BUFFALO STAR

FAULT featured

Buffalo Star are a four piece band from the heart of London. Inspired by the capitols vibrant music scene they formed in early 2009 to great success. The band are heavily influenced by bands such as The Velvet Underground, Kings of Leon, Radiohead, and Bob Dylan. They have a unique sound inspired by their musical heroes, and a love of distorted guitars and pulsating beats.

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FAULT: What inspires you to make music ?

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BUFFALO STAR: Music is something that can come into life in the most mundane or profound of circumstances. Sometimes you can wake up with a tune in your head that seemingly comes from nowhere, and wont leave you alone until you get your hands on a guitar and bring it to life. It can come to you in the shower, in the cue for coffee or on the tube on the way home. Sometimes we sit down together and consciously write something because of an event that just recently happened, or something we want to make a statement about, but often it subconsciously comes into your mind and it’s not until the song is finished that you realise what it’s subject matter is. Ultimately what inspires all our music is what inspires all of the arts, what it is to be alive, here and now in the present, and what moves us in our day to day existence. I hope that answers your question.
FAULT: How did you all get started?

BUFFALO STAR: We’ve all pretty much had experience of being in bands before in the past, and music is something that’s been around in our lives since an early age, we’ve been writing songs or playing instruments since our early teens. But I guess us all getting together is a result of chance more than anything else. We all met though friends of friends but it’s a shared passion of the music that we love that really brought us together. Often in a band it’s difficult to find a group of people that have the same view point on the sound that you want to create, and that’s usually the reason that most bands don’t make it, not having that clarity of vision, that and a mutual respect, something that seems to have developed between everyone in the band.

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FAULT: What sets you apart from other artists?

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BUFFALO STAR: I feel we have an edginess, a spirit, and a rawness that comes across in our music, especially in our live performances. It’s almost like getting up and performing takes you to another place, another zone, and it’s not just a gig anymore but an emotional experience. The process of connecting with people in a live environment is very special to us, it’s one of the reasons we do what we do, to get out there and expose a piece of our sole. We have a passion for what we do and it’s not like we’re following that same old indie band formula that you hear so much of. Were taking our own path and making the music that we love, not what we think people want to hear, something that comes from who we are and what we want to be.

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FAULT: What are you currently working on?

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BUFFALO STAR: We’ve always got something on the go, it’s part of what makes us the band that we are. At the moment we’re working on new material. It’s sort of an on going process that we’re driven to do. We’re always pushing ourselves on fine tuning our sound, trying to encapsulate the music of Buffalo Star through that perfect song. It’s not easy and we’re learning all the time, but it makes us grow as a band and as musicians, and keeps the whole thing fresh and exciting. There’s nothing worse than churning out the same old songs week after week, we like to keep our set list fresh and engaging, something we hope will keep the fans coming back to our gigs to see what we’ve come up with next.

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FAULT: What is your creative process, when writing a new song?

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BUFFALO STAR: I guess it all starts off with a riff or a collection of cords that comes up in rehearsals and from that simple starting point a melody and rhythm develops, but it’s never the same process. Sometimes someone will come in and say ‘what do you think of this guitar part, do you think we can use it?’ or the drummer will bang out a beat and we’ll all jam along, it’s a very organic process and we like it that way. It’s interesting how a song can grow out of nothing or it can be a real struggle, and you really have to engage yourself, use all the tricks you’ve learn along the way, to bring it to life. It’s part of what makes being in a band so special, the creative process that’s involved.

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FAULT: What are you currently listening to?

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BUFFALO STAR: We’ve always listening to The Velvet Underground, or Radiohead, but right now we’re all really excited about the new Kings of Leon album. Their a big influence on us and we’re really interested to see what direction they’ll go with now. They’ve done that hole stadium rock thing and from what I’ve heard they’re trying to make something that reflects some of there earlier albums and if ‘radioactive’ is anything to go by then ‘Come around Sundown’ should be their best album yet.
FAULT: If you were not a musician what would you be doing?

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BUFFALO STAR: It’s hard to imagine what we’d be doing if we weren’t making music, it’s such a big influence on our lives. But I guess it would have to be something creative, as that process of making something and putting it out there into the world is really important to us, and hopefully enriching peoples lives in the process. So maybe something like an painter or a sculptor or maybe something completely different, who knows.

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FAULT: What is your FAULT?

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BUFFALO STAR: What is our fault? I wish there was only one but it’s a whole list; apathy, arrogance, pretentiousness… I guess our hope is like every other musician or band out there, to make music that is honest and real and powerful, that people feel the same way about listening to as we do about making.

www.buffalostar.co.uk
All photos by Joao Braz: www.joaobraz.com