ION INDIE MAGAZINE June 2014, Volume 1 | Page 55

we’ve sincerely carved out a sound of our own. To give you a clearer answer to your question, we consider ourselves a Rock band, nothing more, nothing less. JP: What bands do you consider influences? Vex: That can be a loaded question, because being from a working band background yourself, I’m sure you know that can be a wide and varied answer. Our lead guitarist was greatly influenced by the brilliant guitar heroes going all the way back to the early 1960’s in the Blues/Rock vein. His number one influence would be SLASH, followed by RANDY RHOADS, DIMEBAG, EDDIE VAN HALEN, ZAKK WYLDE--monster players like that. Our bassist is a massive AVENGED SEVENFOLD fan, and is very much a product of the “NU-Metal” generation. Shockingly, our hard-hitting drummer, Gunz, is a huge fan of great vocal harmony--bands like THE EAGLES, THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS-- and a lot of great soul music--that’s his vibe. As a child, OZZY’S voice and vocal delivery were VERY influential on me—FREDDIE MERCURY as well, actually. For showmanship I ALWAYS look to the GREAT DAVID LEE ROTH for influence, and CHRIS CORNELL is one of my all-time favorite song writers EVER. But in all honesty, the list goes on and on. JP: We know, back in the 80’s and 90’s, the Philadelphia area scene pumped out great bands like CINDERELLA, BRITNY FOX AND FUEL that “made it”--not to mention BON JOVI on Jovi, just across the way in New Jersey. Lately, even though there is great talent, it doesn’t seem like we hear much about Philly. What separates StarSkream from the rest of the bands in the current scene that gives you specifically a chance to put Philly front and center once again? Vex: When we formed StarSkream, from our inception we attacked this business to establish our brand as a national presence. We successfully booked and navigated a European tour right in the beginning, and have been fortunate enough to headline both CBGB’s here on the East Coast, as well as WHISKEY A GO-G0 on the West Coast, all in our first two years together. For an independent band with “only” distribution deals going for us (and some sponsorship here and there), we have logged a lot of road time. We live in and LOVE Philadelphia, but are always searching out ways to expand our reach. Last night, as a matter of fact, we had a meeting with our management trying to negotiate a fall 2014 tour of Spain, hopefully supporting PSYCHOTICA. Bands secure pretty solid deals out of Philly all the time, but with the state of our industry, it’s VERY difficult to break in a climate of piracy and free downloads. Since the early 2000’s there was LIQUID GANG, TIDEWATER GRAIN, SILVERTIDE, ISLE OF Q, VALENCIA…and literally a few weeks ago, VIV AND THE REVIVAL. All of those groups secured million dollar deals, but it’s never easy to flourish with so much against you. JP: I appreciated the invite to the private show and party over the winter, but our winter was brutal and unfortunately, I couldn’t make it out for that event. I understand you have some new music out and a new music video that has had an awful lot of views. Can you tell me our readers a little about the new music, particularly the video and why you think it has been such a success? Vex: I would LOVE to advise everyone that our new LP is THAT great and the songs are so infectious that we struck a nerve--thus accumulating all the YouTube views for our latest video--but that isn’t the whole truth. We were very fortunate to sign with a fantastic management firm last fall headed up by Michael Bilinski. Our “Some Flaws” LP was relea sed commercially on April Fool’s Day 2013. We didn’t sign with Michael until September of that year, and he had us a distribution deal with TOIL RECORDS within weeks. That placed us in FYE stores here in the states, as well as some Canadian retail placement. Once the video was completed and released (also directed by Michael), we had some viewer-specific marketing activated and very much to our surprise, the plays began racking up. Our video for “Before The Fall” logged so many plays in the first month, that YouTube kept pulling it down to substantiate the plays were legitimate and not being fabricated. Thankfully, we are well over twelve thousand plays and counting--which