Following the release of “Waiting Room”, we caught up with the talented artist, Stephanie Croff, known musically as STARLA to learn more about her background, influences and the challenges she had to overcome.
– Can you tell us a bit about your musical background and how you got started in music?
I grew up with music in my life – my grandparents had their own big band and were very encouraging of music as a field of pursuit for all their grandkids. I learned the piano and started singing at a young age, with some of my first performances in church or school. My middle and high school system had great music programs, with teachers who encouraged me as early as the sixth grade to hone my gifts. Whether it was meeting with me early mornings before school to practice vocal technique, ear training or clarinet scales, I felt very supported by my teachers to sharpen my skills to the best of my ability.
Because of the home I found in the band and choir room, my friends were also very musical. While in high school, I learned how to play guitar and wrote my first song. Our local coffee shop owner was very supportive, and always encouraged me to play my new songs for their open mics. I was a part of a number of honors choirs and large-format choirs, singing with fantastic conductors in such lovely performance halls.
Through and after college, I kept songwriting and practicing recording techniques, which were amplified while helping build a recording studio. I learned more about gear, engineering, mic techniques, and worked with some musical geniuses, who were always eager to share insights to the new techniques or understandings they had discovered.
So – my life sometimes feels like – I’ve always been singing and playing. By myself in my room, or in bands, in duets, on stages, on records, and I always know – I just love this. I just love to be in the music.
– Who are some of your biggest musical influences, both past and present?
Oooh that’s a great question.
When I was very little, I loved Twila Paris with my whole heart. She was the first person I saw in concert, and I knew with certainty – THAT’s what I want to be/do when I grow up.
I had all of her tapes, I would listen to them on my little Walkman while playing in the field, or in the tree row. I can remember sitting on our deck, listening to her while watching the sunrise over the prairie grass. I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. I felt like, I was connected. Like, the earth, the sky, the music, myself, we were all one. Like I was in harmony with all of it.
I loved Tool when I was learning how to snowboard. I loved the rhythm, the drive. I loved the depth and the grit. I loved how much – musical intensity was possible, without ever sounding “loud” to me. Like – no yelling. Just very, very many notes, very, very many indicators of “whoooooooshhhhh”. Like – SO much feeling. So powerful. It’s beautiful, really.
I loved Tori Amos when I was wanting to play piano in public more. There was a phase when I only played in my room, but I wanted to play in public. So I practiced Tori every day so that I could perform it live. “Winter”. So good.
I loved Ludacris when I was snowboarding too!! I still love Luda, but I really really loved him and Eminem then. My snowboarding friends were so much fun, hip hop and snowboarding competitions went hand in hand. That’s also when I got really into Metallica. “Master of Puppets” was like my anthem album for probably a year or so. I’d drive around – ooh – speaking of more music that I’d listen to while driving around – Radiohead.
Ooooof!!! Radiohead, all the albums but Ok Computer, I obsessed over that one whole winter too. Man I still see blue moonlight on the snow when I think of that album. Still taste the Cheerios and smell the stale boots in a condo from one competition.
Then there was a period of time where – it started to be that my friends and friend groups were my favorite musicians. How cool is that? You get to live life, and you all make music, and some of your friends just blow your mind with how beautiful their musical hearts are. Just all out there for the world to hear.
Idea the Artist is like that for me. She’s Bright Raven now, but, when she was Idea, oh wow. Just melts your heart. So beautiful – all of it. The storytelling, the worlds she creates, the voice which sings you all the notes, the beautiful way she plays the piano. It’s just so gorgeous.
Omar Velasco. His voice is just so stunning. So heartfelt. I loved getting to hear it for the first time in the band Ona, but his solo work is just breathtaking. “Harmony” – one of my favorite songs to date.
Jesse Siebenberg. Playing guitar. (He’s a producer and multi-instrumentalist), but it’s his guitar playing that is always perfection for me. Always the right notes, always the right volume. Just so tasteful. Demure. Haha JK but – in a future world where I get to pick my band, I’d love it if he were in my band. It would be so cool.
I really love Mark Ronson. It’s so funny because – somehow I got one of his CD’s from back when I was still snowboarding. I used to listen to it all the time and I didn’t put it together that he was “The” Mark Ronson until Google was invented. Boy did I feel silly, but – man. I just love the way he makes music. Everything feels so cool and fresh. Very new feeling. I especially love how much baritone guitar gets featured, especially with Miley Cyrus. It’s like – suuuuch a beautiful pairing. I really love it.
Speaking of producers/composers, I obsessed over Michael Kamen so hard a few years ago. Just – couldn’t get enough. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves soundtrack in particular. It’s the French horns, really. Gosh he just makes them – oooof. They’re just so Mooooving!! Like – I feel all the stuff – Every Time I hear them! I got a new pair of listening headphones once, put that soundtrack on and literally cried at how beautiful it sounded. These headphones just – the strings felt alive. I felt like I was in the tracking room.
And Beethoven, but conducted by Daniel Barenboim. I’m not kidding at all when I say: I listened to the 9th Symphony, for probably a year and a half. If I’m taking a few months or a year off. Probably literally about 2 1/2 years, that album was just on repeat in my car. And I drove almost every day.
I’d put it in my headphones, when I’d go on runs. I’d get so immersed with emotion and sensations of – in the music – sound – I’d have to stop my run and stand at the edge of the lake and conduct. It’s powerful stuff.
So – these days – who do I feel that with? Jacob Collier concerts, for sure. I feel so enveloped in sound when I get to hear him live. Aaron Parks, live and on albums. His trio is just – ooooh – soooo tasty. The complete enmeshing of piano and guitar, through so many of the pieces. So perfectly timed and played, so full of distortion while being clear as a bell. Snarky Puppy – Lingus!!!! Oh that recording is so special!! Tigran Hamasayan! SO beautiful and moving!
And Brad Mehldau. Brad Mehldau, for sure, is someone I want to be able to hire, to play a concert in my big, beautiful, home someday. His piano playing is – absolutely transportive. I literally forget where I am sometimes when I get to hear him live. I get taken up into the ethers of sound and filled with awe and wonder, and then am gently brought back down to earth, to sit in my very lovely and comfortable chair, in the auditorium or room where he is sharing his gifts with the world.
He is a blessing. An absolute blessing.
– What’s the story behind your album ‘Fun Tonight’?
I love this question.
Fun Tonight, as an album concept, started a bit mistily.
At some point in my life, I had become aware that I was writing and singing a lot of sad or serious songs. Not necessarily joy-filled, or life-affirming. Which is fine, it’s part of the process sometimes.
But – there was a part of me for sure, that always admired bands like The Beatles, who made it seem so effortless to write happy or upbeat songs. I just didn’t get it at the time, how I might ever be able to do that too.
So – fast forward to when I found and made STARLA. The idea from which I could create, and create with a palate … really, as diverse and open-ended as I wanted it to be.
So one day, either in the car or while feeding my cats, the song “Fun Tonight” came to me. I grabbed my phone, sang it in, and then let that idea sleep a minute.
I was getting my chops up with STARLA, learning how to write and mix to how she sounded to me, and I was happy with what I was learning, and I released my first EP, Starla.
So – fast forward to this year – now that I’ve got a little more experience and feel more confident with my abilities, I’m like – “Hey, what other songs sound fun to produce?” And immediately “Fun Tonight” came to mind.
But – with a song like that – that’s so obviously about wanting to have fun, (tonight), I was like, “so, we’ll need some other fun songs then? Yeah? Like a proper theme?”
And that idea was really exciting to me. Really exciting.
I already had some songs in the works, and I realized they all fit the theme.
I also realized that a couple of songs that I was saving for later, would be better suited to This theme, then at a later time.
So I went ahead and made those, so that Fun Tonight could be really like a well-rounded, or multi-dimensional “result” of a first declaration “All I wanna do is have fun tonight!”
Like – in my life at least – All the super fun, super sexy, super casual but then wow – super exciting – maybe borderline dramatic – but – oooooof – SUPER memorable experiences started with that decision. Like – sometime earlier in the day, I was definitely aware of having thought to myself “All I wanna do is have fun tonight!”
And FUN I had. Wow. Wowie zowie sometimes.
😀
So – it’s like that.
I just like having fun and like when I know that I’m being deliberate about it, because honestly – it just makes it way more fun.
– Could you share any memorable moments or experiences that have shaped your musical journey so far?
OOOOh.
Another great question.
I think, back to your first question about my musical beginnings, it’s really important to call out how special I felt, when my middle school teacher encouraged me to come to school early or stay late, so I could practice ear training and vocal exercises. Her name is Mrs. Woodard, and she is such a kindhearted person. I’ve emailed her as an adult, thanking her for her contribution to my life, and I just – to this day – feel so blessed by her and others like her who have very wholeheartedly encouraged me in music.
Carlene Carter. I got to sing harmonies with her for a season and it was such a joy. Her voice is so beautiful, and her (and her familie’s) songs are so heartfelt. I loved so much how our voices truly blended to sound as one, while practicing in her dining room, with a Spanish tile floor.
My friend, Sandy Hoover, producer, dj, and founder of Mixmi.io was the first and only person who ever dropped the bug in my ear “Hey, why don’t you get yourself a little recording setup”. At the time, I wasn’t ready, and the first thing I said was something to the degree of “oh I could never do that! It’s too hard!” And she was like, “It’s easy. You’ll get the hang of it. You’re so good at all kinds of things on the computer and with the piano. You’ll love it.”
Well, it’s about 10 years later, and here I am. LOVING that, bit by bit, I took her advice. Bought myself a piece of gear one year, maybe the next another, upgrade a computer one year, maybe the next a different piece of gear, or a different computer, but – she was right.
Lol, and finally, also from that time – getting booked for a backyard BBQ where I would meet, start a band with, and still be enjoying the company of, my Special K. (Fake name). It was the first time I was cognitively aware of “having fun” while making music. Like – Making music felt fun and happy and uplifting and joy-filled. Every time we got to gather to play and sing. Being in this relationship has helped me grow into STARLA, and do what I do, because I feel so supported in my personal expression.
It’s so cool to have that in my life. That – knowing of – I’m OK as me, I’m OK as STARLA, and it’s OK to have a personally-full heart, while in a mutually-supportive relationship.
You know? I don’t know, it’s a first for me, and I like it a lot. I like still feeling like me, even after so much time together. It’s amazing actually – every day I feel MORE like me, and every day we’re together longer than any other relationship I’ve had! Kind of makes me want to cry.
– Have you faced any challenges or obstacles as a female musician, and if so, how have you overcome them?
Oooh, this is another good question. (You’re really good at this!)
So – I’ve given this a lot of thought, and was kind of surprised at how much thought I gave it, honestly.
Because – to date – I can’t think of one instance where – I received a shortfall of musical opportunity, support, or upliftment, Specifically for being a female.
In fact – quite the opposite.
Because I’m a female, it was obvious that, most of the people around me, were guys. So, I always felt welcomed, met with a smile. Encouraged to watch, learn, participate.
I got to be the only girl in the room at a mic shootout, with about 5 other seasoned engineers, where we tested a bunch of mics, recorded them, blind-tested our ears for which mic was which during playback. It was awesome! I got to be the only girl in the room when a veteran speaker designer was sharing the math on his equations for his custom-built crossover systems, for better load transference from woofer to tweeter, which he still builds with pride. He was amazed when I understood some of the terminology he was using, for the calculations involved.
I also get to feel more recognized and encouraged, when other girls enter the room! It’s like – automatically, now there are two of you. Ok – let’s be friends! Or at least, let’s appreciate how nice it is to be able to have more girls here, so we can all sing along and harmonize with each other!
It can also be … really confusing sometimes tho. Sexually. Like – it can be really hard to learn the difference between liking someone musically and liking them romantically.
Like – my heart grows so big with love and appreciation, when I hear really amazing music. I’m also a person who – just feels like compliments need to be said out loud, when I think someone needs to hear it!
So after a show, I’m absolutely going to run to the stage and tell someone how much I loved their music or their playing. How great I thought their tone was or their specific note choices.
It can get really weird tho – telling someone you like their playing isn’t the same thing as saying you want to be together. But sometimes people take it that way. Lol I’ve misinterpreted some male musician’s energy and friendliness as romantic, when it wasn’t meant to be. Others have misinterpreted mine as well, so, I guess that’s just part of the natural dynamic that we all figure out at some point.
So now – I’m just very clear on what my intentions are. What my purpose is. In as many, if not all of my communications, especially with male musicians. It just makes everything go way smoother.
Like in a music store: “Hi, I’m here because I want to specifically hear the difference between a phaser pedal and a flanger pedal. I’ve never really A/B’d the sound before, and I want to fully understand the differences. Can you help me with that?”
And instantly – I’ve got a new friend. I did this once – best guy ever. He played through different pedals for me for almost an hour! Just so I could hear all the settings and better understand all of the parameters. Just for the sake of logging them in my mental book.
So, it’s stuff like that, where, because I’m a female, I think I’ve benefitted.
I’m not sure how willing a guy would be to play through pedals for another guy – it seems like he’d say “Go play them for yourself dude” or something silly like that, but, maybe that’s not true or fair at all.
But at least for me, I do believe it’s helped to be more intentional in my interactions with others. Adding qualifiers to behaviors, if we’re newly acquainted. It’s seemed to solve for potential romantic misunderstandings, at least.
– How do you hope your music will resonate with your audience, especially with other aspiring female musicians?
Oooh I hope it makes their hearts happy
For real tho – First, I hope it helps – on some level or another – I hope it helps them feel a little bit of optimism or joy, or wonder, or relaxation, or some sort of peaceful sense that “it’s all OK”
Then, I hope it helps other women, other girls still growing up, other people deciding or declaring that for sure they identify as a female, that they feel like “Yeah. I got this, I can do this, I can figure this out” on a big scale.
Like, what observing Jacob Collier has been for me. A wonderfully vibrant, young person, absolutely in love with music and music-making, who makes it all look so Fun! The whole thing – the recording and the playing and the mixing. He absolutely was inspiring to me and helped me come to know that – “Of course I can do this. Of course I can figure this out. I know what I hear – I know what I feel – I can figure out how to make the sounds sound like that, or feel like that, when I hear them back.”
So – for other females – I hope that I’m an encouraging example of someone figuring it out for themselves. Of making friends and having mic shoot-outs and going to stores and asking for help. We live in such a good time, where so much is possible. There are a LOT of helpful people just eager to share their talents and special/unique knowledge.
That’s all, I want to – in some way – shine a light back to the world in thanks, in a way that teachers and friends shone their lights of love and learning and techniques into my life. I absorbed so much, I get to make so much because of it. Every song I sing and play and record is my best attempt at a “Thank you” to somebody, while I move on and learn some more and make some more and keep having fun with it all.
That’s all, I just want to be an example, of someone who loves to do what they do.
Everyone deserves to feel that way in their lives.