Support Local Music, Buy Allan Vest New Shoes

Photo: Christian Pitt

By Graham Lee Brewer

There is absolutely no denying that Starlight Mints have had a wonderfully positive affect on the Oklahoma music scene, through both influence and exposure. Their approach to songwriting has created a vibrant and gorgeously textured pastiche that is, in my opinion, one of the most creative, earnest, and genuinely stunning efforts in musicianship in the past decade. When I listen to the Mints I can’t help but wonder what it’s like inside of frontman Allan Vest’s head. The combination of Starlight Mints’ impressive mixture of clever hooks, angular protopunk, and psychedelic candy-pop, along with Vest’s cryptic and intriguing lyricism is hard to compare. I spoke with Vest about his propensity to reinvent himself, letting the drummer take charge, and how his lack of new shoes proves he isn’t working for Subway.

Starlight Mints will be playing on the Main Stage of Norman Music Festival this Saturday at 9pm.

You and I spoke fairly recently about the approach you’re taking with this new album. I can’t remember specifically, but you were talking about writing it without using a certain grammar style, or something to that effect. Each of your albums has a different posture. Tell me about the style and tone of this one.

Well, I think originally I wanted to avoid the word “I” from the album. Take more of an outsider looking in. And for the most part, it’s pretty impersonal. The approach was to not worry about the songs making much sense. We actually collaborated on a lot of the lyrics and melody which can be tricky and frustrating for us at times, but that was the approach from the get go and we stuck it out.

We’ve been getting more and more into samples and sampling ourselves over the years, and I think this album really emphasizes that much more. In addition, we’ve been using synths for bass and melody which creates a tighter environment for better or worse.

I know that you were writing the lyrics for the songs pretty last minute. How do you usually write? Does the music always come first?

In this case, the music absolutely came first. None of the songs were written on the guitar, and we basically started with a bunch of amazing musical hooks that needed texture. Writing an instrumental musical hook has always come easy, but vocals always drive me bananas. I’m pretty sure every song on this record was conceived without a lyrical theme whatsoever and in most cases, the actual “final themes” were polished at the 11th hour.

But you could say that was the intention, at least it seems…ha…we’ve been working on this for a year and a half. It’s hard to pinpoint how much of the material was transformed.

You had the tour for this album mapped out before the record was finished. Did you feel rushed when writing? Did any sense of urgency play a role in the outcome?

Definitely…. this was the hardest record to make. We struggled and struggled to find where each song was going. I’m actually working on the last verse and final “scat” vocals to the end song…. as we speak…. Yet, half the songs have been mastered already. We are all very exhausted, but still battling over every detail. The longer you put off finishing a record, the more broke you become… I hope in some way it was worth it for us. All I know is that I’m ready to start on a group of songs written on the guitar… Back to basics, and easy breezy for a change.

Your lyrics are always so arcane, and I was wondering if you could give me a little insight about the things you wrote about on the new album.

Well, there’s a song about a really tall, ugly and overweight person who has a keen eye for picking racehorses and the beauty they behold in their mind… On the flipside, there’s a song about an attractive woman who is paralyzed, and the implications for the significant other, who is lost and confused by the ramifications…. On another song, an Asian man helps out a neighbor whose girlfriend has committed a terrible crime…. Actually, there’s a few other crime themes within the songs…Fun stuff…

A lot of people consider Starlight Mints to be one of, if not the, most successful band to ever come out of Norman. Do you get that sense from the local fans, and do you think that being one of the NMF headliners reflects that?

Man, we are so far away from success (in my mind, that is).

I would probably be making 10 percent more as a full time waiter. One of the only benefits is some of the royalty checks that slide in quarterly. Touring definitely helps the inflow. I haven’t bought a pair of new shoes in way over two years…. looking forward to that this summer. As the NMF goes, I think it’s wonderful to represent my favorite city in America (seriously…. I do love Norman with a passion). It’s also great that our friends are headlining, Of Montreal. They are one of my favs, and this is the first time we’ve ever played with them. I consider it an honor.

I saw your recent set at The Opolis, and the new songs that you played seem to reflect a pattern I’ve noticed in your albums. And that is that your music seems to gradually move away from the delicate subtlety of The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of and towards a seemingly more determined and in your face conventionality. Is that something that is purposeful or just the natural maturation of your songwriting?

I think it’s a little of many things. First of all, technology. Our first record (dreams) was recorded mainly on a 16-track tape machine. At the time, I had a four track and an eight-track CASETTE TAPE machine for demos. Hence, we were very limited in what we could even use for reference. Now, it’s like at least 48 tracks for demos on the computer, a whole different world.

I hear all the time from peeps that our music is “VERY BUSY”. I am the last to understand it. I love production in music and am a big fan of big production artist like ELO and Led Zeppelin, and probably a bigger fan of certain classical and modern film scoring. I think that fact is what makes writing a simple song so difficult for us. I keep building my palates, but pop/alt music isn’t usually about that. It’s something I am constantly trying to separate and learn from. This new record is very simple to me. Andy really helped on that aspect and always does. In a lot of ways, this is his record. I’m pretty stubborn, but have been trying my best to let him be the chief producer of this one.

Speaking of your first album, are you still having trouble with the rights to it or can your fans expect a re-release soon?

Yeah, It’s on the agenda for sure. Our first two records aren’t even on Itunes yet. So very frustrating… Blame the Belgians… just kidding…. If we don’t get the rights by this fall, I’m planning on remixing it all to put out on Itunes… A lot of peeps keep asking about it, and we have most of the original tracks to work with.

Lastly, I find your music in all sorts of places, from foreign films to Malcolm in the Middle and Disney cartoons. Where can I expect to hear it in the near future?

Well, there’s a BBC series that is using “Eyes of the Night” for the theme song. It’s called “DEMONS.” Haven’t seen it yet. A house engineer in Ft Worth recognized it when we played it last week at a show in “the stockyards”… pretty weird eh?

We’ve been joking a while about the first song on our new record being in a “GAP’ commercial. The chorus says “I’m a natural slack.” We hope it sells some urban pants. Also some rumor that we wrote the subway song “five dollar foot long” is false. Otherwise I would have some new really swanky cool shoes… two foot longs to be exact.

On other notes, our label Barsuk has been wonderful in supporting us. They gave us all the time we needed for this album.