CityLife

Starsailor aiming for heights once more

REJUVENATED: Starsailor's Jame Walsh

AMERICAN music totally dominated the airwaves in 2001, with bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes spearheading the so-called Garage Rock Revival.

There was still British music to get excited about, it was just more sensitive and emotional than the ice-cool offerings from the US.

The most notable UK band that year was Starsailor, whose particular brand of Jeff Buckley-tinged guitar rock had the press in raptures.

They played at Glastonbury, record labels couldn’t sign them fast enough, and their debut album went platinum.

In 2009, however, Starsailor find themselves in a very different position.

It’s not that they’ve fallen from grace exactly, but they’re not the Great White Hope for British guitar music as they once were.

Frontman James Walsh admits the band has found the transition hard.

“It knocks your confidence a bit,” the softly spoken 28-year-old begins.

“The thing that frustrates me most about our position is that we’re caught between two worlds.

“We’re not accepted into the Coldplay, Travis, Keane and Snow Patrol level of success, the housewives’ choice, but equally, we’re not accepted by the Arcade Fire, Elbow and Interpol cooler crowd either.

"It would be nice for one of those worlds to say ’Come and join us, it’s nice here’.

“That’s what you need for longevity,” he adds, sipping his coffee.

“Whatever Elbow do, they’ve won a Brit Award now and the Mercury Prize, but even if that doesn’t happen next time around, they’ll always get covers of magazines and will be well accepted in certain quarters.

“Equally with Keane and Snow Patrol, they’ve got their areas.”

James’ wish could come sooner than he expects as Starsailor prepare to release their fourth album, All The Plans, on March 9.

The album is their strongest, most consistent set since their debut and has potential to win them scores of new fans while mobilising those who loved them first time around.

Freezing

James isn’t quite sure how long it took to record All The Plans - “definitely two seasons at least, because we could use the pool outside the studio when we started it, but it was freezing when we were done” - but it has been done and dusted for some time.

Caught up in the internal restructuring on EMI following Terra Firma’s takeover in 2007, Starsailor have waited patiently since finishing the album last June.

“It could have easily just been swallowed up if it’d come out back then, but now, we’re signed to Virgin, which is the same parent company, but we’re working with new people and everything feels fresh again.

“I think we found ourselves in a big way with this album. It goes up and down in different directions, and I think we’ve got a nice blueprint we can build on,” he says.

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood features on the album’s title track. He asked to appear on the song after striking up a friendship with the band while they were on tour together in 2006.

“It’s quite like Oasis in parts, that song, with those big guitars. It’s really loose-sounding as well, and who better to play on a song like that than Ronnie Wood?” James says.

“If you want a loose-sounding song, get The Faces’ guitar player.”

James believes Boy In Waiting, one of All The Plans’ standout tracks, is among the best songs he’s ever written.

So proud

“I’m so proud of it,” he beams.

“The simplicity of it is great. It’s a joy to play songs that are that easy, and completely untampered with.

“Sometimes with songs, you can be constantly speaking to the producer to work out different bits and arrangements, and other songs are built over time, but Boy In Waiting just arrived fully formed and it sounds exactly as it was in my head.

“When we’d finished it, it was a bit like ’Have that!”’ he says, breaking into an unlikely chuckle.

James is undeniably shy, but once he opens up you discover he’s extremely levelheaded, with a knack for hilarious one-liners.

He gets excited immediately if you mention his beloved Liverpool FC, talking passionately about matches he’s seen, his hopes for the future and opinion on various current players.

He’s also animated when talking about the band’s recent trip to South Africa on behalf of Unicef.

The band spent 10 days visiting Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, playing football with youngsters from poverty-stricken townships, playing guitar and meeting fellow musicians.

“Mark Fish, who used to play for Charlton Athletic and Bolton Wanderers, set it up,” James says.

“He works developing football in the townships, and somewhere along the line we were asked to go over, so we thought it’d be great to merge football and music.

“I think people can get a bit uncomfortable when artists are in their face saying ’Give us money for this’ and it’s easy for us to say, I know that.

“If you’re living in a one-bedroom flat with three kids, or on benefits, you might feel sad about kids in Africa but you can’t afford to do anything about it.

“But if we’re just going out there and using our privileged position to do something like this, no one can argue with it. We’re not there telling people to do their bit, we were just there doing ours.

“There’s a South African singer called Vusi Mahlasela who came down to meet us, so we got the acoustic guitars out and had a bit of a jam.

“It was one of those moments. People ask what my highlights are as a musician, and obviously playing things like Glastonbury and T In The Park is amazing, but things like this are equally fulfilling.”

All The Plans is out now. Starsailor play The Ritz on Friday, March 27. Tickets have sold out. Call 0161 832 1111 to check returns.