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Web Photo
From left: Bassist Raine Frederickson, drummer Sonia Weber and guitarist and lead singer Caleb Misclevitz comprise of the band Starparty.
Starparty makes plans for full-length album
The Advocate
Trying to live the dream of succeeding as a band is a difficult thing to achieve; trying to live that dream while still in high school is another story all together.
For the three young musicians who are the band Starparty, that dream is becoming a reality. After playing music together for about a year, drummer Sonia Weber, guitarist and lead singer Caleb Misclevitz and bassist Raine Frederickson have enjoyed the experience of playing live shows and have begun recording tracks for their first EP and have plans to follow it up with a self-produced, full-length album.
One common obstacle for young bands is a lack of viable venues to play at. With bars completely out of the question due to age restrictions, there usually aren’t many options left. Fortunately for these young artists, Portland has no shortage of all-age venues available for talented, young artists to play. For this band, an important aspect of their experience as musicians has been their frequent performances at the local all-ages venue Satyricon. “Satyricon has been especially helpful,” said Weber.
Another major contributor to the success of young, local bands is the organization Music in the Schools. Lincoln High School senior Dash Robb founded the organization in 2007 to help fund Portland-area public school music programs. Now in its third year, the group has raised more than $30,000. The organizational committee that heads Music in the Schools is composed of Portland-area high school students who work throughout the school year and summer to host events such as their Battle of the Bands.
A major milestone for Starparty was playing at Music in the School’s third annual Battle of the Bands this year. They won the competition and were able to appear on a PSU radio show. The result of these two events was much better connections for the fledgling band. After their victory and subsequent radio appearance they were able to utilize their new connections to book an even larger number of live shows.
Asked about how the Portland music scene is for a new band, Misclevitz said, “It kicks ass. It is a really good place to start a band.”
According to Starparty, the Northwest’s music scene is very accommodating to new bands, with many local artists willing to share the stage. Some of the bands from the area that have made it big still embrace their Northwest roots and are eager to interact with the local talent. One perk that the band was able to enjoy because of this was meeting Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie, a band that has been a major inspiration for Starparty.
Starparty has taken every opportunity that the Portland area music scene has provided and been rewarded for their diligence with more opportunity and a legitimate chance at musical career success. More info on Starparty can be found at Myspace.com/starpartytheband. Their music is available for download at starparty.bandcamp.com.
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