Marcus Fraser, Vocals & Percussion

Jack Barratt, Bass/Vocals/Keys

Odin Wolf, Guitars

Jack Farmer, Drums

On October 18, Sydney band Starcrazy, who are modern glam rockers with a touch of vintage, released their self-titled album. From the off, these guys look to make a big impression. With no lack of energy, this release skilfully brings the fire and glitter of their live performances into the recording studio, letting the band and each member’s unique qualities shine. The album perfectly captures the essence of their dynamic live presence with its contagious energy, catchy riffs, and flamboyant melodies. It also reveals a sophisticated level of musicianship that mirrors their profound influences from the glam rock era.

Our reviewer, Anna-Louise, said of the album that it was ‘​​a brash, confident first album from an interesting band that can sing a sweet melody or rock out with the best. For the first album, it slices the lemon nicely and sticks a fast guitar into the speakers—definitely a band to watch out for.’ (link to review here)

With the guys being in Australia, this was a long-distance interview for us! But its one we are happy to bring to our readers, as its great to speak to a band on the edge of the world. The band member who was busy answering these questions for us was lead vocalist Marcus Fraser.

We began with a general comment on the sad state of the world at the moment, as the world is in such a mess in so many ways. Yet putting on your album takes you out of all that; it’s forget it all for a while. We guess that was the intention?

Marcus: I’m glad to hear that ! It’s definitely intentional; music has always been an escape for me, and performing means I get to be a wild child and do whatever I want onstage. What’s not to love?

Taking a dip into the album, “Underground” was a favourite of ours. Can you tell us a little about the background to that one? Is it one you are playing live and who came up with that one?

Marcus: It was written by myself and guitarist Odin. You can probably tell that we were listening to a lot of Turnstile at the time. We had been playing it live for a little while before deciding to record it for the album. The lyrics just stemmed from the frustration of the cost of living here in stink town (Sydney, Australia). E.g., ‘Hand to mouth like an animal, day to day on the factory floor, guaranteed to slowly bring you down’

“Caught in a Dream” delivers a lighter ballad; our reviewer enjoyed the acoustic guitars and the melody. Do you think it’s important within an album to have light and shade? It gives a different tone to the piece; our review felt this one had a whimsical feel.

Marcus: Yes, I believe so ! I had the album order decided before we even started recording, as we had demo recordings of all of the songs and I was playing around with the track order. I liked that this song was the last song on the first side of the record, leaving the listener in a state of ease before they flip the record and get sonically assaulted by the heavy drums and bass of ‘I Ain’t That Crazy’.

It’s so difficult today with charts for everything; its tricky to work out what’s successful and what’s not half of the time. And streaming figures tend to indicate a popular song, not necessarily a popular artist. How do you define success today in this difficult business of music?

Marcus: Great question ! I really believe that you have to measure your own success in less black-and-white terms (ie win or lose.) For instance, we’ve had many great things happen for Starcrazy within the 5 years we’ve existed, but many of those things have not led to anything bigger. Any musician who’s been in the game, as long as myself and our guitarist, Odin, can tell you, one week you’ll be playing massive shows on tour with another band, etc and the next, playing to 15 disinterested schmucks in some sad pub. It’s always up and down but as long as you’re aiming upwards. I will say though, we don’t get caught up in counting numbers/stats online and we don’t pay for people to engage with us online because that side of it doesn’t interest us. We’re more interested in people having fun at our shows and hopefully the songs emotionally landing with people.

We do a monthly editorial now a days; I’ll link it here. In the October editorial, we responded to a piece in a national newspaper over here in the UK (we link it here for any reader wanting to follow it up). We totally disagreed with the piece, which basically was saying that rock had nothing new to offer—another pop genre belonging almost exclusively to the past or niche revival scenes.” In our opinion, this writer is not listening to the wonderful new music from rock that is out there. Are you with us in this? What do you feel Rock is still offering that is “new”?

Marcus: I agree with you, and I believe that there is always going to be a kid out there who wants to pick up a guitar and learn an AC/DC riff . Rock music has lasted this many decades because there’s always new ways to make it exciting and relevant; take us for example ! That writer can shove it; he sounds like he doesn’t even like Oasis so why trust him?

What track was the most fun to record on the album and why?

Marcus: Probably the last track, ‘Jar Of Dirt’ because it has a lot of different sections/time changes and I got to hit a piece of scrap metal with a hammer for a percussive effect.

How many of these tracks have already been played live? Do you see the majority of the album being on the live set?

Marcus: We’d played all of them live before; a lot of the time, that’s how we test out new songs to see how they feel in a gig setting. If they don’t feel right live, they usually get scrapped and don’t even get considered for recording.

Are you having an album launch party? How are you all celebrating its release?

Marcus: We certainly are (though I think the show may have already happened by the time this interview comes out!): October 19 at Darling Nikki’s in St. Peters, Sydney, Australia, with Pocketwatch and Monstahouse ! It shall be a momentous occasion!

And…anything you can share with us on what lies on the road ahead for you guys?

Marcus: Opening for Dallas Crane at The Lansdowne (Sydney) on November 16, a possible album tour in 2025 and a live recording/video coming soon!

As a finishing point, to keep us improving the magazine, we really do need your support, and if you can go to the “support us” button and buy us a coffee or follow us, it helps us feel appreciated and keep improving the magazine.

You can stream music by Starcrazy, including the new album, here

By Benny (the Ball) Benson

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