New York-based band Been Stellar have enjoyed an upward trajectory thanks to their own sheer hard work, ingenuity, and DIY spirit. On a visit to The Current, band members Sam Slocum and Nico Brunstein spoke with The Current's Ayisha Jaffer about the band's story so far, including the origin stories behind the band's name and their new single, "I Have The Answer."

Watch and listen to the full interview above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Ayisha Jaffer: What's up? I'm Ayisha Jaffer. We're hanging out with Been Stellar on The Current; I'm here with Sam and Nico. Thanks for being here.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks.

Ayisha Jaffer: So you guys have been on a long tour with Fontaines D.C. I even heard you playing around with their song "Big," which was really fun in our session. It's been a while, and you're near the end, like, how has it been so far?

Sam Slocum: Yeah, it's been great. They're an amazing band, and they're very kind people. And, yeah, the room, the nice, big rooms, and all the venue staffs have been very kind to us and accommodating, so and we're doing it on our own— 

Nico Brunstein: Yeah, just the five of us, no, like, TM or manager, which has been fun. It's like, road-trip style, but yeah, so it's a bit daunting, but I feel like, yeah, the Fontaines team has been really, like, helping us out of it. Yeah, yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: That's awesome, that they're inclusive and kind and it's been good. I like that it's looked at as a road trip, because sometimes it can be a lot of work. That's cool that you guys are doing it on your own as well, because I used to be a tour manager, so I know how much of a feat that can be. That's really cool. Well, I've got a little bit of a 101 question: I know for you, and I'm sure you've heard it, but I've heard DJs all across and editorials sort of say many different stories about the band origin name, like Been Stellar, like "I have been stellar," the emotion. Or is it about Ben Stiller? Or is it a celestial thing, or is it a, you know, a combination of these things? So I just want to get the story straight of the origin story.

Sam Slocum: I won't lie. OK, so Sky [Skyler Knapp] and I, we came up with the name 12 years ago, about 11 or 12 years ago, and so we were quite young, so that's the first important detail. And then, yeah, we had started making music together, and we needed a name, and there was an electronic musician — I assume still is — named Com Truise. And we thought that was funny, like, the switch of the letters. And so then Sky just said, "What about Been Stellar? Like, 'How've you been?' 'I've been stellar.'" And so, like, it was immediately like, a double meaning, but we liked it because it was ... I like that it's in the past tense. I feel like that's interesting. And I just, I like the idea of something that used to be good, like it was stellar, and it sounds kind of sarcastic. There's just a lot that you can kind of ascribe to it, but I don't think our 140-year-old selves were ascribing a ton of meaning to it at the time.

Ayisha Jaffer: But I know there is, like, sort of you have this history where you did meet Ben Stiller. And this was back in 2019 when Captured Tracks found out that Ben Stiller was a teenage punk rocker in a band called Capital Punishment. And then at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, they, like, brought them back together, and you guys actually met.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, because a friend of ours' mom went to high school with Ben Stiller, and so she got us on the guest list to go to the show. And so Sky and I went up to him, and we're, you know, stoked to meet him and we told him, like, "Oh, we've been, like, saying almost your name all the time for like, five years." And he was very, very cool, and his band was great. Yeah, really, really, and he gave us his blessing on the name.

Ayisha Jaffer: That's amazing. Maybe in the future, he'll do a music video.

Sam Slocum: Maybe!

Ayisha Jaffer: We'll just put it out there!

Sam Slocum: If you're watching! We go back and forth on Twitter, like, a little bit here and there.

Ayisha Jaffer: Oh, see?

Sam Slocum: Yeah. So we're trying to get him if he wants to come to a show or something. We'll see.

Ayisha Jaffer: That's awesome. Oh, I love that. That's such a cool connection. Well, I know you might be new to our audiences, but like you and Skyler, as you alluded to, have been sort of playing together for over 10 years.  And it was a band T-shirt that brought you together, so I have to know, like, what's the fateful fashion band that...?

Sam Slocum: Yeah. It was a ... I think he was wearing a Vampire Weekend T-shirt, and I was wearing a Star F*cker T-shirt. I don't know if, is that cool?

Ayisha Jaffer: It's fine.

Sam Slocum: Cool.

Ayisha Jaffer: We have bleeps.

Sam Slocum: Right on. Yeah. So then we both knew that we were music people, and we were on the cross country team, and we gravitated to each other, and started telling each other about a bunch of bands, and started making tunes together. And I never thought at the time, like, I might have picked a different name if I had known that we'd still be doing this.

Ayisha Jaffer: I think it's great. I personally love it. So I'd keep it.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, we've grown into it. I mean, like I've grown to love it now, but it ...

Nico Brunstein: It's always hard to, like, describe it to someone. It takes about 30 seconds to a minute to tell them what the band name is.

Sam Slocum: You have to, like, repeat a few times, and you're like, "How've you been?" "I've Been Stellar."

Ayisha Jaffer: You're just gonna get like, a recorder, and just—

Sam Slocum: Yeah, exactly, just one of those YouTube videos where it's like, "Been Stellar..."

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, we can loop this, too.

Sam Slocum: That'd be great, yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: So, well, then, OK, Michigan, where you're you from. Midwesterners. We love them. We're Minnesotan, right? Go to NYU, request the music floor. In enters Nico and Nando [Dale], and together, there's like, serendipitous, like, band collective. Like, was there like a eureka moment where you guys met each other and you were like, "This is gonna happen."

Sam Slocum: Yeah.

Nico Brunstein: Not really. It was like, yeah, we were on the music floor. I just applied to be in the best dorm, honestly, like, and then Sam and I were roommates, and Nando and Sky were roommates down the hall. And, yeah, the first show that Sam and Sky did were with Nando, and then a different bassist and a different drummer who were in the music program. And yeah, I went to that show. I wasn't planning to do music in college. And then I went to that show, and I was like, I then called my mom to, like, ship over my bass, just because I was like, honestly, I was like, pretty, like, inspired; not that I wanted to be in the band, but like, and then yeah, the next show that they had, Sam asked me to play in it, and I had barely been playing bass at that point, so yeah, it was cool. And then we played, like, some shows at this, like, bar that's closed down now, and then they were just so fun and so packed. We did, like a Christmas show, and I think, and then Laila [Wayans] was part of those two shows as well. And I think after that, we kind of all looked at each other and we're like, "That was awesome. We got to keep doing this."

Ayisha Jaffer: That's awesome. So Laila entered the picture, too. Like, was that a separate show or all together?

Nico Brunstein: That was, me and Laila joined at the same time, like after. So they did their first show, like, them three, and then, plus the other drummer and bassist, and then by the time they did their second show, that's when Laila and I hopped in.

Ayisha Jaffer: See, I love that. It's a very New York thing. You have all these different people from different places that kind of create these collective things. And I know you've been like this narrative of, like, New York band has like, been put on you, but I know that you kind of defy that cliche, right? Like, that's such a saturated market. It's a very labeled market. And so together, after creating and creating this kind of joyous collective and band, you sort of stepped around that and created your own scene, right?

Sam Slocum: Yeah, I think, like we, when we got to New York, we were a little bit bummed out, because it felt like there wasn't, yeah, there wasn't what we hoped for, as far as a scene. And a lot of DIY spaces were closing down. And there were, like, great bands doing stuff, but nothing that we felt like we quite fit into. And I think we also were still pretty uncertain of who we were as a band, and I guess as people, too. And so what made the most sense to us, and I'm very happy we made this decision, is we just started putting on some of our own shows. And so we started renting out like a pier space or something, and lying about what it was going to be used for. And, yeah, having friends show art on the walls and project little shorts that they made or something, and sell it if they wanted to. You know, it became like this cool thing for people to go do, and we would make it really cheap, or maybe even free. And people were like, out on the street watching it and stuff. And it just was something that was like, because you get so tired of going to the same couple venues and paying 20 bucks to see your friend's friend's band, and four other bands, and then the room is 20 percent full the entire time because people end up just going for the one band. It's just not fun. And so we were just like, obviously, we don't want to be a part of that. And so, yeah, that was kind of how we decided to end up start doing our own thing.  That's really cool. And that's, like, a very New York way. There's some underground lists, I think I'm still on them, just seeing people, like, create their own thing. And New York's a hard place to navigate that, like, so you create, like, "Yeah, it's just a family reunion," or whatever.  Yeah, totally!

Ayisha Jaffer: "Come on over!" That's so cool. I love that. And that's more genuine a DIY. And I think that's where you hear your music, you hear that ingenuity and that quality in it, too, because it's truly you. So I think that's — I love that. Well, finally, too, your debut album, Scream From New York, NY, is out. Now, I'm just curious how you feel, because that's a lot of practicing, a lot of years, a lot of history happened in the time that you're creating this album. So just like, how do you feel now that it's out?

Nico Brunstein: Yeah, it's, like, it's a bit surreal, because yeah, we've been playing together for like, seven years, and like, kind of all writing, the five of us, for like, about three, four years. So it is kind of absurd how long it's taken, it feels, but I think it's definitely the right thing and the right time. I think if we had done it any time before, it wouldn't have been what we wanted it to be. And, yeah, no, it, I feel, yeah, I feel weird that, yeah, we've been in this band for so long, and it's just coming out. But it's, I think it's a really like, true representation of, like, the five of us in like, a basement, and, yeah, I don't know. It feels like, I'm really, it's something I'm just, like, really proud of that like, I know that we all were, like, very genuine in making and like, I feel like you can hear the stress and kind of like we're all of our influences. And I think it's like, the first thing that we've put out that I think the five of us are like, we can point to and be like, "This is like, truly us, like, in that moment."

Ayisha Jaffer: I really love, I love that. That's like the perfect explanation. I know you made a documentary, too, about the process. This Is Not What Words Are For?

Sam Slocum: Nope. They Don't Make Words For This.

Ayisha Jaffer: They Don't Make Words For This. OK. It's beautiful. And there's one, there's one part in the beginning that I really liked. You have a friend, Ben Goldstein, who has, like, this law about music: A good song is when you are looking out in the crowd at a festival and buddies are like, putting their arms around each other. So do you feel like you've seen that now that you've been on tour for a while?

Sam Slocum: I actually just, I think — was I telling you? —the other night, I looked out and I saw people with arms around each other.

Nico Brunstein: Yeah. They were bros.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, yeah, and I was like, "OK!"

Ayisha Jaffer: You did it!

Sam Slocum: I can't remember which song we were playing.

Nico Brunstein: I think it was actually...

Sam Slocum: It was the walk on music.

Nico Brunstein: Yeah. No, I think it was "Manhattan Youth," which is from our EP, but that one's like, I think we keep that one in the rotation because it is that song, right, that we have. We have, I guess, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes different, but...

Sam Slocum: Yeah, I feel like kids can get that reaction sometimes.

Nico Brunstein: And then "I Have The Answer."

Sam Slocum: "I Have The Answer." But yeah, no, it's um, it, yeah. He's a great friend of ours and...

Nico Brunstein: Very wise.

Sam Slocum: Thank you for the kind words about the documentary.

Ayisha Jaffer: Oh, it's beautiful. I feel like it's just great to have that, too, and be a part of the process and feel like invited into the conversation of what you're doing and how important it was to you all.

Sam Slocum: Thank you.

Ayisha Jaffer: Now you mentioned "I Have The Answer." That's a song that we're playing here on The Current. There is — and you alluded to this, Nico — there's some real, like, stress and raw energy to that song. I'm just wondering where it channels from.

Sam Slocum: Well, that song started with Skyler, and he he came up with the guitar part, and that main lyric, "I have the answer just for a little while," and he showed it to us. He had, like the main chords, and pretty much instantly the song, kind of like the basic structure, happened, and then we knew instantly it was the closer. And then we kind of put it down, because we had it in a way that just, we felt it was like a great, great song, and it was gonna be amazing, but we just kind of decided to put it down for a bit.

Nico Brunstein: Yeah, I feel like once, as soon as we finished, it was one of those that definitely kind of, yeah, since Sky had already had the two main parts down, we kind of like locked it in. We're like, "This is gonna be in the album. Let's move on to other stuff." But I think we were actually just listening to the original demo, and it's like, a lot slower, and it's kind of just wall-of-sound noise the entire time, instead of kind of like subdued verses. So I think it's, if anything needs to be, like, more, like, stressful, like, it was just kind of like this huge, like, buildup of tension, and then it gets to the outro. But now it's more of, like, more ballad-y, I would say.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, but I know that as far as the stress in the song, I know Sky, when he talks about writing it and coming up with that, I mean, we all, like everybody, you know, go through, like, tough periods. And I think this album, the way I look at it is it is like a like a fingerprint of that year of our lives, and that song, musically speaking, Sky was just feeling a lot. And I mean this reality we have for us is like, you know, we're, you know, we're getting somewhere, and our band is like, but we're still like a blip on the map, you know? And a fraction of the band I imagine us as one day. And the reality of that is pretty interesting, because, you know, we all have to pay our rents and stuff, and so we were working full-time jobs, and then, but you're also working the full-time job of being in a band, and it really is nonstop, and it leads to some pretty intense moments. And so that explains the music, the musical stress you might be feeling. But lyrically, I then, yeah, like, you know, I love it when Sky has a line, because then I'm tasked with, like, filling in the rest of the blanks. And it kind of creates this really complicated but really beautiful thing, because it's like two minds are kind of going at it. And yeah, so then I wrote the rest of the lyrics about just like a moment where, I guess I felt like I had the answer, and it was just like a really mundane moment, it was like being at the the Natural History Museum in New York. And anyway, then everything kind of just like fell in from there.

Ayisha Jaffer: Till you were looking at the whale, and you were like, "Yeah, I have the answer!"

Sam Slocum: I was with my ex-girlfriend, and I was just like, "Do you think that's real?" Because we couldn't tell if it was, like, a big stuffed whale or something like that, like a taxidermied kind of thing. She was like, "I don't know." And then we went and we looked at it. Maybe I'm saying too much.

Ayisha Jaffer: I still, I mean, I've done the same thing. I still don't know, so...

Sam Slocum: Yeah, it's not real.

Ayisha Jaffer: OK.

Sam Slocum: It's a model.

Ayisha Jaffer: Everybody.

Sam Slocum: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: I love that you acknowledge, too, though, something that not a lot of artists acknowledge: It is a hustle. Like, it's not, like, it's not, I mean, you're working and you're trying to do this, and they're both jobs, and it's real, and it is, I've always said it's a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.

Sam Slocum: Yeah, no, I definitely agree. And I think, like, I think my dad probably said this, but yeah, like, you have to be doing the hard work, because then if the luck does end up coming and you're not ready for it and you haven't put in the time, then what's the point?

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, that's the separator. But I see you guys really on an upward trajectory. We really believe in what you're doing, and we're so excited you're here at The Current, so thanks for being here.

Sam Slocum: Thank you very much. 

Ayisha Jaffer: Before I let you both go, is there anything else you would like our listeners to know? I know it's a big, open ended question. I'm sorry!

Sam Slocum: No.

Ayisha Jaffer: That's totally...

Nico Brunstein: Wait, wait, wait, wait. There's gotta be something!

Sam Slocum: Oh yeah, I guess. Like, hope you enjoy the album, and we're working on new stuff, and, oh, we're going to, we're doing a lot of shows coming up in the next year. Yeah. Yeah. 

Nico Brunstein: I don't know, I don't know if we hit Minneapolis, but we hit Chicago and Detroit. That's not announced yet.

Sam Slocum: They'll be announced soon.

Nico Brunstein: Yes.

Ayisha Jaffer: You'll be in the Midwest sometime soon.

Nico Brunstein: We'll be in the Midwest, if you're willing to take the drive out. But yeah, no, I guess that's about it.

Sam Slocum: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: Been Stellar, thanks for being here with us on The Current. Again, Sam, Nico, thank you. Scream From New York, NY is out now.

Sam Slocum: Thank you. Nice to meet you.

Ayisha Jaffer: Nice to meet you, too.

Credits

Guests – Been Stellar
Host – Ayisha Jaffer
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video – Evan Clark
Audio – Josh Sauvageau
Camera Operators – D'Vir Rudin, Evan Clark
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Been Stellar – official site