What are your names?
[Jay] Jay, Ross & Roj
What is the bands name?
[Jay] Crimson Star
How did you come up with the bands name?
[Jay] The name was a song title mine and Ross’ previous band Forlorn. When starting a new band with a new style we struggled to find a name for the band, I decided to use a previous song title as a reminder of where we once came from, plus the song in question was about someone very close to me so it means something to me.
What is your genre of music?
[Jay] I like to call it Hard Driven Rock with a lot of melody but that’s too long so we’ll just go with Hard Rock…or Rock if that is too long!
Give us a little bio about you as individuals and a band
[Jay] The band were formed in late 2012 by myself and Ross after deciding we had grown old of heavy metal and wanted to change our style of music! After various bassists and guitarists (we were initially a 4-piece!) Roj completed the line up in early 2015 where we worked on getting our hard driven sound and come into our groove. We recorded our first EP together in June of that year before ever playing live!
You guys are set to drop your new ep “Bay View”, tell us more about it
[Jay] the EP is due to be released on 19th January 2018! Expect Hard Driven, Groovy, Bouncy Rocking tunes with plenty of melody. The perfect thing to make your January less miserable!
Describe the tracks in two words
[Jay] Driven and Bouncy, that’s 3 words!
What was the writing process like?
[Jay] Quite fun, I’ll bring riffs/ideas to the rehearsal space and we’ll basically jam on these ideas until it feels like a song. We are perfectionists so always change stuff, sometimes a day before playing it live for the first time!
What was the recording process like?
[James] This is our second time working with Romesh, we really enjoyed working with him last time for the “Driven” EP and when it came to picking a producer for the new EP, we knew he would be the person to make these sound huge!
We wanted a massive bass sound for these songs and we knew from the last time that he is a bassist and loves bass so would produce the sound we wanted.
[Roj] Romesh has a talent when it comes to creating the sound for each instrument, either carefully selecting the range of amps and cabinets and microphones to get the tone we want or complete experimentation using the idea’s we all chuck at him as a group.
What else can we expect from you all?
[Roj] So we have a few home town shows in Birmingham and Wolverhampton in December. We’ll be trying out some new tracks we’ve recently written and playing the latest EP in its entirety. We will be releasing our EP on January 19th 2018 and our second video in the early part of 2018. We are trying to book as many gigs as possible for 2018 to promote the release and are hoping to get on a national tour and some festivals throughout the year.
Do you have any gigs or a tour coming up?
[Jay] We have a few shows booked from the end of January onwards and are hoping to book loads more. We aim to gig as much as possibly next year playing as many towns as we possibly can, and hopefully some festivals too!
If so where will you be heading?
[Jay] Wherever we may roam…If a venue wants us to play then we will turn up and play!
What made you go in to music?
[Jay] The love of it! There is no better feeling then playing your own music to people and them enjoying it!
[Roj] Ive always played some sort of instrument, starting with Brass in school and it’s just always been a major part of my life and is now a great creative output, in which I would go crazy without.
Are you a signed?
[Jay] Nope, we fully finance everything ourselves, what else would we spend our hard earned cash on? LOL
Do you play any instruments?
[Jay] I play the triangle and a bit of guitar, still learning though!
[Roj] Guitar, Bass a bit of Piano and Cornet to a decent level.
Who are your influences?
[Jay] Pearl Jam! I love that band. I’m also a big John Frusciante fan.
[Roj] RHCP, RATM, QOTSA, Tool, Muse..
How do you get inspiration to write songs?
[Jay] it can be from anything! I got inspired to write a love song from watching The Walking Dead!!!
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
[Jay] Touring America with Foo Fighters as a support act! ;-D
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
[Jay] In my spare time I like to drink red wine and watch the world go by!
[Roj] Working, travelling, I do the vast majority of our artwork and photo editing that’s always keeping me busy!
Where would your dream venue to play in your hometown?
[Jay] I’d love to play The Flapper one last time before it gets demolished next year…damn you new apartment blocks!
[Roj] The Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, is the biggest venue and has been graced by so many incredible artists, I’d love to play on that stage at some point!
If you could collaborate with one UK Artists or Band who would it be?
[Jay] Ben Howard, he is very talented!
[Roj] Ooo this is hard, MUSE would be ace, so creative and im a big fan..
If you could collaborate with one US Artists or Band who would it be?
[Jay] I’d love red wine fuelled acoustic jam with Eddie Vedder.
[Roj]Too hard to name one!! Maybe Chili peppers, Queens of the Stone Age or the Foo’s.
What was the song you listened to most that influenced you to go more in to the music scene?
[Jay] There are way too many songs to pick from!!!
[Roj] Seriously difficult questions. Tool were the first band I was obsessed with and primarily one of the reasons I chose bass over guitar.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
[Jay] Don’t eat yellow snow.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
[Jay] Don’t expect to make any money from original music and expect a lot of unanswered emails from promoters/venues…other than that it is amazing! You might be one of the lucky ones who can earn a living from music…if you build it they will come!
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
[Jay] Stepping in dog sh*t is lucky!
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
[Jay] my guitar, amp, pedals, mic and triangle!
[Roj] Beer, Cigarettes, Money, Bass Guitar & Pedals.
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
[Roj] visit our website:
