indie pop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...
band from
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
.
Biography
Silver Starling began as a project of Montreal-born singer-songwriter Marcus Paquin. Outside of creating his own music Marcus has been a
recording engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...
Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...
and The National.
Paquin met drummer Liam O'Neill after seeing him perform at a free jazz show and the two soon began performing the songs together. Marika Anthony-Shaw joined the band, adding violin, viola and keyboards. Peter X was soon added on bass guitar and banjo. The then four-piece recorded their self-titled debut album and added Gabriel Lambert as an additional guitarist. The album was released on
Last Gang Records
Last Gang Records is a record label formed by Canadian music industry lawyer Chris Taylor and concert promoter Donald K. Tarlton in the fall of 2003 at the Pop Montreal Music Festival. Last Gang was nominated as Independent Record Label of th ...
in October 2009. It reached No. 115 on the
Earshot
Earshot is an American alternative metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1999. The band's lineup has changed several times during their existence, with vocalist Wil Martin being the band's sole constant member.
After signing to Warner Bros. Reco ...
Top 200 and No. 130 on the CMJ Top 200. It was distributed through
Universal Music
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum ...
in Canada and
Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
* Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
...
in USA.
Falling under the genre classification of pop/rock, their sound was described as "brilliantly conceived, skillfully executed
art-pop
Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre draws on pop art's ...
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
tinged with the gentleness of
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk horror
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Fo ...
" with "an eclectic-yet-carefully-plotted blend of elements of Blues, Country, Rock"
Silver Starling played three large Canadian Music Festivals in 2009:
Osheaga
The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival () is a multi-day music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival takes place on six stages with various audience capacities. Translated ...
, Hillside and the Toronto Virgin Fest.
The band toured in September 2009 in Quebec and Ontario to promote their upcoming album. They played the 2009
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...
Music Marathon in New York,
M for Montreal
M for Montreal (M pour Montréal) is an annual 4-day music event produced by Avalanche Prod that is held in various venues in Montréal, Québec. It usually takes place on the third weekend of November.
Description
M for Montreal is an independ ...
in November 2009 and
SXSW
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
in March 2010.
On February 26, 2010, Silver Starling premiered their video for "Closer" on Spinner Magazine and were nominated in the Freshman Video category at
mtvU
MTVU (formerly stylized as MtvU and mtvU) is an American digital cable TV channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. MTVU programming initially served 750 college and univ ...
Band of Skulls
Band of Skulls are an English rock band from Southampton, fronted by Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals). Emma Richardson ( bass, vocals; 2002–2021) and Matt Hayward (drums; 2002–2016) were previously members. The group formed after meeting i ...
added Silver Starling as an opener for their 2010 cross-Canada tour. Drummer Liam O'neill left the band shortly before tour and was temporarily replaced by Mike Shulha.
The band announced its amicable dissolution on its Facebook page on April 28, 2015.
Paquin subsequently produced albums for
Reuben and the Dark
Reuben and the Dark are a Canadian indie folk band from Calgary. Led by singer and songwriter Reuben Bullock,un love''),
The Weather Station
The Weather Station is a Canadian folk music band fronted by Tamara Lindeman, formed in 2006. Band membership has changed over the years, but the lineup includes Lindeman (lead vocals, piano), Ben Whiteley (bass), Johnny Spence (keyboards), Wi ...
(''
Ignorance
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge or understanding. Deliberate ignorance is a culturally-induced phenomenon, the study of which is called agnotology.
The word "ignorant" is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, or ...
''),
Sarah Harmer
Sarah Lois Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist.
Early life
Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musical lifestyle as a teenager, when her older s ...
Stars
A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...
(''
From Capelton Hill
''From Capelton Hill'' is the ninth studio album by Canadian indie pop band Stars. It was released on 27 May 2022 by Last Gang Records and MNRK Music Group. The album was produced by Marcus Paquin and Jace Lasek. The title is in reference to Capel ...
'') and
Julia Jacklin
Julia Jacklin (born 30 August 1990) is an Australian singer-songwriter from the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), Blue Mountains region of New South Wales. Jacklin's musical style has been described as indie pop, indie folk, and alternative cou ...
('' Pre Pleasure'') before releasing his debut solo album ''Our Love'' in November 2022.
Members
* Marcus Paquin - Vocals, Guitar
* Marika Anthony-Shaw - Violin, Viola, Keyboards, Glockenspiel
* Peter X - Bass, Banjo
* Gab Lambert - Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin