Gent Starkey headline at the launch night of Emerging Icons!
"Terrifically enjoyable..."
Headliners By Genre
"Sounds like Jim Morrison got put in the blender with Pere Ubu, stirred in some Pulp Fiction rockabilly guitar and got pushed out a tiny jukebox speaker. Fresh indeed." - Simon Li, Universal Music
Gentleman Starkey describe themselves as "macabre, tongue-in-cheek and contemporary, with echoes of the 1950s". Their highly polished songs and powerful stage presence impressed industry experts at the launch gig of the Emerging Icons compilation album. Their track "Bones" was featured on the album. Hear their songs, read their reviews and watch their videos HERE.
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Our interview with lead singer Joel:
How did you first get into playing music?
I got into it quite late in the day really, I sang along to records like everyone else but all my mates growing up were either DJs or MCs, no-one played guitar or ‘samsung’. I started having an inkling I had something in my voice at art school and suddenly everyone played guitar. It wasn’t until later, Jimmy and chap named Ollie that I worked with at an off license, heard me drunkenly singing (shouting) at a party and I was encouraged to come and try our for what became Gentleman Starkey.
How long have you been playing?
With this line up, about 2yrs, in various different guises for appox 4/5 yrs.
How would you describe your sound in one sentence?
Macabre, tongue in cheek, contemporary with ‘echoes’ of the1950s.
What makes your music unique?
There is an unusual mix of influences. My vocal style has a fairly strange spectrum of influences, some more obvious than others, ranging from fairly soft crooning, too quite intense growls/yelps/ and shouts! Stu’s guitar style is steeped in 1950s tremolo soaked
‘rock n roll’, combined with a more progressive, contemporary edge. Jimmy’s bass is both melodic and danceable and often comes up with ‘hooks’ as well Stu and Toby’s drumming style, again combines, more ‘classical’ reference points, with danceable beats,
at times verging on ‘bashment’, this all combines in a surprisingly balanced way.
What inspires you to write songs?
Not sure if it is possible to answer this without seeming pretentious, oh well, please digest wit a heavy pinch of salt..
• Clint Eastwood
• Elvis Presley
• Films eg. True Romance, High plains Drifter
• Religion and the search of inner peace and enlightenment ;)
• Tiredness
• Ex lovers
• Unemployment
• The pit falls of capitalism and our empiricalhistory... See above!
• Rhythm
• Anger
• Other peoples music
If you had to listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be?
A broken one.
What do you get up to when you’re not making music?
Graphic design, illustration, making videos, reading and all the usual sh*t I suppose, I collect Penguin books and have had a table made to house some of them, I’m pretty geeky really, I even have to wear glasses now, although they are transitional, so I’m still ‘cool’ half of the time!