sound it espoused throughout. The band’s earliest version was able to confuse audiences who were living in an unambiguously “unrock” era. They wondered what exactly the band’s deal was, much the same way many still are.
Look at it from a certain perspective and it’s not really hard to figure out what Starcrawler is about. Their story is that of a band comprising a group of friends who found their sound, and then evolved with the times. Their oddities are the subtleties. For example, Arrow De Wilde, the frontwoman, reminds of Iggy Pop, Cherie Currie, etc. while still being her own person. She captivates with her performances, and can be both charismatic and unpredictable, as well as shocking at times. The naturally lean frame and the signature sneer both help build the impression that she’s at home with this shit, and that’s not an exaggeration. She’s the archetypal rock star. As for the rest of the members, they too are key when it comes to the sound and other integral components.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m definitely very happy,” de Wilde said in a Zoom interview. “I think we’ve always had goals for ourselves, but I think from the last time we were on that cover, we definitely have made some progress. I remember when we did that, it felt crazy. I mean, it still is, but it was very unexpected for that time.”
Five years back, the band was promoting its debut album, and has since put out its Devour You sophomore effort, and is currently approaching the release of its third—She Said. Henri Cash, the guitarist, says the records have been following a natural progression.
“It’s been so many years since we recorded that and, also, we have new members with us,” he says. “My brother [Bill Cash] joined us at the beginning of quarantine and so did our new drummer Seth [Carolina]. We were just playing together a lot during quarantine, just really getting super tight. It was the natural progression of the music that we were making when we were playing together.”
It should come as no surprise that since COVID hit, the band has suffered in terms of their ability to play together, and to even move along their current trajectory.
“It was really hard at first, because we’d been on tour for five years and we’d never had more than two weeks at home,” says Cash. “Then all of a sudden, we weren’t seeing each other, which felt super weird because we’re like a family, and we all like to sleep in the same beds on tour and in the car. So it was such a shock to the body that I would just go driving nowhere, just to feel like I was doing something. Then a couple of months in, we started writing songs through Arrow’s window. That’s how it all started.”
They innovated while sitting outside de Wilde’s home, and wrote and even recorded demos through her window. The pandemic, if nothing else, forced them to think outside the box.
“In L.A., it’s very common that all the windows are barred, but there’s one that we were able to put a mic through,” de Wilde says. “He sat out there, and we were very safe and responsible about COVID. It was at the beginning, so we had no idea. For a while that’s how we were doing it – we would just write and record demos through the window. Once we were able to create our pods and all that, we would sit outside and whatever. That’s how it started, which I think is kinda cool. Romeo and Juliet vibes or something.”
When it was time to record She Said, they got on board with Sunset Sound studio alongside engineer Robert Carranza and producer Tyler Bates.
“They’re both just amazing people, and also felt like family,” says Cash. “Tyler is an exceptional guitar player as well, so it was cool to spend time focusing on that. But he’s also a dad, and so when we looked hungry, he would cook us grilled cheese sandwiches, so that was really cool.”
They say, unexpectedly, that the theme of the album is pink.
“I’m actually in between painting a bunch of stuff pink right now, which is a headache,” says Cash. “But our stage set is pink. Even before we wrote most of the songs, we were pretty set on the color tone. When you visualize something like that, it helps put stuff together.”
“We’ve always had a color scheme, but it was loose,” adds de Wilde. “Like now, we’re putting our all into it and making it this world. Before, our color scheme was red and white, but it was kinda loose. Now, each record has its own visual world.”
The approach sure is interesting. The explanation for choosing pink can be viewed subjectively.
“For some reason, the name She Said is pink to me,” says de Wilde. “I don’t know if that’s weird. None of the other songs when I was thinking of them sounded that pink. I have a weird thing where certain words and numbers I associate with colors. Four is also pink. I don’t know how to explain it, but to me She Said felt very pink. It was also just the one that we could all agree on.”
