It began with the catchy riffs Joey Avalos would write in his spare time. Much too poppy for his gig with hard rock veterans Pillar, he was content to let them simply pile up, unheard.
All of which was fine until he met Chris Cleveland, a vocalist of local renown in Oklahoma.
Cleveland and Avalos met at a music showcase and together with Pillar's rhythm section, bassist Michael Wittig and drummer Lester Estelle, it didn't take long for them to form Tulsa-based pop-soul quartet Stars Go Dim.
The groundwork for Stars Go Dim began after the Pillar tour bus broke down on a Northwest run. Wittig, Estelle and Avalos ended up in a rental car together and hatched plans for a side project. One phone call from Wittig to Cleveland and the lineup was set.
“Lester and I had toyed with the idea of a side project for years,” Wittig said. “When we added Joey to the equation, we knew we had the start of something great.”
With Avalos and Cleveland handling the writing duties, it is easy to spot the pair's perfect melding of modern pop and classic soul. At once, they evoke top-40's best guitar slingers - John Mayer and Maroon 5 - as well as classic Memphis soul like Eddie Floyd and Willie Mitchell.
“Mike had told me he always wanted to do something totally different from Pillar,” Avalos said. “If I wanted to start a pop band or a funk band, he was down to play in it. So on that drive, we decided on a pop band.”
“With Chris in mind we set up a songwriting session with everyone and it just clicked. We enjoyed each other's company and the music.”
As Stars Go Dim presses forward on work for its debut LP “Love Gone Mad', the band has decided to whet the proverbial whistle of potential fans by releasing three songs from the forthcoming album, “Crazy,” “Walk On,” and “Come Around.” All three songs were produced and engineered by Estelle and each carries a distinct flavor and shows a different side of the band at its best.
Fans will get their first peek at the trio of songs with “Walk On,” which is led by an Avalos guitar riff that would make Ernie Isley proud. The song will be offered for free to members of the band's mailing list at www.starsgodim.com.
“Come Around,” and “Crazy,” will quickly follow “Walk On,” and both will be offered for sale through the band's website. More in a mid-tempo vein, “Come Around” would easily be at home on a series finale for “Grey's Anatomy” or “The Hills.” It features a haunting background vocal that perfectly complements Cleveland's lead and elicits memories of recent hits by Gavin DeGraw and Mayer.
On the ballad “Crazy,” Cleveland is backed by a lilting and smooth string arrangement that carefully guides him into the anthemic chorus.
Cleveland and Avalos developed the lyrics for the songs together and, while it wasn't a conscious effort, all of the tracks revolve around love in various states.
“We're kind of obsessed with love,” Avalos said. “It wasn't planned, but the songs for the full-length all tell stories of people in love and their relationships.
“I didn't notice it until I had 12 or 13 songs written.”
While producing the initial batch of songs, Stars Go Dim offered visitors to its Myspace page a look into the creative process via video clips of the band in the studio. Through those snippets, the band amassed a fanbase of 13,000 Myspace friends without ever posting a song.
And with those three songs in hand and the basis for the remainder of the album already in place, 2008 promises to be an exciting year for Stars Go Dim as the quartet properly introduces itself to music lovers everywhere.
In the meantime, fans will be able to devour the first three songs currently available on iTunes and www.starsgodim.com.
“These songs break down what we can do,” Avalos said. “We're giving everyone a taste and hopefully that will win them over and we'll tie it all together by summer.”
I would probably go with fruit because vegetables easily get boring to eat because they somehow all taste the same. Fruit are so much more fun to eat and not two kinds of fruit taste the same. Besides that there's nothing better than a fruit smoothie on a hot Summer day :)
Does sushi count as vegetable? Just kidding... umm this is pretty embarassing but I actually like every single vegetable and every single fruit, so......does that mean it's a tie.
sparklers fo sho! You can write your name in the air with them! Plus a fire cracker blew up in my hand one and I'm not happy with anything the resembles that...
i would pick sparklers for myself. but not those metal ones, the morning glory ones that are less deathly. i'm a wimp too. but i don't mind blackcats as long as i'm not the one lighting them. HAPPY PYRO DAY!
I have never heard of Black Cats, nor have I ever seen one. Haha. I feel shelters, lol. I do love sparklers though. They are awesome! I bought 2 6-packs just for me, haha.
i would pick the black cats because i like the big boom...iont like the short fuses...i like wen u lite a whole roll of black cats...u get like 5 mins of nothing but them blowing up...
