Silver Starling Are in Touch With Their Feelings

Posted on Nov 19th 2009 6:30PM by Drew Berner
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Marcus Paquin, mastermind behind CMJ-breakout act Silver Starling, is an emo kid at heart. It's not that he's into black eyeliner and skinny jeans, but in that he isn't afraid to express his emotions.

"I've never been able to help myself. When I listen to a record that moves me, I'm the guy who's covering his face because he's bawling or laughing out loud," Paquin tells Spinner over the phone from Montreal, where he's working as an engineer on Arcade Fire's upcoming record. "Music is something that registers in a part of my brain that nothing else does, so it's something that I always had to do, always wanted to do despite whatever was going on around me."

Maybe that's what strikes a chord with listeners when they hear his band's lush, guitar-centric pop. Their first five-song EP was strong enough to attract love from multiple indie labels before landing them a deal with Last Gang Records, home to bands like Metric and the New Pornographers.

Paquin's songs are remarkably evocative considering his highly technical background -- by day he's an audio engineer tweaking dials for bands like Arcade Fire, who happen to employ his wife and bandmate Marika Anthony-Shaw. But he says it's just in his nature to be emotional about music.

Though he's always been surrounded by music, it was only a couple of years ago that he began creating songs of his own. After penning a handful of tunes, Anthony-Shaw convinced him to try them out onstage. Paquin's songs struck a chord with Montreal's music community, prompting him to augment his arrangements with drummer Liam O'Neill, who previously played with Young Galaxy. They quickly built a following and soon had enough songs for the self-titled debut album they released this fall.

Paquin doesn't assume success is inevitable for Silver Starling -- after all, he loves his day job and plans to keep it as long as he can -- but he realizes that the band, with their various experiences working with widely-recognized acts, might have a better shot than most.

"Any experience [you have] as a musician often and/or usually works to expand you as a musician. Both Liam and Marika, after playing in bands who tour and playing in front of lots of people and [having] some success, they see what works and what doesn't work," Paquin says. "All of us in our past experiences, every band you play in you learn how to best communicate so that your work is [both] fun and efficient."

Playing music alongside his wife certainly helps Paquin to maximize his enjoyment and raise the level of communication. Anthony-Shaw brings much to the table musically, but having a bandmate to discuss ideas with at any time of day or night is has benefitted them both professionally and personally.

"It doesn't go without its challenges. Certainly there's that saying, 'don't mix work with pleasure,' and that's exactly what we're doing," Paquin admits. "However, we take a lot of pleasure in working together, and the more we work together the more our relationship grows. It's been really exciting to watch that growth and to grow together as partners and as band members."

But he and his wife are cautious about how much they allow their relationship to affect the band.

"It's definitely fair game to talk about music at the dinner table -- it's not so much fair game to talk about our relationship in the van."