Starflyer 59 just dropped Vanity, their sixteenth album, via the always impressive Velvet Blue Music. We’ve been featuring the singles from this record on our weekly Spotify Mixtape, and we were enthralled with last year’s Miami EP. Vanity does not disappoint. After many years, and many fantastic releases with Tooth and Nail, Jason Martin returned to work with the label he started with back in the early 90s and Jeff Cloud is doing it up! Lush and wonderfully designed vinyl singles and a seriously impressive short film/music video for the project’s first single, “Life In Bed.”

 

With the entire album now available True Tunes reached out to Jason Martin for one of our “Catching Up With” features. Enjoy!

John J. Thompson: Tell us about “Life In Bed” – first, the sound. You definitely made some sonic pivots here. Were the instrumental choices something you just wanted to try out, and then the idea for the song came from the flow of those sounds or did the song emerge, and then you chose the sounds that you felt best to fit that song?

 

Jason Martin: Life was the first song we worked on for the album. I wanted to do some slow and minimal songs. I did a demo of the tune and asked TW Walsh if I could send it to him to work on for fun. He sent it back with some keys and arrangements and I thought it was cool. I had no intention at that time we would be doing a whole record… sent him another and another and at about 3 songs in we decided to just turn it into an LP.

 

JJT: The lyric is very interesting in that it is both particular and impressionistic. You say very specific things, but it has such a unique tone to it that listeners can bring their own context to it and end up interpreting it however they want. How did you approach the composition of this lyric? Was there a particular event or story that inspired it? Did you have an intent with it?

 

JM: I wrote this tune around the same time as “This Recliner. I had some health issues for a bit. When you are not feeling well for an extended period your mind goes a little crazy…. I would see everyone in my house going on about their lives even in mundane things like going to the grocery store or something, and you wonder when you will be able to do things like that again. It was in that mindset I wrote the tune.

 

JJT: How directive of the overall style, flavor, and flow was “Life In Bed” for the upcoming album overall? 

 

JM: We led off with “Life…” for that reason. It seemed to represent the record as a whole pretty well. The songs are pretty slow and minimal for the most part, with a couple of “upbeat” tunes here and there to round it out.

JJT: It’s interesting to see you returning to work with Velvet Blue Music after years with Tooth and Nail. It’s also always exciting, for us at least, to explore the motivations and inspirations that propel veteran artists to push themselves to create their strongest work deep into careers that do not involve the kind of fame and fortune many people associate with rock and roll “success.” What keeps you going all these in, and why the transition back to VBM?

 

JM: We did the Miami Ep together last year and it worked well. Cloud works very hard doing special things for these releases and getting them to our core fans. I have been friends with Brandon from tooth and nail for 25 years now, but just decided to go this route on this record.

At this stage in my life with music, I just take it record by record. If I have some songs, and mainly if I like the songs or the direction I will put out more music. Obviously, we are not selling millions of records, so you have to like what you are doing to keep doing it after all these years.

JJT: What are the specific plans for the album release, and is there any talk of or plans for any kind of live performances by SF59 at this point?

 

JM: We released 3 singles, followed by the LP. There has been a little talk about possibly doing some shows, but at this point it’s just talk.

 

JJT: Tell us about this amazing video / short film. Who developed the story and imagery? How involved were you in the process? It seems like a very intricate and involved process. Is it difficult to allow a filmmaker into your creative process – to let someone else play with your Art and create within it?

 

JM: The short was directed by Hunter Christy.  He helped up with a teaser video for the Miami EP, and he had worked with Cloud on a Fine China video. I was involved in the process as far as the general overview, but Cloud and Hunter had all the phone calls, script reads, talks about staging, etc. I trusted Hunter, and he definitely did not let us down. The goal was to have a dark, slow-moving, Twilight Zone-type vibe. It’s also worth noting that we had an extremely nice friend of the band and label who donated a % of his winnings to help make this video happen!

 

JJT: Thanks for taking some time to catch up with us. It’s great to hear you putting out some of the best music of your career this deep into the story.

 

JM: Thanks for the interview. We’ve known each other for a long time, and I’m glad to see you are still cranking along.

 

(Order your copy of VANITY while supplies of the physical version last through their Bandcamp site HERE. See the Life In Bed video below and make sure to subscribe to the Velvet Blue email list. They do not put out bad stuff.)

 

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