I recently went to Connecticut to visit a friend and had no intentions of going to a concert but that’s where I found myself at the end of the night. It wasn’t like a usual concert, it was in a small room with a small amount of people in a very intimate setting and I hadn’t even heard of the band playing before. But after just the first song, I knew this band would soon become one of my favorites and they have. I also knew I had to talk to them after the show and get an interview! Well I did, so here it is! They call themselves The Northstar Sessions and with their flawless harmonies, commitment and incredible talent, they are bound to go far!

by Melanie Goffman

EDGE: When did you guys start playing music together?

TNS: We all met as session musicians in Los Angeles around 2007. Matt was living in San Diego, and Kane and Dave were living in Los Angeles. Matt met Kane through a songwriters circle and began writing songs together. When they were ready to start making some recordings, they met Dave while he was playing for another band. The first recording was an EP of demos really, entitled To Be Continued and everything just took off from there.

EDGE: The three of you harmonize perfectly together. Have you all always sung and had leads in different songs?

TNS: Most of the songs were sung by Matt and Kane at the beginning. But all three of the band members have been singing since they were children and as session musicians, Kane and Dave were singing backup for most of the bands they worked with… it helps that all three members of TNS have great ears for harmony.

EDGE: Where did you come up with the name for the band?

TNS: ‘The North Star’ has always been the guiding light for sailors and travelers. We feel that music has always been our ‘North Star’, and then we heard the reference in a Black Crowes song and it was pretty much solidified as the moniker we would trade on. The only problem was that there was already a band called Northstar, so as we all met as session musicians in Los Angeles, we thought it a great fit to add session onto the name and call ourselves The Northstar Session.

EDGE: Your music reminds me a little of Augustana and Ryan Adams. Have either of them influenced your sound at all?

TNS: We consider Ryan Adams to be one of the greatest songwriters of our generation, and I don’t think we’d have many people disagree with us on that. He’s definitely been an influence for us, as I’m sure he’s also been influenced by many of the bands that we grew up listening to - from Tom Petty to CSN. But wee don’t really know much Augustana.

EDGE: You’ve played on both the east and west coast. Do you prefer one coast over the other, or is there favorite venue that you’ve played?

TNS: We don’t really have a favorite coast, per se. We are based in Los Angeles, so the West Coast was a natural fit for us, and costs us far less to tour. We’ve played some large stages and small stages, and I guess our favorite big stage would have to be the Wolf Den at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. I mean, the night after we played it, Leon Russell was playing - a great stage, and probably our highest profile stage, yet. Our favorite small stage would probably be a toss-up between The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, and Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. They’re small stages, in big cities, so the crowds are different than the small towns we play most often.

EDGE: Do you prefer smaller, intimate shows or crowded, larger shows?

TNS: To be honest, we’d play to 10 people in a small town any day if they were there to see us - that’s the real difference in a “good crowd” and a “bad crowd.” We play for the people, whether it’s 2 people or 2,000 people. Our largest crowd to date is somewhere around 1500 people. So at this point, intimate small shows are sometimes our most fun.

EDGE: What is your songwriting process like? Where does your inspiration come from?

TNS: Our songwriting has primarily been between Matt and Kane. Dave writes as well, and on our future recordings, the songwriting is becoming more of a team effort. Matt and Kane originally met in a songwriters circle, and they bring song ideas to each other and hash out the parts together. They write mostly from personal life experience, and Matt also writes from stories he reads and hears about in the news and documentaries, etc. Dave has less of a writing background, more of an arranging and producing background, and was most often a hired-gun backing up other artists for much of his professional music career.

EDGE: How has the response been from students when you’ve played at their college campuses?

TNS: We’ve had an unbelievable response from college students. This is our first year really putting in the time with colleges. It’s sometimes all about timing with them as well… I mean, you have to be polished and ready to really showcase your sound and your specific strengths. Students are often so open-minded, and emotionally available in a way that is different than your typical bar-goer, and that’s a great way to meet people from a performer’s standpoint. We really appreciate performing for people who can appreciate our work and abilities.

EDGE: You were on an episode of the show “Parenthood”. How did that come about? What was that experience like?

TNS: The Executive Producer of Parenthood, Lawrence Trilling, heard our music through a friend of a friend, and he had his office contact us about using the music in the show. We thought it was just a placement until they asked us about shooting the scene, and what time we had to be at the studio for filming. It was a pretty awesome experience! We shot it in a real recording studio, and interestingly enough, a famous one - The Village Recorders in Santa Monica, CA. This studio may not ring a bell to most music lovers, but it’s where Fleetwood Mac recorded Rumors, where John Mayer does most of his recordings, where Supertramp recorded their infamous Breakfast In America album, and where T-Bone Burnett does the majority of his grammywinning works these days. It was a fabulous place to spend a day, not to mention get to record in. In the show we perform the song You Come Up Like A Rose, and surprisingly enough, they didn’t use the version directly from the record - we recorded it LIVE in the studio that day when we shot the scene. So the version you hear on the show is one-of-a-kind. It only took us 2 takes to get it right, so the rest of the day we spent hanging out in the studio, and even got a tour of the whole facility!

EDGE: You guys do a lot of the business side of things such as booking and press. What is it like working behind the scenes of the industry?

TNS: We have the help of a great lawyer, and an excellent manager. But yes, we do 90% of thebooking ourselves, and we do all the advertising, press, and interviews ourselves. We also do all the duplication, ordering, merchandising, travel booking, accounting, and purchasing for the band. We are the band and the label. Sometimes it’s a bit daunting to be working the behinds the scenes stuff, but it’s been a fantastic learning experience, and we have received great help and advice from some of the big players in the industry.

EGDE: To me, your music sounds like a combination of rock, soul, pop, singer/songwriter and sometimes even a tiny bit of a country too. It kind of has a bit of everything. How would you classify and describe your sound?

TNS: Sometimes this is the hardest question to answer. In fact, we DO have a little of everything. You can say what you want about it, but we know it comes from our rich background of influences, in all these genres of music. We love all of it. When people ask us what we sound like, we tell them it’s rock and roll, the way we remember it when we grew up listening to our parents’ records. And we find ourselves somewhere on the rock and roll lineage between Tom Petty, CSN, Ryan Adams, and Wilco. After all, no one wants to hear the same song over and over again, right?

EDGE: An 8 out of 10 stars is a near perfect review and that’s what the Music Connection Magazine gave you. Whats that feel like?

TNS: Of course, we’re pretty proud of our recordings. But we never really feel they’re good enough. While they are usually the best we’ve done to-date, we are always trying to find ways of making better records for a price that we can afford. That being said, it’s pretty amazing that a magazine of their size takes time to review our record, and actually gives it such a great review. We’ve had nothing but stellar reviews of the records, from Music Connection Magazine to The Deli Magazine, to Classic Rock Magazine, and the list goes on… Now the real work is getting these great reviews to translate into a larger fan-base and a bigger brand for The Northstar Session.

EGDE: Would you say that your music has a “commercial appeal”? Do you think having that commercial appeal in today’s industry is a good thing, or is it something you try to achieve when you are making your music?

TNS: I can honestly say that “commercial appeal” is the last thing on our mind when we’re writing and recording. Usually it’s all about the song, first. Then we try to arrange the song in such a way that it’s not only fun to listen to, but accessible to a large spectrum of listeners. That’s about all we care about when making music - we want to appeal to as many listeners as possible, while making the best songs we know how to make.

EDGE: What do you think makes TNS stand out from the other bands and music out there today?

TNS: The Northstar Session has harmonies like you don’t hear in a lot of music today, and we do it day in and day out, live in front of people every night. That is the thing that most sets us apart from other bands today. And what really blows people away is how tight we are. We are well rehearsed, we work very hard at writing and recording, and when you see us live, people swear it’s “too polished to be in this bar.” We’ll soon see!

EDGE: What song would you be embarrassed about if someone found it on your iPod? Any guilty pleasure songs or artists?

TNS: Hmm… that’s a hard one. We like a lot of music, and I bet a lot of it might surprise people. We’ve got everything from classical and jazz, to country, and even some of the most “pop” stuff you’ve ever heard.

EDGE: What advice would you give to aspiring musicians or people looking to start a band?

TNS: We would tell them this: If you love it, then do it. There are plenty of ways and means to make a living in the business, but if you’re just doing it for fame and glory, then it’ll feel like an up-hill battle all the way to the middle. That’s just our humble opinion, and heck, what do we know anyway? We’re too young in our careers to really have any wise words for the weary.

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