Screamo band Starsdontmeananything will perform at Dirty Dungarees Sunday. Credit: Courtesy of Mike Farley
West Coast screamo band Starsdontmeananything are making their way across the country to Columbus, performing at Dirty Dungarees Sunday at 7 p.m. alongside fellow emo artists Middling, Flowersforpersephone and Thank Your Lucky Stars.
The band’s new album, “Fire is Beautiful,” was released Sept. 19 and touches on political and environmental issues. According to Sasha Guleff and Adam Smith, the band’s vocalists, Starsdontmeananything draws inspiration from hardcore punk and screamo bands such as Pageninetynine and Funeral Diner.
Smith and Guleff said they also play guitar for the band, alongside guitarist John Slinkert and Hans Cruz on bass. Guleff said in addition to vocals and guitar, he plays the drums.
“Fire is Beautiful” is centered around the group’s dissatisfaction with the current state of the world. Guleff said many of the lyrics he writes focus on climate change and water politics, issues surrounding access and distribution of water resources.
“[I’ve] kind of had a super hard time listening to so many people talk about social politics with nothing to back it up,” Guleff said. “The point that I was trying to drive home in my lyrics was that we’re not even going to have the time or space to deal with these social issues if our world turns on us — our physical Earth.”
Smith said the lyrics he wrote for “Fire is Beautiful” are “very politically driven,” expressing frustration both with himself and the world around him.
“[The lyrics are about] the feeling of being crippled, like you can’t do anything in the face of all the evil,” Smith said.
For this release, Smith said the band stepped away from the self-focused lyrics of their 2023 self-titled EP.
“I’m honestly sick of just writing ‘Wah, poor me,’ ” Smith said. “I’m trying to expand, you know, get more into stories — or tell stories in a better way that maybe has the same emotions invoked, but doesn’t do it so bluntly. The old one is kind of just where we were. Our new record is still where we are, but it’s with everything around us.”
Musically, Smith said the album differs from the EP. With influence from the death metal band aptly titled Death, he said “Fire is Beautiful” incorporates more riffs rather than “weird, complex chords.”
“[The band] kind of got more into discordance,” Smith said. “We don’t play parts too long or repeat parts as often.”
Guleff said the energy of the songs vary based on the band’s intended experience for the audience.
“We have parts in our songs that are meant for an audience to go wild, but then [there are] other parts where it’s all ‘Hey, I would like it if they felt confused,’ ” Guleff said. “Then we’ll also confuse ourselves to the point where we’re playing and we don’t know what’s going on either — it’s just kind of fun that way.”
The band is split up geographically, with Guleff and Smith residing on opposite sides of California, Slinkert in Washington and Cruz in Kentucky. With distance as a factor, Guleff said the band only meets up a few times a year, planning lengthy tours to make the most out of their time together.
“We don’t do a lot of local shows, and if we do, we have some fill-ins that can help us for a day,” Guleff said. “For the most part, we just practice for a couple days before every tour.”
Guleff said music remains a priority for the band, especially in their personal lives.
“I’ve found so many of my friends being frustrated with themselves because they don’t have enough time to do the music part of it,” Guleff said. “I’ve tried my best to reject all of that and just live however I need to in order to make music actually work.”
Guleff said for him, playing in front of an audience is a moment to tune out the world and focus on performing.
“You’re doing something cool,” Guleff said. “You get to execute what you are capable of and not be so self-conscious about whether or not you’re showing off.”
In September 2023, the group played their most high-energy show yet — an experience Guleff said he continuously aims to replicate.
“There were more than 300 people there. Everyone was just jumping off the stage to all of our lyrics,” Guleff said. “I feel like I’ve been chasing the high of playing that show ever since. It really was just the fruition of our work — of showing [people] how to have a good time at a show, and then seeing that happen.”
Smith said music has done a lot for him in life and he wants to give that passion to somebody else.
“If we could contribute to someone having such an experience that it changes their life for the better, then that’s just amazing,” Smith said.
Dirty Dungarees is located at 2584 N. High St. Tickets for the show cost $10 and can be purchased at the door.
