When Been Stellar shared debut full-length Scream From New York, NY, it was met with descriptors like “smashing” and “insanely good” and “thrilling.” It was the kind of seemingly overnight success that only happens when you pick up your entire life and move to one of the biggest cities in the world, attract attention from the other side of the ocean and become an intercontinental success in one of the OTHER biggest cities in the world.
While that wasn’t really the plan when guitarist Skyler Knapp and vocalist Sam Slocum left Michigan to attend NYU, they rolled with it all — starting with a music scene that didn’t quite match the idealized version that lived in their brains.
“It was kind of in between eras of New York music,” Knapp said. “There was the big DIY venue thing with DIIV and Beach Fossils and bands like that. That was just coming to an end when we got there. … There wasn’t much for us to do, so we just kind of started booking our own shows and booking weird gallery spaces that we found online and sort of hacked our way through it.”
Cutting a path through the concrete jungle was just the first example of being flexible in unexpected situations. There was the U.K. audience who started paying attention to their music. The London-based indie label (So Young) that put out the band’s first EP. Tours supporting Fontaines D.C. and The 1975. Their own headlining run in England and Europe.
It all sounds pretty dizzying, yet Been Stellar put out a grounded vibe as they took our stage in the early days of a North American jaunt that included a stop Tuesday night at Cactus Club.
“I like that we’re playing more in the U.S. now, and I like that this is our first U.S. tour because it always feels kind of weird going over to the U.K. and Europe all the time, and people assuming we’re a British band,” Knapp said. “A lot of what inspires us is very American. So, yeah, happy to be doing this.”
Been Stellar blasted that largely NYC-fueled songwriting output through the speakers on a chilly Tuesday afternoon, sharing four tracks from their debut album. Listen to the broadcast portion of the session using the player at the top of the page, and if you want to be in the audience to hear every full performance from every artist who visits our Walker’s Point studios, become a Radio Milwaukee member today.
Studio MKE: Been Stellar set list
- “Scream From New York, NY”
- “Pumpkin”
- “Takedown”
- “I Have the Answer” (non-broadcast performance)