Star Collector | Interview | New Album, ‘Game Day’

Star Collector’s latest album, ‘Game Day’, was produced by singer/songwriter/guitarist Vic Wayne, engineered by drummer/vocalist Adrian Buckley and features Kevin Kane (Grapes of Wrath/Northern Pikes) and Evan Foster (Boss Martians, Dirty Sidewalks, Sonics).

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Star Collector is a power pop band from Vancouver, BC that has played throughout Canada and the U.S, and toured Europe three times, playing The Cavern (Liverpool), The Borderline (London) and stops throughout England, Scotland, Germany and The Netherlands. They have recorded five albums to date.

Star Collector’s roots come from two key musical collaborations. Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Vic Wayne’s (aka Vic Gailiunas) early musical relationship with guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Lawson, which was reignited in 1996, and an ongoing partnership with guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Steve Monteith since 1988.

After Wayne and Monteith’s bands, Dear God and State of Mind (1988-94), broke up following two albums, three videos and minor national success on radio and MuchMusic with the songs, ‘From December On’, ‘Setting’, ‘Tightrope’ and ‘War Toys’, Wayne started writing again with Lawson, who he’d grown up with in Edmonton, AB. They’d played in bands together as teens, including The Mods (later, The Standards – featured on the ‘It Came from Inner Space: The Edmonton Compilation’ album), with Wayne’s brother Adam East (aka Adam Gailiunas, aka Jon Adams). The brothers also played in Truth (‘Day After Dark’) with guitarist Drew Berman before Wayne, a drummer at the time, moved to Vancouver and switched to guitar. Lawson, meanwhile, joined an early incarnation of Jr. Gone Wild, whose debut album featured ‘It Never Changes’; an early (uncredited) Wayne/Lawson songwriting effort.

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Vic Gailiunas: Sure. I’m from Canada; born in Halifax (East Coast) moved to Edmonton (Prairies) for my formative years; then to Vancouver (West Coast). My younger son used to love hearing in detail what is to follow. He called it The Band Story and he fell asleep to it many a night (likely out of boredom. Haha).

Prelude: I started at 10 as a drummer, and my younger bro, Adam, started on piano. We had a “Just For Beginners” band with a couple neighbourhood friends, which became a trio, The Mods (haha, I know… generic much, Vic??), with Ad moving to bass. The third member, Dave Lawson, was on guitar. Everybody sings; everybody plays; everybody writes! We wrote lots, recorded an album’s worth of stuff, won a high school Battle of the Bands, became firmly ensconced in the alt music scene, flew to Vancouver to see (& meet!) The Jam; changed our name to The Standards (Weller much, Vic??); got a tune on a comp., ‘It Came From Inner Space’ (which also featured Moe Berg’s pre-Pursuit of Happiness group, facerime, & punk faves SNFU), then broke up. “Cut aaand Scene…”

Act 2: Ad & I then joined up with guitarist Drew Berman, who’d recently split with a cool rockabilly band in town, and we formed another power trio called Truth, but this time a bit more Bunnymen/U2 than The Jam/The Who. We did our first tours, recorded our very first LP, ‘Day After Dark’, played some big local shows, all while still in our teens… and then broke up… “Cut… Makeup!”

Act 3: Ad and I tried to form a new band, but he felt it was time he did his own thing, so I moved to Vancouver (& Ad moved to L.A.). I played for a bit in a band that was pretty whatever and realized it was time to sell the kit and buy a guitar as I was writing tons of songs and had always sung. With the great encouragement of my then girlfriend (now my lovely wife), I made the switch and began scouting for a band to do my stuff. I knew of a drummer living in Montreal and thought I’d see if he wanted to move to Vancouver and join me. He did. Then, I’m waiting tables and hear a group of guys use the phrase “rehearsal space”. I inquired and yep, shonuff, they’re musicians… and wouldn’t you know it, one was a lead guitarist who sang and the other a bassist. Boom… I have a band. Our drummer starts hitting on a girl at a bar shortly thereafter, but she says, “Sorry, I have a boyfriend, but he’s a keyboard player and looking for a group”. Boom again.

We changed bassists and that became my first band with said guitarist, Steve Monteith (The Monkey) who’s still my partner in musical crime to this day! We were called State of Mind (fun fact: our then bass player is currently the Mayor of Vancouver, I shit you not!). We won a big city-wide band battle, headlined great local venues like The Commodore and The Town Pump, traveled to Toronto to be on national TV, did a video, an album, ‘The Road Inside’, opened for Material Issue, Jonathan Richman, Spirit Of The West, etc., aaand… the rhythm section left… *Intermission*

Act 4: We find new rhythm dudes and change our name to Dear God (yes, we do love XTC, but it was actually from one of the guys getting the George Burns movie title of ‘Oh, God’ wrong!). We did an album I’m still very fond of, ‘Real Horrorshow’, made videos, toured Canada twice playing with Sloan, Change Of Heart, Our Lady Peace, Pure, Universal Honey & other great Canadian acts, were on Much Music (Canada’s MTV) a bunch of times, and it really seemed like the golden carrot was within reach… *dramatic pause for effect*…Alas, it was not to be. Great memories but you guessed it… we broke up. “Cue sad soundtrack music… but then slowly start the John Williams’ phoenix-like horns & timpani”.

Act 5: So, FINALLY we get to Star Collector! Dave from The Mods called me unexpectedly after some years and said he’d like to move to Vancouver; would I like to write songs together again? It was the first time I hadn’t been in a band since I was a wee twerp so, sure; we had a great writing chemistry as kids. He came to Van… We wrote tons of stuff in a very short time and recorded an album with world-renowned producer Garth Richardson (Catherine Wheel, Rage Against The Machine) mixing but things kind of fell apart between us right as we were rounding the final bend. By then, though, I had Ringo (Rene Lafleur) on drums and a set of recordings I was thrilled with so… re-enter The Monkey. We finished ‘Demo Model 256’; did another, ‘Black-Eyed Soul’; did another, ‘Flash-Arrows & The Money Shot’ with the brilliant Kevin Kane (The Grapes of Wrath) guesting & co-producing, killer bassist Tyson Maiko, guest Paul Myers; and then another, ‘Hundred-Bullet-Proof’, with new bassist/vocalist Shane Hayes.

We toured Europe 3X (The Cavern in Liverpool for David Bash’s IPO, The Borderline in London with The Hazey Janes, and shows all over England, Scotland, Germany, & The Netherlands), toured to L.A., did TV shows, lots of press, and then… NO, we didn’t break up! Ha, gotcha! No big arguments or turmoil; we just went on friendly hiatus in ‘09. In ‘13 we were coaxed back to play a mini-reunion and had so much fun we started gigging again. In 2017, some deep, life-altering chaos went down in my life, and as songwriters do, I started writing again. In 2019, well, that’s your next question, Klemen, isn’t it?..

You have a brand new album out. What’s the story behind working on ‘Game Day’, Star Collector’s fifth album?

‘Game Day’ wasn’t totally without a few changes. After 21 years, Ringo had a little boy and moved. We realized the ideal replacement would be this tall, blonde geep (well, he’s not blonde, but then the Spinal Tap reference falls flat, doesn’t it?… perhaps it did anyway. Haha), Adrian Buckley, who played in a band we gigged/toured with for many shows who’d recently broken up. I messaged him, saying, “Ringo’s moving, are you interested?” His simple response: “FUCK, YEAH!!!”…gotta love that enthusiasm. As for the songs, they came rushing out like they were just begging to exist. I wrote a whole arc based on the aforementioned darkness, then wrote some non-related songs either on my own or with Steve – et voila, ‘Game Day’ was born. Turns out Adrian had also become a brilliant engineer. We also parted ways with Shane again after some initial recording although we did use three of his stellar bass tracks, and back in again was my bro, Ad.

 

We had top guests: Kevin Kane on guitar, Evan Foster (Boss Martians, The Sonics) on BG’s and co-producing a track, Derek Macdonald (from Adrian’s old band) & Reece Terris (from my and Steve’s old bands) on organ and put it out last year. Suddenly, we discovered this amazing power pop community via social media that dug our thing. Sweet! The album made a schwack of ‘Best of ‘21’ lists, our title track was the #1 song for 2021 on Canadian Online Radio Charts, we did 6 videos (courtesy of The Monkey’s visual & tech talents) and got really kind reviews from ‘The Big Takeover’ (Brooklyn, NY), ‘Shindig! Magazine’ (London, UK) and bushels more. Really, it’s been beyond words. In fact, “I Can’t Explain” *okay, I’ll show myself out*.

“The chords and melody almost always come first”

How do you usually approach music making?

For me, the chords and melody almost always come first; then the lyrics seem to play off the tone of the music. The emotion I get from it often dictates the direction the words will take. Sometimes Steve will send me a riff or chord changes and I’ll mess with them to turn ‘em into something. Honestly, for me, there’s no magical writing potion… just grab that acoustic, close your eyes, hum the phrase “in your eyes” over the chords (no shit, that silly phrase seems to creep in as a placeholder at the beginning a lot) until a melody says, “Pick me!”, and then lyrics follow. I always prefer to write something meaningful (to me) too. A lot of quintessential power pop is boy-girl/love-based and that’s fine… for others. Live and let live, I say. I love a great pop tune (ie: ‘Good Girls Don’t’, ‘Do You Want Crying?’) but lyrically, I tend toward the introspective. The stuff on ‘Game Day’ is definitely heavy on the heavy for the first 2/3’s of the record but if folks want to just dig the energy, melodies, and musicianship, that’s perfectly okay and we’re truly flattered. Just giving us 4 minutes of your time to listen to one of our tunes or watch our video is a gift in itself. And when fellow musicians chime in with praise, as many did this past year, there’s nothing more satisfying. That’s it. That’s the Tweet, as they say.

Can you share some further words about the recording process?

We record our beds in a big ‘proper’ studio and then we take it to Adrian’s home studio, Chez Meow, for overdubs, vocals, mixing and mastering. I produce, Adrian engineers, Steve does the artwork (a regular cottage industry!). Ad often flies in his stellar bass and vocal stuff as he lives in Portland, OR, and we now also have another Ace Bass Face here in town, Tony Kerr, so we’re kind of navigating a 2 bass player thing, which is hilarious to us ‘cause we’ve had 19 (!) different people play bass with us in some capacity over the years yet it always seems we’re scrambling for the bottom end. Now, to have 2 dynamite players is more than this ol’ Mod n’ Monkey could ask for! We currently have 15 new songs that we’re considering for album #6 and we’re excited like kids in a candy store, or teens after their first drink, or high schoolers after their first… well, you know…

Are you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Nope. Aside from producing my older son’s first demos (what a trip, I can tell you!), Star Collector is my one & only love… well, musically, of course. I put all my energy, heart & soul into it: writing, recording, performing (when that was a thing -thanks, Covid), videos, promo. Steve & I have kept this train rollin’ for a while now and the last few years have been amazing. I tell the guys all the time that I wake up feeling 19 every day. There are so many exciting sides to what we do, and it’s a pleasure to do it with such fine, talented dudes. As the old Toyota commercial goes, “Who could ask for anything more?!”

What are some future plans?

We are actively working on said new songs and plan to release a follow up to ‘Game Day’ so that’s taking up our brain cells at the moment. Things are moving along nicely but we don’t want to rush because, even though ‘Game Day’ took a year to record (by far the longest of any record I’ve ever done), we’re fiercely proud of it and want the follow up to be assessed using the same (internal) standards. That’s the thing about making music… even if no one ever heard ‘Game Day’, it matters to us. In the indie world, I suggest you best be prepared for crickets and be happy with your work regardless of what is, or isn’t, said or written about it, or whether it gets played or not. In our case, we’re just humbled and thrilled that people out there are enjoying it. Now, to get back to playing live!

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Oh, man, SO many! I’m a bit adverse to singling out artists but off the top of my head: Kevin Robertson, The Chelsea Curve, Jim Trainor, Jody Porter, Richie Mayer, Dolph Chaney, The Cudas, Chris Church, Jim Basnight, anything with Lisa Mychols, Jeff Shelton or Dan Kopko, Golden Richards, Emperor Penguin, Legal Matters, Farrington, dunkie, Bill Lloyd, The Pop Cycle, Black Nite Crash, The Purrs, Dirty Sidewalks, RAF Mod Band. And Canadians: Adam Brown, Art Bergmann, Mother Mother, TUNS, Underwater Sunshine, James Clark Institute, The Top Drawers.

Thank you. Last word is yours

I just want to say a big thanks for indulging me and my merry band of mod n’ rollers. If there’s anything out there (other than sex, of course) that makes people feel as alive as music, I’d like to know about it!

Klemen Breznikar

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