North Texas Daily

People looking for music events to attend over winter break should mark their calendars for Jan. 10, as Stary is set to perform in Denton at a house venue called The Space Station.

The band, which started releasing music and performing live shows this year, is a low-fi fuzzy indie rock band based in Kansas City, Missouri. Stary is comprised of vocalist and bassist Marisa B. Tejeda, vocalist and guitarist Adam James and drummer Seth Props.

Tejeda said she met James in Minneapolis, where they are originally from, though they did not start playing music together until moving to Kansas City. She was able to quickly make friends through her MFA acting program at the University of Missouri- Kansas City and had the idea to record music with James in a studio at the university with her friends in the MFA sound design program. What started as a creative outlet, she said, turned into a passion for making music together.

“Once we heard the tracks we knew we wanted to create a band and perform the songs live,” Tejeda said. “We went to a local record store for record store day and met some musicians that told us about this house venue in town where we could probably find a drummer. That same night we found Seth and the rest is history.”

From there, Tejeda said, the bandmates grew closer as friends and musicians. She described their sound as a mix of genres, playing whatever they feel is honest and true to the band. The bandmates find inspiration in other artists who mix genres, including (Sandy) Alex G, Girlpool, Shamir and Hovvdy.

“We love fuzzy guitar mixed with melodic harmonies and love exploring the dichotomy of the two sounds,” Tejeda said. “We all are influenced by a variety of influences as we all come from different backgrounds and we love mixing and matching them in our music.”

Stary’s Denton show is a part of their longer Midwest Truckstop Tour, spanning from Dec. 27 through Jan. 11 and taking them to states like Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and more. The show was initially intended to be at Backyard on Bell prior to their closing and hase since been moved to The Space Station (@thespacestationTX on Facebook). Tejeda said they booked their show through Regina Burgarin, who she said has booked some of Stary’s favorite bands in Denton.

“I read an article about her and I knew Stary had to work with her,” Tejeda said. “She does a lot of work to make sure the scene in Denton is inclusive and accessible by prioritizing POC, female, trans, gender non conforming, and queer artists. And as a POC in a scene dominated by white folks, I knew that we were in the best hands to make sure the bill and audience was diverse.”

Prior to booking their Midwest Truckstop Tour, Stary performed at several venues across Kansas City, and they also earned a spot in Kansas City’s Middle of the Map Festival earlier this year. James said the band was reached out to by the festival’s co-founder Chris Haghirian in August. He said that though Stary had only been playing live for two months, Haghirian loved their music and put them in the lineup. The festival was held Oct. 4 and 5 with the headliners Clairo, Snail Mail, Beabadoobee and Hello Yello.

“It was a pretty sick festival… Kansas City is a great place for young artists and new music and we’re so grateful to be growing and playing in the Kansas City scene,” James said.