Your
name:
Scott Schaafsma.
Where are you
from?
Chicago, USA.
Name
of band:
Kerosene
Stars.
Jim Adair
(drums), Brett Bakshis (acoustic guitar), Yoo Soo Kim (keyboard/viola), Andy
Seagram (guitar/backing vocals), Tom Sorich (percussion) and myself (Scott) on
lead vocals and bass.
The best description
I've heard so far comes from the music section of the Chicago Reader (our arts
and entertainment paper) and reads: Smart unpretentious Beatles-loving
group with a sure hand for hooks… It’s perfect pop -Noah Berlatsky, Chicago
Reader.
Who
are your main influences musically?
Largely British
groups I listened to in the 90's such as Stone Roses, Blur, The Cure, PJ
Harvey, Elvis Costello, The Kinks. I'm also big fan of the
Decemberists, REM, Big Star, The Posies, Spoon - anything that oozes catchy
musical phrasing is what I'm in to, so the Beatles clearly fit the bill as
well. I think all these groups sort of melt together in my mind and as I write
these songs little hints from each come out.
What
do you hope to achieve in music?
Recognition.
That's the major goal. Money seems to be a lost cause these days in this
business so my main concern after doing this for over 20 years is to get people
to notice us and listen to the music and gain an audience who truly has an
appreciation for the delicate art of intelligent pop hooks.
This year we
decided to release three EPs instead of one record and it's been a busy time
as I'm doing all of my promotions for radio and press as well as booking, and
it's exhausting- but we're getting noticed - especially in the UK, but all over
the US as well and elsewhere in the world as various radio stations are playing
us sometimes multiple times per day. It's nice to get actual feedback from
reviews and radio presenters that they honestly like what we're doing and prove
it by playing us and sharing us with their fans via social media.
And
what’s the moment you want to forget?
If
you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it
be and why?
This is tough
because I pride myself on being genre-less. Our 2014 record alone starts out in
a near Velvet Underground style, weaves in and out of traditional country and
closes out with songs that could almost be on a Nick Cave and Queens of the
Stone Age record.
These new EPs try to center around what is most likely considered power pop, but there are
areas where we stray from that as well. For example, our January release
"Burn the Evidence" has just four songs on it, three are solid pop
tunes that rides the lines of jangle pop (Don't Believe in Miracles), to the
more danceable title track, to quintessential power pop anthem (Talk Talk). But
track two is a Tom Waits cover done with a Latin feel. Sorry, what was the
question again?
Where
can we listen to you?
Where
can we find out more about your music?
Anything
else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
We're making a
music video for our single "Talk Talk" from our Burn the Evidence EP.
It's going to be a live action part animated hybrid short film and we're really
excited about it. here's that link:
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