St. Louis funk band Starwolf headlines first show in 2 years after viral TikTok
Three months after releasing its latest EP "Tropical Disco," funk band Starwolf is bringing its intergalactic jams to the stage for an EP release concert on Nov. 9 at Off Broadway.
The band has been promoting the show for some time, stapling flyers to Red Hot Riplets bags and passing them out around the city. It's been two years since Starwolf headlined a show. The band — consisting of vocalist and bassist Chris Rhein, guitarist and keyboardist Max Sauer and drummer Tim Moore — delayed the release concert for the 2020 EP "Astro Lobo" until 2021 due to the pandemic.
But the band is ready to publicly celebrate "Tropical Disco." For the show they've intentionally curated a small, intimate performance with an opening set from St. Louis-based producer and artist tristano. Rhein and Sauer agreed that a smaller show with fewer openers allowed them to engage more with their fans and perform more songs.
"It's going to be a good time, and I would hate to miss it." Sauer says.
Starwolf developed "Tropical Disco" while quarantined. Although the band is based in St. Louis, the pandemic prevented the trio from creating in person.
"We couldn't get together," Rhein says. "The past releases were very collaborative... and we couldn't do that."
Sauer spearheaded the EP's creation from his home studio in Springfield, Ill., with Rhein and Moore sending over their parts for Sauer to add. During the pandemic, Sauer stumbled upon Brazilian funk and old-school disco songs that began influencing Starwolf's sound evolution. The band started leaning more into instrumental based music, slowly moving away from their traditional pop sound.
At times, Sauer was unsure how his bandmates felt about the songs he was crafting. However, after receiving positive feedback on the first track, "Moon Castle," Sauer says surprising Rhein and Moore with a different, mind-blowing track was something he looked forward to.
"It was just sort of like a challenge to me to see how far I could take a song on my own, and then the reward was just getting their reaction," Sauer says.
"The funk and the groove were what we loved," Rhein adds. "That's what we were. We've been chasing that sound with Starwolf from Day 1."
The band found its groove with "Tropical Disco." Described by Sauer as "robust," the EP leans into melodic, upbeat tunes that aim to make listeners dance and feel good.
Although the band has been performing together since 2016, "Tropical Disco" is its most successful release so far.
Songs like "Moon Castle" and "Boca Chica" are long-winded, galactic adventures while "Get Down Tonight" shines as the band's most popular streaming release. It landed on Spotify's "Fresh Finds" playlist when it was released as a single in January and went viral on TikTok when the band dropped a snippet of the song along with a picture of them all aged to look in their 60s saying they were a disco act from the 1970s that couldn't get their material published back in the day.
While Starwolf's first two projects centered solely around its three members, "Tropical Disco" included features from musicians around the world looking to virtually collaborate during the pandemic. Italian pianist Marcello Cassanelli lent his sharp keystrokes to songs throughout the album. Tim Lefebvre, best known for playing with David Bowie, played bass guitar on six of the seven tracks on "Tropical Disco."
Although bringing in new musical voices and creating remotely was different for Starwolf, Moore says the end result was a masterpiece.
"It started out just out of necessity but through that we learned like, 'Oh, wow we're getting this different result that we really like,'" Moore says.
Still, Starwolf is figuring out what its audience enjoys the most, as the group strays further away from pop and more into the funk genre.
"So far, it feels like people are liking it," Sauer says. "So, we're still in the process of trying to find our audience."
Although Starwolf doesn't have any plans on touring soon, the band is open to whatever opportunities come its way. In September one month after releasing the EP, the band performed at Music at the Intersection. They're releasing "Tropical Disco" on vinyl at the Nov. 9 concert and working on a new EP scheduled to be released in 2025. In the meantime, the band is staying dedicated to music that makes people dance and that keeps the groove alive.
"Every time I've tried to write something that isn't funky and groovy, I end up just hating it," Sauer says.
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