Scarlet Starlings

April 4, 2014

Our debut CD is pressed and ready

We’re bursting out of our boots with excitement about the new cds! They arrived this morning in two large boxes. We were hesitant to rip open the ‘Fragile’ tape (what if it looked horrible and cheap? All that work for nothing….!!)

…but they looked fantastic.

The art is by Cathy Tuson (80% of the band member’s mother). We love the ‘suuumbolism’ of the bird (is it in or out of the cage? Is the cage an imaginary construct? Is my life a cage? Aaaargh *brain explodes). We invite all interpretations as well as lengthy academic treatises in exchange for free copies…

Kudos and big sloppy kisses to Chris and his team at Demo Master HQ. They were super efficient (I don’t believe they ever sleep. I sent about 80 ridiculous and pernickety emails on a Saturday and they answered every one – and all without a trace of snark – miraculous!). Plus, and more importantly for bands and musicians out there; they were the best value.

So feast your eyes on the new album and if you fancy a copy, come to our album launch on April 24 @ the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green. Otherwise the digital version, alas not quite as gorgeous, being intangible…will shortly be available on Spotify, iTunes etc.

Much love darlings,

From the starlings

Video | February 7, 2014

Anyone Can Say I Love You – the video

Who needs big budgets and slick production? A lot of laughter, tears (from laughter) and sneezing (you won’t believe the dust in an old wooden house) was involved in the making of our new video for the single from our up and coming debut album – Anyone Can Say I Love You.

We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. We’ll soon be sharing some ridiculously funny out-takes too.

January 23, 2014

Scarlet Starlings – Début EP

Scarlet Starlings are very happy to share our début EP with you. It features four songs from the up and coming début album – Anyone can say I love you, So glad you stayed, You give it all away and Montauk.

For a limited time only we’ll make all tracks available to download from our Soundcloud, yay!

Scarlet Starlings début EP listen and download here.

Watch this space for release on Spotify and other digital hangouts where you can listen, buy or share until the long awaited album release.

We really hope you enjoy this little taster.

Love Sara-Mae, Mike, Talitha, Joe & Jen

January 21, 2014

Debut album coming soon

Recording with the starlings

It’s taken us a while and we’ve taken many routes to get to our destination, but we’re finally nearing our goal of getting the album out.

Every musician knows what a wonderful, frustrating, time-consuming, inspiring (and many more adjectives!) process this is.

Capturing that elusive magic quality is tough no matter how great your environment or equipment is. Having a good producer is one thing – the person who gets the job of corralling a bunch of musicians into a cramped space and squeezing them of their creative juices…while walking the line between supportive musical midwife and gun wielding terma-gent (or terma-lady?). Then you have a variety of volatile temperaments to contend with. More than one songwriter? Check. Strong personalities? Some semblance of democracy? Check. Check.

Jason King, who worked with us up at Shed Studios in Oxford for some of the tracks, achieved his black belt in Advanced Diplomacy while we cooked soup and made salad in the luxury kitchen waiting our turn to do vocals or instruments. We chatted, wrote more songs and generally had a great time in the time capsule/space ship atmosphere created.

Then you have the mixer. This isolated soul (in our case John Laurence of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Daniel Green of Laish) has to listen to scores of tracks, sifting through the bum notes and the glottal stops and performing their digital wizardry. A thankless task when you have a band asking for you to ‘sort it out so it sounds good’. Reverb, equalising, panning…there’s an alchemy to it.

Mastering…don’t get us started. Who even knows what happens during that process. Geraint Jones and Daniel saw to our tunes but we’re buggered if we know how they did it.

With the goal in sight you start to feel nostalgic about the genesis of each track. Where the inspiration for each song first came from. Has it survived the process intact? Sometimes you never manage to recapture the special something you had when you recorded the song on your phone.

Hopefully, the Scarlet Starlings debut keeps its glimmerings of musical madness.

The Scarlet Starlings debut album launches in March 2014.

November 30, 2013

Baby Gone Gone live recording

Scarlet Starlings have done some new live recordings. One of the songs is based on the tragic shooting of Reeva Steenkamp by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, in South Africa earlier in 2013. Sung by Sara, Mike and Talitha.

November 7, 2013

Montauk visualised

Sara-Mae has put some pretty visuals to the first finished track from our up and coming album. We’ve got the video bug and can’t wait for the rest of the songs so we can make some more…

Download the track on Soundcloud

November 5, 2013

An afternoon celebration of all things folky

We’ve played at Annie Windley’s fab event once before and it was a lot of fun. As a totally acoustic pared down event, it really gives you the chance to have fun with the bare bones of a song.

Mike, Talitha and Sara-Mae will be playing a few fun new ones, as well as a cover of incredible Flanagan Collective’s song from their musical play ‘Beulah’. Have a listen to their music it is absolutely amazing.

So come along on Sunday 10 November for a chilled afternoon of music with us as well as bands like Romani Beau & Ronnie Golden. Time: 2:45 Place: Kiss the sky, Park Road, Crouch End, London N8 x the starlings

Join the Facebook event here

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Video | February 7, 2014

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