Starsailor return to Shiiine On Weekender in Minehead this November. We caught up with frontman James Walsh to find out what the band have been up to…

Hi James, excited to be back at Shiiine this year?

Yeah. It’s always a great festival. I’m particularly excited to see Mick Head because he’s a bit of a hero of mine, so to be on the same bill is amazing. We did a gig with Shack years ago at the Coronet in London, over 20 years ago now. So yeah, it’s going to be amazing to see him and the band.

It’s a great Sunday line up, you’ve got yourselves, Unbelievable Truth, Mick Head & The Red Elastic Band and then your pals Embrace headlining. You played back in 2017, any memories of that show?

Just an amazing crowd. At that point we hadn’t played at Shiiine before so we weren’t sure what to expect. And, obviously your childhood memories of holiday parks, and things like that, it’s quite a different experience to see a place like that transformed into a music festival. And the hall where we played was just perfect and busy, and just an amazing audience. Sometimes you think, oh, well your crowd’s a little bit older, so maybe they’d be a bit more subdued, but I think on occasions like that, everyone kind of rolls the years back and gives you the sort of enthusiasm that they did when they were watching us 20-odd years ago when they were students. So, it’s really appreciated.

You’ve just had your new album come out back in March which was your first album, six years. Have you been happy with the reaction to it?

Yeah, it’s been great. It’s always a test, adding new songs to the set list and trying to make them work alongside tracks that people have already taken to their hearts for years. But luckily the new songs have a kind of anthemic quality, like, songs like ‘Better Times’ and ‘Dead On The Money’ are kind of quite immediate anyway. So, it’s been good that people haven’t been going to the bar when we’ve been playing the new ones.

Great, I’m looking forward to hearing some of these in November. I think Rick from Embrace produced it as well, didn’t he?

Yeah, he did. Rick did an amazing job of helping to bring our ideas to life.  So, it’s going to  be good to catch up with them, and they’re always great live as well.

So, before the new album came out, you’d been away for a little while, how did it come about getting the band back together for the new record?

Well, we got the band back together around 2014. But I guess the past few years just been a bit quiet really.  I think sometimes people can kind of think that you’re not necessarily doing anything when you’re not releasing material because you only do festivals and you do gigs. For ‘Silence is Easy’, we did a little tour to celebrate 20 years of that. But like you say, sometimes it takes a new record to get people to sit up and take notice that you’re still around doing stuff. You go through periods of intense activity and being busy with albums and tours and then quieter periods, but you’re still there. You’ve not split up but you’re more doing the odd little festival here and there, and it’s just maybe you’re not as in people’s faces as other times.

Without wanting to make you feel old here, you’re approaching 25 years from when you broke through. You must be happy with how long you’ve lasted?

Yeah, absolutely.  It obviously means a lot that people are still turning up to gigs and still excited to hear the music.  I think you go through periods where you think, “oh, it’d be great to be as big as Coldplay or as big as The Killers” or bands like this. But like you say, it’s important to note that not many bands are able to still be doing it at the level that we are now. So we definitely appreciate the support that we’ve got.

When you did breakthrough, it was the post Britpop era with a new wave of acts coming through. What were your memories of that time?

I remember it being amazing.  There was so much great music out. And a lot of those bands are still going strong, like Turin Brakes.  Elbow are obviously doing really well at the moment. Travis are on tour with The Killers at the moment and they’ve got a new album on the way. And Coldplay goes without saying. But I remember there was no real difference in terms of the level of what we were doing and the media, like top of the pops and CDUK and all these things. There were guitar bands on those shows rubbing shoulders with Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and people like that. So, it was an amazing time to be part of it.  And I think obviously Britpop that went before, we’re grateful to that period, and that paved the way really for a more extended period of guitar bands and bands like ourselves really enjoying that level of success.

Have you got a festival set that stands out as a highlight from your career?

Playing at Glastonbury on the Pyramid Stage was a massive honor. But I remember being incredibly nervous for that one and felt a lot of pressure. So, I think, in hindsight, that was a massive honor and obviously a highlight in terms of achievement, but actually doing it was quite nerve wracking. But I remember really enjoying playing a festival in Belgium where we were headlining and the Sugababes and Body Count, which is Ice-T’s Rap project, where the other bands on the bill, and it was my first experience of actually headlining a festival and playing as the sun goes down. So, that was a big one for me. T In The Park as well, they were always really good.

When you’re up the top headlining does that bring you extra pressure? Or do you thrive on that?

I think a bit of both to be honest, just to sit on the fence. I feel like you’ve got to have some confidence about you and be really up for it. But also not be too complacent as well and also I guess to be mindful of the fact that even headlining a festival, you’re not necessarily playing to completely your audience so you have to not indulge yourself too much in the kind of lesser known songs. I guess it’s an opportunity as well to showcase you, to showcase the band and not assume that the whole audience knows who you are and knows what you’re about. You’re kind of putting yourself out there a bit.

So, what’s next for Starsalilor? More music, more tours?

Yeah, we’ll have been to Italy on tour by the time we do Shiiine, we’re looking forward to that. And like you say, with our 25 year anniversary next year,  we want to put our heads together and see what special things we can do to celebrate that.

Starsailor play the Main Stage at the Shiiine On Weekender on 17th November 2024. Final packages available HERE