Official website: stellar.co.nz
Stellar* - the hits - Violent, Part Of Me, Every Girl, Undone, What You Do, All It Takes, One More Day - the list goes on and on. Their 1999 debut album Mix set New Zealand's radio waves alight, and Stellar* quickly became Sony Music's biggest selling kiwi band. The acclaim wasn't just sales based, with Stellar* securing eight Tui Awards for Mix and its 2001 follow up Magic Line.
After Magic Line the band took some time out for expansion singer Boh Runga went to live in Los Angeles to hone her skills as a songwriter:
"The opportunity came up to base myself in L.A. My publisher introduced me to working songwriters over there, people who were writing for artists like Christina Aguilera, Meatloaf and Ricky Martin.
"It was an amazing experience being thrown into a situation where I would be in a room with a complete stranger with amazing musical credentials and hold my own. By the end of the day we would normally have a great pop song, or at least the basis of a great pop song.
"I got to sit down with Wendy Melvoin (Prince and the Revolution) and record our song in Frank Sinatra's old studio. I wrote Miracles with Kevin Savigar, Rod Stewart's song writer. And I penned Whiplash with Shelly Peiken who's written major hits like Meredith Brook's Bitch and Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle."
Meanwhile, drummer Andrew Maclaren and guitarist Chris Van De Geer both concentrated on building a state-of-the-art recording studio, while simultaneously producing albums for other artists. Bassist Kurt Shanks took time out in Sydney.
The band swapped ideas via the internet to keep the songwriting process flowing, with Kurt and Boh returning to NZ for recording stints.
Boh admits to some nerves the first time the band got together again. "We've always been our own harshest critics," she says. "Id written what I truly believe are about the best batch of songs I've every come up with, but didn't know how theyd be received until I sat down and played them to the boys." She needn't have worried.
The band then set about unifying the songs into a cohesive album. New contenders arose as the band fed off each other. Asked what listeners should expect, Andrew says "We've stripped it back so the essence of these songs can clearly speak. We've made our strongest album to date."
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