STARHOOK’s not your average band. The duo is made up of Anthony Starble (vocals, key) and Brad Hooks (vocals, keytar). The two come from very different musical backgrounds but both cite Billy Joel, Ben Folds and Elton John as inspirations. They also share a love of positivity and hope to get positive messages out with their music.
We were especially stoked to interview the guys after the band made their worldwide debut with a performance on The Fosters. On the show, they performed 4 songs off of their new EP including the song Freeway. This song is inspired by Los Angeles traffic, making the title more than appropriate. We talked with them about their experience on the show, their LP, Los Angeles, what’s next and more!
Young Adult: You guys have an amazing sound. How did you come together?
Starhooks: We were introduced to each other through a mutual friend in the music business and when we first started writing songs together, we experimented with a whole bunch of different styles and genres. One day we decided to go for a ‘Naked and Famous’ style for a film opportunity and the rest was history. We instantly fell in love with the sound and quickly decided to write a full album in that style, featuring synth layers and passionate, high vocals.
YA: Tell us a little bit about how Los Angeles and particularly traffic inspired your album?
SH: Both of us have been living in Los Angeles for a majority of our adult lives, and the first few songs we wrote were definitely an illustration of youth culture in the city, involving materialism and the club scene. Traffic is sort of the longest running joke amongst Angelenos, and when writing ‘Freeway’, we definitely wanted to poke fun at the dramatic reactions people have to traffic. The world never ends during rush hour. 🙂
YA: Brad, how did you get into the keytar? It’s not a common instrument!
SH: Well, lets be honest here…. the keytar looks pretty cool right? 🙂 But seriously…we thought the look of it would really be complimentary to the sound we’re going for. The music is very electronically driven, so keytar would fit perfectly into the mix of things. Once we saw our pictures with the keytar, it pretty much became the 3rd member of the band.
YA: You guys were recently featured on the Fosters…Congrats! Can you tell us a little bit about that process?
SH: We’ve got some contacts with the show, which was super helpful in creating the amazing opportunity. We sent off one track to the show’s creator, and without a moments delay, he emailed us saying ‘it’s going in the show’. We were stoked to have secured our first TV placement, but then it just started snowballing. All of sudden they asked for more songs, to which we replied ‘yes, have more songs’. Then they needed a band on camera, oh and even more songs, to which we replied ‘yes, yes yes yes.’. We’re so excited to have our first TV placement include 6 of our songs as well as our faces.
YA: You guys actually featured vocals from David Lambert…what was that like?
SH: With all the Fosters business buzzing around in our brains, we decided to ask David to sing on one of the tracks. Surprisingly, he agreed without any hesitation. I think his voice gives ‘Freeway’ a very communal feeling. When he enters on the 2nd verse, it’s as if he’s the voice of everyone around you sitting on the freeway in the same traffic spot. He sounds great and we’re happy to have his name attached to the song!
YA: Tell us about getting in front of the camera for The Fosters?
SH: Filming on ‘The Fosters’ was definitely exciting. I think we were surprised by the number of times we had to shoot the same clip, but the monotony was totally worth it! Hearing some of the cast and crew hum our song in between takes was surreal.
YA: What else are you guys watching besides The Fosters?
SH: Game. Of. Thrones. But seriously, we’re watching Game Of Thrones right now. 🙂 When patiently waiting in between episodes, we love Archer and Mad Men.
YA: What’s coming up for you guys?
SH: We’ll be playing shows around the LA area through the summer while writing new material. Come fall we’ll hopefully be playing at Colleges around the U.S. or Opening for a band like Capital Cities or Icona Pop…. we’ve got our fingers crossed.
YA: What are three things you want your fans to know about you that they might not?
SH: Well, both of us are classically trained on piano, and are experimenting with synths in our music for the first time…. lets just say we’re fanatics. Brad and I have big disagreements on beer…. he’s an IPA guy and I’m a spicy Belgian guy. Lastly, we’re got a group of dancers a-la 90’s Britney Spears that perform with us, so the live show is not to be missed. 🙂
YA: What five songs are you listening to on your IPod right now?
SH: Sia – Chandelier
Bastille – Bad Blood
Coldplay – Magic
Sam Smith – Money On My Mind
SomeKindaWonderful – Reverse