There's a small band with a big name (superstar) from a medium city (Athens, Georgia). With just three singles and three music videos released, the band has quickly become a staple in the indie scene with their addictive guitar melodies and catchy vocal hooks.
When we sat down with them via video call to chat, they told us that their goal was just to make stuff that sounded "nice and cool." It's easy to say that they deliver on that front. From their first single "all mine" with percussion-accented verses and synthy choruses reminiscent of 2010's indie pop, to their most recent release "pasadena" featuring Wim Tapley, a twinkly, atmospheric piece named for a place the band has never traveled to, superstar is ready to take the world by storm.
We were lucky enough to get a sneak peek.
superstar. That name seems like some big shoes to fill! Where did that come from?
Bennett: I had the idea for this name. We've done music for a really long time…about ten years. We started in middle school, and now we're both 23. I think we had this idea of what we wanted to do, and why not just have a really bold name that lays it all out there. I think the name really sticks, and it delivers how we want our perception to be.
Aaron: When he had the idea originally, I wasn't a big fan. I was like no way, that would be crazy, and then I kept thinking about it. I couldn't get it out of my head. I like the idea of it being punchy and memorable. Also, I found deeper meaning in it because Bennett and I have been trying to become superstars together for so long. It fits. This is our big plan.
Have you been plotting on being superstars?
Aaron: Yeah, and I think there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people might think that we're full of ourselves or something, but if they dig deeper, they're going to find that it's not the case. It's just unapologetically that this is what our dream has always been.
What do you rely on the other person for in your creative process?
Aaron: I think Bennett is great at coming up with our initial ideas for songs. He'll just play something really neat on the guitar, and I'll hear it and think that's really cool, let's pursue that. The whole process is super collaborative, but I think I can kind of fill in the space, like hearing melodies that go over other melodies and rhythms.
Bennett: I think Aaron really fills in the spaces. I get sidetracked easily and get tunnel vision a lot of the time, and he'll come in and give the idea legs. I don't feel like I ever have something that feels like a song until we both work on it. Aaron writes terrific songs. I think we complement each other as writers, and I think that's what this band has been. Getting better as writers and figuring out where we can help each other. We are kind of like two puzzle pieces if a puzzle had two pieces.
Do you enjoy being a two-piece, or will you ever add more members?
Bennett: We play live as a three-piece. I think aesthetically it looks better, and we can cover more ground. In the writing world, we have a producer we work with a lot, and he's kind of our third in that way. The two of us drive everything, and we'll seek out another person if we need it.
Aaron: I think it works really well, just doing everything the two of us, except for playing live. Writing stuff with random people is fun too, especially our producer, Alec. In our past bands, any issues that did arise were just because of a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It's great that Bennett and I have been on the same page about a lot of things in this journey.
You two have made music videos for all three singles you've put out so far, and they've all been so different. Where do you pull inspiration for your visuals?
Bennett: We like to find the humor in things. In our first video, we thought it would be funny if we just shot fireworks at each other and had a robot thing. The next one is more medieval. The clay-mation one is just really cool. We figure stuff out song-by-song, based on how it sounds. The next video we're working on is more of a full production.
Aaron: With the clay-mation video, we did a bunch of mushrooms at the studio and wrote that song at like five in the morning. Right before we did that, our producer deleted one of our songs by accident. We spent all day tracking these two songs. We had a session musician come in, this guy Jeff, who is a monster of a bassist. He got the perfect take, and then our producer tried to drag the file into another folder and accidentally wrote over the file. We tried for an hour to recover it, to no avail. We forgave Alec, and then did the mushrooms even though it seemed like a crazy decision given the horrible thing that had just happened. We just kind of moved on, and it gave us time to dig into "daredevil." It was so cool, we were at this cabin in the woods in the mountains of North Carolina. We wanted to pay homage to that day with the video, like when we get sucked into the mushroom. It's a little on-the-nose.
What's a band you love that I haven't heard of before?
Bennett: Heffner. They're a monster of a band.
Aaron: I'll go with Wanderwild. A lot of the same people as Heffner, from Athens as well.
So you live in Georgia, why the song "Pasadena"?
Aaron: I wish I had a better answer, but the song just worked. It sounded good phonetically. Never been to Pasadena, though.
Maybe you'll end up there. Do you have future touring plans?
Bennett: We're definitely gonna be on the road. We are waiting to hear more about schedules for summer, but it's kind of looking more like a Midwest/East Coast run.
Aaron: West Coast would be great, we've never been out there.
Do you have release plans to go along with the upcoming tour plans?
Aaron: We're playing it by ear. We were gonna release the songs all together, and then I feel like now we are thinking it might be cool to just do an EP. We also want to get back in the studio; we've written some songs since our last recording trip.
Bennett: The song we just released, "pasadena" has another person who sings on it, and that was a collaboration effort. We had a batch of songs that when we tried to finish them in our own studio, our producer wasn't really feeling them. So we took these songs to our friends and asked them if they wanted to help us finish them in some capacity. The next one is a song that would fit really well into the Yellowjackets soundtrack. Our friend Zoe did the vocals. It's super different from anything we've done so far. It's gonna be cool.
Who do you hope is listening to your music?
Bennett: We've kind of mixed up all styles of music. Our music tastes have changed dramatically throughout the years we've been writing, so we kind of go all over the map. We've been trying to figure it out. Does it even matter? We make what we want, in perpetuity. I don't think we will ever get tired of it.
Aaron: It's for everyone, and there's going to be certain songs that fans of "pasadena" don't like, and there's going to be certain people who really like our next song who don't like "pasadena." Not everybody has to like every one of our songs. Maybe some people do like every song, and others are reeled in by a random tune that doesn't sound like anything else. The common denominator is trying to make everything sound nice and not very abrasive. Even our heavier songs we are trying to make more palatable. They're for anyone who likes to sound nice and cool.
If you could choose one country in the world to play shows in, where would you choose?
Aaron: I would love to go to Japan, but honestly, if I could choose any country, I'd love to play in Australia.
Bennett: I'd go with Japan. That's been my interest as of late, for playing shows.
If you're like us and chomping at the bit to see what comes next for the young band, connect with superstar on social media to stay tuned for any upcoming releases.
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