Photo by Autumn de Wilde
Los Angeles’ Starcrawler formed in 2015, and since that time have gone from bashing out songs in the garage to earning legendary fans such as Shirley Manson and Elton John, and to supporting the likes of Beck, Foo Fighters, Spoon, The Distillers, MC5 and more. Today they announce their remarkable sophomore album Devour You, a record that dynamically captures the essence and aggression of their gloriously unhinged live shows. Produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, L7) at Sunset Studios, Devour You takes the feral intensity of their 2018 self-titled debut and twists it into something grander and more gracefully composed. With its more elaborate and nuanced yet harder-hitting sonic palette, the result is a selection of songs radiating both raw sensitivity and untamable power, and a record that the band’s Arrow de Wilde says, “encapsulates all the blood, sweat, bruised knees, and broken fingers of a Starcrawler show.” Pre-order Devour You, out October 11th on Rough Trade, HERE. The album will be available on limited edition black/red marbled vinyl, with a scratch and sniff sleeve.
Early praise for Starcrawler:
“I feel like Starcrawler, and in particular Arrow, are really challenging the norms in which women are seen in music.” – Shirley Manson
The album is like being slapped by rock’n’roll again. You’ll be like, ‘What the fuck was that?’ – i-D
“Arrow de Wilde is what would have happened if Ozzy Osbourne and Patti Smith had got together in 1975 and had a kid’ – Classic Rock
“Teenage LA glam-punks LA debut” – Q ????
“Super refreshing to see this mix of 70’s theatricality and Stooges electricity” – Gerard Way
“trashy rock’roll of the highest order” – THE TIMES
“[their debut] demonstrates the potency of Starcrawler’s au courant mash-up of Raw Power-era stooges, Sunset Strip glam-metal and Nirvana at their hookiest.” – UNCUT
Los Angeles’ Starcrawler formed in 2015, and since that time have gone from bashing out songs in the garage to earning legendary fans such as Shirley Manson and Elton John, and to supporting the likes of Beck, Foo Fighters, Spoon, The Distillers, MC5 and more. Today they announce their remarkable sophomore album Devour You, a record that dynamically captures the essence and aggression of their gloriously unhinged live shows. Produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, L7) at Sunset Studios, Devour You takes the feral intensity of their 2018 self-titled debut and twists it into something grander and more gracefully composed. With its more elaborate and nuanced yet harder-hitting sonic palette, the result is a selection of songs radiating both raw sensitivity and untamable power, and a record that the band’s Arrow de Wilde says, “encapsulates all the blood, sweat, bruised knees, and broken fingers of a Starcrawler show.” Pre-order Devour You, out October 11th on Rough Trade, HERE. The album will be available on limited edition black/red marbled vinyl, with a scratch and sniff sleeve.
To kick off the album announcement, Starcrawler share the heavy, swinging and brutally catchy “Bet My Brains” alongside its manic and murderous music video. “That song came from thinking about the tunnel people in New York and Vegas and the Catacombs in France, and the underground village of people who live in the sewers of the L.A. River,” says de Wilde. “I was fascinated with the fact that there is a whole other world happening right under our feet.” Guitarist and vocalist Henri Cash adds: “Arrow and I hadn’t even talked about it yet, but I’d already written something about the same thing—about how these people’s eyes adapt to pitch-blackness, and they end up going crazy from never seeing the sunlight.” Check out the song and Jellyclaw-directed video HERE.
Starcrawler—vocalist Arrow de Wilde, guitarist/vocalist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco, and drummer Austin Smith—is a band possessed by the spirit of its own hometown of Los Angeles, every movement charged with a manic electricity. All throughout the album, Starcrawler taps into a kinetic chemistry they discovered soon after forming. In assembling the band, de Wilde first contacted Smith after seeing a Facebook photo of him playing drums. In searching for a guitarist, de Wilde next approached Cash, a fellow student at her performing-arts high school in downtown L.A. “I saw him one day and thought, ‘That guy looks cool,’” she says. “‘He’s carrying a tuba, he’s got long hair, I’ve seen him wearing Cramps T-shirts: he’s gotta know at least something on guitar.’” But while Cash has since emerged as a monster guitarist, her instincts were only partly right. “When I was younger I didn’t want to play guitar, I wanted to play the drums because my dad played guitar—although sometimes I’d take a broomstick and jam along to AC/DC live footage,” says Cash. “It wasn’t until Arrow hit me up that I realized it was meant to be.” Starcrawler then finalized their lineup with the addition of Franco—an old friend whom de Wilde reached out to after a moment of strange serendipity (“I was in the car with my mom and stressing out about finding the right bass player, and then Tim and his brother turned out to be on their bikes right in front of us,” she says).
With Starcrawler’s early band practices consisting mostly of Runaways covers, the band quickly bonded over a shared love for L.A.’s most unglamorous spaces. “I’ve been obsessed with Hollywood Boulevard ever since I was little,” notes de Wilde. “People travel so far and spend so much money to see it ’cause it makes them think of Marilyn Monroe—when in reality it’s so disgusting, which is why I love it. But really a lot of the L.A. that I grew up with and reminisce about is kind of fading now.” As an antidote to the toxic mildness overtaking so much of the city, Starcrawler’s live show has only become more outrageous over the years, an element strengthened by their increasingly telepathic connection. “We all know each other in a much deeper way now,” says Smith. “Like, Arrow knows exactly when I’m going to hit the crash cymbals, so she moves to match up with that. It’s completely changed how we play together.”
“With this album, I want people to put it on and feel excited, and hopefully get goosebumps. I always want there to be a dramatic response,” says de Wilde. Devour You—built around Starcrawler’s dramatic performances—does just that, revealing their rare ability to find a fragile beauty in even the greatest chaos.
Tracklisting:
- Lizzy
- Bet My Brains
- Home Alone
- No More Pennies
- You Dig Yours
- Toy Teenager
- Hollywood Ending
- She Gets Around
- I Don’t Need You
- Rich Taste
- Born Asleep
- Tank Top
- Call Me A Baby
