LA-based indie alt rock band STARRY EYES is releasing their new EP, ‘Ciao Bella’ today.

The story of California grunge-pop band STARRY EYES is both tragic and triumphant. The band evolved from the deep friendship between founding duo guitarist John Shippey and drummer Matthew Scoggins. The pair worked together tirelessly for two years on the music for its uplifting debut EP, ‘Ciao Bella,’ while on an arduous quest to find the right singer to complement their unique sound. John and Matt eventually struck gold in early 2021 with singer and lyricist Kyle Tekiela, and for three weeks it looked like the LA-based group was complete. Then Matt died suddenly of drug-related causes, and the band’s ambitions came to a tragic halt. Today, nearly two years after Matt’s death, John and Kyle have soldiered on and the band’s story is a powerful rebirth narrative.

“As the title of the EP suggests, ‘Ciao Bella’ is a somber goodbye to the beautiful things in our lives that have passed, and a jubilant hello to the beautiful things to come,” Kyle says. John adds: “These songs are for people who’ve been through some shit — music is our catharsis. Many of the songs on Ciao Bella wrestle with the issues of addiction and loss, but we always try to balance the negative with the positive and keep looking toward the future.”

“It’s a very heavy record once you start to dig into the lyrics”

Your new EP has been in the works for quite some time. How did these songs come together? Is there a concept behind the EP or a common theme tying all of the songs together?

Kyle Tekiela: The story of the ‘Ciao Bella’ EP is essentially the story of STARRY EYES as a band and it’s a wild ride but I’ll try to break it down as simply as I can! In 2019, founding members John Shippey (guitar) and Matthew Scoggins (drums) wrote and recorded 12 songs without lyrics and vocals. They spent the next 2 years auditioning and working with several singers but never found what they were looking for. In February of 2021 I came across Matt and John’s Craigslist ad looking for a singer. At that time I was looking to start a band or at least play around a bit with some musicians so I was scouring Craigslist quite a bit at that time and man let me tell you it was bleak out there. So when I heard the 2 demos Matt and John posted I was completely shocked. It was so well produced and complex in its structure and completely original. It brought me back to the 90’s grunge and Brit pop that I grew up with so I immediately downloaded the demos and started writing the lyrics to Crush and Aloha Way. I was dealing with A LOT of emotional pain attached to my heroin-addicted father and the words came out like a waterfall. I finished the lyrics and structure to both songs in an afternoon and had vocal demos recorded the next day. I emailed them to John and waited for a response but it was just silence for a week. I’m not gonna lie – I was a bit devastated about it because I thought the demos were good enough at least for some kind of response. I considered just moving on but ended up finding John’s instagram and DM’d him. Turns out my email went to his spam and he never heard it! I guess they dug it because they invited me to join and sent me the rest of the demos to work on. I spent a few weeks working on ‘No Show,’ ‘Over Oceans’ and ‘Kickin’ Up Dust’ and then went into the studio to meet them and we had our first jam as a band. Then on March 23rd, only a few weeks after that first meeting, we learned that Matt had passed away and it was devastating. Just like that, it was all over. John spent some time grieving for his best friend and dealing with all the arrangements because Matt’s family lived out of state. Sometime in the summer of 2021 John and I met to discuss the future of the band and decided that at the very least we could finish the songs that Matt started and complete his legacy. After that we weren’t making any promises. But over the last two years of finishing the songs and planning the release of ‘Ciao Bella,’ John and I grew very close and we think there’s a much bigger story to tell so STARRY EYES is here to stay.

Would you like to discuss the tracks on the EP and tell us a bit of what they are about?

‘Ciao Bella’ is a 5 song EP. Four of those songs, ‘Over Oceans,’ ‘No Show,’ ‘Kickin’ Up Dust,’ and ‘Crush’ are from the original batch of demos I wrote lyrics to when I first joined the band. Those vocal structures and lyrics have largely remained the same since I first wrote them in 2021. Our debut single ‘Jetlag’ was a very rough demo that John showed me about a year after Matt died and I could see the potential of that song as a career starter so we decided together to record it in the studio and have it on the EP. Though we had to hire a new drummer to record ‘Jetlag,’ it’s faithful to the original demo that Matt played so in a way it’s still his song and that was by design. Thematically the songs are heavily influenced by our experiences with loved ones destroying their lives with drug abuse. But also the destructive nature of the entertainment business and sacrifice of personal values for personal gain. It’s a very heavy record once you start to dig into the lyrics.

Where was the album recorded and produced?

The original 12 demos (2019) were recorded analog to tape at a cool little studio in Joshua Tree called Clocktower Recorder. The engineer Charlie Stavish is a master at reel to reel and the environment of his studio provides an eerie desert calmness which lends itself to the music. I went back there in 2022 to record the vocals with John.

What was it like working with Phil Ek?

Once the vocal recording was complete we had a few fits and starts with different mixers before landing on Phil Ek who really brought the production home and dialed in the sound we were hoping to achieve. Phil is a pro on analog gear which was important for us as an aesthetic and he’s one of the best. So many of his records are on our top lists so it was an honor to work with him. He’s also hilarious and has a million stories so we had a lot of fun running around Seattle that week.

What are some immediate future plans for the band?

‘Ciao Bella’ drops on May 5th and we play our first ever show at the legendary School Night showcase in Hollywood on May 8th. After that we start work on the follow up EP which we hope to have out early next year. There’s a lot of songs we want to get out there so we can tour in 2024. Despite our tragic past, there’s a lot to look forward to and we are here for it.

Klemen Breznikar

Headline photo: Natalia Zofia

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