Interview de Star Eyes

Could you please introduce yourself?

My name is Vivian. I DJ and produce under the name Star Eyes, and I'm one-fourth of the Trouble & Bass crew. I live in Brooklyn, New York, where the magic happens.

What does your nickname mean and where did it come from?

I learned to DJ when I was 15, and that's when I picked the name. It comes from this old breakbeat hardcore track (my favorite era of dance music) called "Star Eyes" by Cosmo & Dibs. The remix has a sample of a girl singing "I control the party," and that always appealed to me. I also used to wear a lot things with stars on them as a young raver.

How did you get where you are now?

Lots of hard work, some luck, many late nights, being crazy about music, making goals, keeping my head up, good friends, having a sense of humor, and never forgetting that you only live once.

May you describe your music?

My music as Star Eyes is a bit different than my DJ sets -- a lot of it is dance music, but my concept is "haunted house," mixing elements of goth, industrial, punk, and other things that I like musically and aesthetically with the current heavy bass sound. Lyrically, most of the stuff I'm writing is based around adventures, alternate universes, autonomous zones, ecstasy, agony, psychic drama, late nights, and what happens after the party is over. As a DJ, I would say things are a bit less serious. I like bass music (dubstep, grime, electro-house, Baltimore club, Miami bass) -- the dirtier and  sassier the better.

How did the audience reply on your music?

DJ-wise my goals are to make people dance, to make them feel as excited as I am, and hopefully expose them to some new things. That seems to be working pretty good. As for my own stuff, I got a really good response on my first EP, Disappear EP (Trouble & Bass). It helped that I got great remixes from Mikix the Cat, Dexplicit, Cardopusher, UFO!, and more. I think it surprised people to hear me singing. I was surprised as well. We'll see what people think of the next stuff!

How did you join Trouble & Bass and Syrup Girls?

Syrup Girls was started in the early 2000s by myself and DJ Siren. We had been playing a lot of drum & bass gigs together and wanted to do something that was specifically a duo and geared towards party-rocking and having a good time -- something not as hard, as serious, and as rule-driven as D&B was at that time. At the same time, we were liking a lot of two-step garage and breaks records coming out at that time and wanted to mix them with our influences from Miami bass, electro-boogie, 80s, and house. Siren opened a really popular bar called Home Sweet Home which is quite busy, so we rarely DJ together anymore, even though we still cause trouble. In 2005, Syrup Girls did a mix CD with Drop the Lime for Tigerbeat 6's Shotgun Wedding series (Vol. 4). That's how I met DTL. We discovered a mutual obsession with grime, bassline house, Fugazi, old-school rave, and espresso, and when he was putting together Trouble & Bass crew he asked me to be a part of it. We started throwing wild renegade parties at this underground bar in Brooklyn called Boogaloo and you know the rest!

Could you give me a list of your current favorite tracks ?

Drop the Lime: Set Me Free

Dave Nada: Apocalypse Theme (12th Planet & Flinch Rmx)

L-Vis 1990: United Groove

R1 Ryders: Rubberband

The Boogaloo Crew: Days Go By

The Distillers: Dismantle Me

Star Eyes: Happy Haus (UFO! Remix)

Kingdom: 26You

Mayster: Sorry I'm Late

Newham Generals: Pepper (AC Slater Remix)

Little Jinder: Youth Blood (Chateau LaTeuf Bass Remix)

Dre Skull feat. Vybz Kartel: Yuh Love

Plastician: Senate

X-Mal Deutschland: Orient

Are you currently working on any other original tracks?

Yeah I'm working on a remix for Hanuman (Sleazetone), my own stuff, and a new track called "Saving The Best" that I hope will be done soon.

What can we expect of you in the near future?

Madness.

Which tool do you use for producing your sounds?

I use Ableton, which is a great tool for laying things out and easy to get around, but I'm also trying to learn Logic; most of the people I'm working with use that and the sound quality is richer. Vocals I use a Shure mic or sometimes a Blueball USB mic. Ultimately, I would like to do some stuff with live bass and effects pedals.

How do you compose your sounds?

All different ways I guess but usually the melody is what grabs me first and makes me write something. But when you're making dance music, you usually start with the beats and the bass.

what do you think of american electro scene ?

I think it's really strong right now. America has a lot of great DJ/producers and promoters and it seems a lot of eyes are on what we're doing right now. I think the U.S. has contributed new influences to electro, dubstep, house, etc., and I think the American attitude has freed up a lot more DJs to play multiple genres within their set. Just New York itself has an amazing scene with so many really interesting, clever artists. It's nice to finally have a dialog with the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world about electronic music after so many years of us just watching what was being made in other countries.

Having played in many different venues, and countries, you must have some crazy or embarassing stories to go with it?

Sometimes it's hard to say what's crazy anymore. Here's one: Drop the Lime and I did a UK tour a few years back, and we ended up at an afterparty in Oxford, which is a nice university town. At 5 a.m., two drunk thugs busted the door down and beat up the three guys who lived in the house, all of whom were peaking on Ecstasy. People were running through the house screaming and bleeding, the cops came, and I had to hide the promoter's bag of E in the freezer and stand in front of it. Then we went back to the hotel and watched House Party 2.

If you have some final words to add, please do it here.

Make your own reality.

Picture credits : Shawn Brackbill (with the pink boots), Adam Schneider (with the skull)