so do their octaves and every guitar, drum and lyric between, coasting through rays of Telepopmusik and Metric.

But as Brian says “Shadows On Stars is driven by an utter disregard for categorization,” their music stands alone as these ardent spirits lift their soles (and souls) to a new generation of sensory overload in the sonic department.

After some amplified buzz around Twitter on the group’s debut track, Now You’re Mine (back in mid 2011), the two have managed to beat the skinny-black-jeans-and-plaid syndrome and come out as fresh-chill Northwesters with some new wave tricks. In our exchange with Brian, he responds to indie band overkill and Shadows on Stars distinction: “We’re not tied to a label and we don’t try to write a certain type of music. At this point in time we’re still taking off, so there’s really not a ton of pressure. We’re free, so to speak, and we’re going to stay that way. If someone ever tries to take that from us we’ll just disappear into the wilderness…People always ask us, ‘what kind of music do you two make?’ or ‘what genre are you guys?’ Our response is always something to the effect of, ‘ummm…’.” And that pretty much sums up their new album set to drop next week, where not only undertones of electro-punk breakthrough, but also rock, funk, some classical and fuzz-folk. “ummm..” is right for this all-inclusive genre shabang.

As young names to the state of Oregon, Randa and Brian share nothing shy of solace for Portland, “Oregon is like a magical garden from a sci-fi movie or something. It’s just absolutely beautiful out here, so we both spend as much time as possible outdoors. There is a sense of freedom that comes with knowing that you can escape to a remote environment at any time and that sentiment definitely comes out in our music.” A nice fit for our March theme, “Make-Believe” and exactly what we can all look forward to as they are eager to share: “We’re excited for listeners to hear our music as an entire body of work. We zeroed in on making a complete project that represented not only the diversity of our listening tastes, but the diversity of our human experiences. Shadows On Stars is an “album band.” If singles come out of that process then so be it, but we’re more focused on developing cohesive, interesting bodies of work.” – Brian Vincent

photography by Harper Smith 

TAGS: Brian Vincent, electro-pop, electro-punk, I'll Be The Light, music from portland, Randa Smith, Shadows on Stars