Starets

Starets were the mystics of Old Russia. In a sense, Rasputin was the guru to the Tsars. His world, the world of the starets, came to a crashing end on the evening of December 16, 1916. So, what’s the connection between this Starets, retro punk band revivalists, and that lot, then?Well, in my formative years, I was living in an eastern port city of this great empire. Halifax was my own St. Petersburg before the revolution. At that time, I came across classic, original punk. For the first time in my life, I heard real songs sung by real people about real issues. The Clash, Sex Pistols, and Ramones became my vinyl starets.Starets is a solo project, not a band. I write and make the songs. I like fast punky tempos and punky guitars. I like a good melody, a clever intro and hate overkill repetition and fade-out endings. I try to mix the chords and tempos up a bit so the songs don’t get boring and predictable. "The Clash Comes to Town", "Got What I Need" and "It Started Right Here" are good examples of my retro punk approach.In order to keep the Starets music true to the spirit of ’77, it must be noted that I use a real human drummer, not a drum machine; I play all guitars and bass; there is no sampling; there are no loops; and I despise the current cut and paste style of music production. I consider what I'm doing to be a musical homage to the classic punk genre, much like film director Brian De Palma pays homage in his movies to the classics of the suspense and thriller genres.I am always working on new songs, but I'm painfully slow, and I would rather produce one good song to a hundred mediocrities. So, once they pass rigorous musical “quality control” tests, these new songs will be put up on MySpace. :)Regards, Law ..**starets**