Been Stellar Shines In A Crowded City

Photo Credit: Nicole Osrin

New York has been an infinite source of inspiration for music over the years. It has fostered scenes like no wave, disco, punk, hip hop and indie rock, pushing its influence outside the bounds of the US. For bands based in the New York CIty, it means joining a list that includes Blondie, Talking Heads, The Strokes, New York Dolls, and Interpol, among countless others. It’s impossible for New York artists to overlook the influence of the past. At the same time, to find your own voice, while paying tribute to those who have come before, is a feat. Been Stellar is one of the bands who has accomplished just that.

The five-piece band is made up of Sam Slocum (vocals), Skyler St. Marx (guitar) Nando Dale (guitar), Nico Brunstein (bass) and Laila Wayans (drums). Slocum and St. Marx met Dale, Brunstein and Wayans at NYU. In March 2020, they released their first single “Fear of Heights,” which takes noise guitar rock and blends it with melodic songwriting. Two months later, they released “The Poets,” a song that the band writes “describes a scene in which a city's creatives hold a massive burning of their work for the sake of complete self sacrifice.” Those tracks, along with “Louis XIV” and “Nihilist,” emphasize the band’s early to mid-2000s New York influences. “With those early singles, we didn’t know what kind of band we wanted to be,” Slocum and St. Marx write over email. “The EP gave us the opportunity to realize some of the ideas we were testing out on the singles, and develop them into better songs. The EP is a more confident project.”

The songs on their remarkable EP Been Stellar, released last year, take the best parts of their influences to create something uniquely theirs. The band’s ability to tell the stories of city life is what sets them apart from their contemporaries. Influenced by philosophy, literature and film, the lyrics provide a realistic portrait of the city’s people and quotidian life. “Sometimes, someone will bring an idea to practice, but it isn’t written until it goes through the five of us,” they explain. For the band, it’s imperative to write songs from a truthful point of view. “It’s important to be authentic to what you yourself see and not play into cliches of the city that may seem glamorous to the outside,” they write. Slocum sings with a kind of casual, yet instinctual, voice. On “Kids 1995,” he shouts out stanzas, pointing to the dichotomy between egocentrism and selflessness that we often battle. The song “Manhattan Youth” is a casual observation of kids growing up in the city, from an onlooker. On “My Honesty” the band resists falling into the trap of sounding like their influences, instead looking to themselves to figure out their sound. 

Listening to the record, we get a sense of experiencing life in the city with them. At the same time, the band’s resistance to sound like their idols, creates an added tension in the music. It is that defiance, one that cannot be forced but rather happens organically, that pushes the band toward a new sound. You can hear it clearly from the opening riffs of “Arthur” to the last verse on “Ohm.” 

Been Stellar was produced by Aron Kobayashi Ritch, whom the band calls “a total legend.” It is a pastiche that brings together the layered sounds of shoegaze, bellowing guitar leads, post-punk drum loops and nonchalant vocals. “We wanted the EP to sound cleaner than what we had done before. We wanted to focus on quality and letting the songs shine rather than an overall production aesthetic,” they explain. 

The band is currently signed to the indie So Young Records, an offshoot of the UK’s guitar rock focused So Young Magazine. Last year, the band went back and forth between the two continents, playing shows in the US and Europe. In addition to headlining their own tour abroad, they supported Just Mustard and Ultra Q in the states. “Shows in the US are oftentimes way more lowkey and there’s less of a music industry aspect,” the band writes. “It tends to be more of everyday non-industry people wanting to see a show, especially outside of LA and NYC. In the UK, people are generally more enthusiastic about what we are doing because there is more context for it over there,” they note. 

In previous interviews, the band has commented that the scene in New York doesn’t just happen on its own. For the music scene to thrive, it requires a give and take. “[We’d] like to see people being brave in what they do. People making authentic quality art, and not being too concerned with the flavor of the month,” they write. The band expresses that it can be hard to create in the city. “New York can be a double edged sword, it can give you a lot but it can also distract you from yourself. The best art in New York hasn’t come from playing into trends—it has come from needing an outlet and not having anywhere else to do it.”

Looking ahead, Been Stellar is excited about what’s to come for the city. “It’s definitely an exciting place to be making music right now. There are more eyes than there have been in the time we’ve been living here,” they write. “But it’s something to be cautious of because when the industry gets its hands on something it starts to become less cool and authentic.” 

Been Stellar is already set up for a busy year. “We are working on new music,” the band writes. “We have a show in New York at the end of the month supporting Geese.” The band is also set to play SXSW and will be the supporting act for London post-punk band Shame. Been Stellar will open the US and Canada shows scheduled for the late spring.

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Been Stellar is available for purchase on vinyl here. Their music can also be streamed on Bandcamp, Spotify and other platforms. Follow Been Stellar on Instagram. Go see Been Stellar live:

February 25 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge*
March 10 - Austin, TX - SXSW
May 7 - Nashville, TN - Basement East^
May 9 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle^
May 10 - Durham, NC - Motorco Music Hall^
May 12 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar^
May 13 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer^
May 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw^
May 15 - New York, NY - Irving Plaza^
May 16 - Cambridge, MA- The Sinclair^
May 18 - Montréal, QC - Foufounes Électriques^
May 19 - Ottawa, ON - Club SAW^
May 20 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace^
May 22 - Kalamazoo, MI - Bell's Eccentric Cafe^
May 24 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall^
May 26 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway^
May 27 - Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck^
May 28 - Fayetteville, AR - George's Majestic Lounge^
May 30 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater^
Jun 2 - Austin, TX - Scoot Inn^
Jun 3 - Houston, TX - White Oak Music Hall^
Jun 4 - New Orleans, LA - Toulouse Theatre^

*Supporting Geese
^Supporting Shame

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