Steve Monteith and Vic Wayne are relaxing over mugs of beer at the
Black Bear Pub in Lynn Valley after a Saturday night
rehearsal with their band, Star Collector."Having been in two bands that played a bit and almost got there -- but didn't quite make the big time -- it's been a real relief for us to take a different approach," says Wayne, Star Collector's North Vancouver-based singer/guitarist. It's the George Costanza approach," he says, referring to the Seinfeld character who decided to take a new approach to life In one episode. "We're going to do the exact opposite of everything we did before, just to see what happens," according to Wayne. Wayne and guitarist Monteith (plus bassist Rob Medic and drummer Rene Lafleur) are taking a methodical, restrained approach this time.
For six years, Monteith and Wayne were principal
members of State of Mind and its successor, dear god.
The two hard-working independent bands released one
album each and racked-up almost 200 gigs. dear god even
did two cross-Canada tours. Monteith moved to Victoria in
the wake of dear god's demise. Wayne didn't lay the foundation
for Star Collector until 1996 when he began writing songs with Dave Lawson,
a childhood buddy from Edmonton. During their teens,
Wayne and Lawson played together as the generically named
Mods. But their Star Collector partnership fizzled and
Lawson returned to Alberta in summer of 1997. Monteith
reappeared on the mainland just in time to fill the vacancy and finish
recording. "When Steve got into the project, he said let's just get back to the stuff we grew up on and play what we love. Who cares about all the posing that goes on out there and all the trends," says Wayne. Monteith who hails from the southeast B.C. town of Wasa, was weaned on a steady diet of 1970's AM radio classics by Eddie Money and Boston. Wayne, meanwhile, was among Edmonton's tight-knit crew of parka-wearing, Vespa-riding mods who were fascinated with the music and fashion of mid-1960's England.
At the height of the mod revival in 1982, Wayne flew
to Vancouver to catch a Kerrisdale Arena concert by
the Jam. It was the same weekend as his high school graduation.
"We met them after the soundcheck and they signed some
stuff for us. Then we went over to McDonald's and ate
our garbage. When we got back, we realized that we had
lost their autographs. We were kicking ourselves," he
recalls. "We went to the concert, had a great time. At
the end of the night they let us back into the dressing rooms to meet them and they re-signed everything."
On Star Collector's 12-song debut,Demo Model 256,
one encounters some elements of the Jam, the Kinks,
and even a hint of the Monkees; the band's name is the
title of the "pre-fab four's" paean to groupies.
Wayne produced the album himself, but enlisted Chris
"Sleepy J" Vaughan-Jones as engineer. A chance meeting
at a Vancouver studio during a Star Collector session
led to mixing by GGGarth Richardson. He's well known
for his work with Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot
Chili Peppers and Rusty. "We had this old beat up early
'70s Vox amp and GGGarth saw it and said how much do
you want for it?," Wayne says. The band politely declined
the offer and Richardson left. Wayne says
Vaughan-Jones "Do you know who that was? GGGarth Richardson,
he's a world famous producer, he'd like to buy that
amp." Star Collector happily parted with the amp in
exchange for Richardson's mixing wizardry. He ended
up using the amp extensively when he recorded 54-40's
Since When album.
For now, Demo Model 256 is available only on
Star Collector's Web site
