June Star {thanks, JUNE STAR}

Though members have come and gone, the band has been put on hold and revived over and over — that’s June Star – they soldier on. In fact, at 10 years old, June Star is thriving. The band is working on a double album, Love, Honor and Negotiate. June Star consists of Andrew Grimm on guitar and vocals, Jason Butcher on drums and vocals and on bass is Timothy Bracken.

Cora Belle was an album that had a lot of really vivid snapshots, at least in the lyrics. Talk to me a little bit about where you’re coming from on that, Andrew.
GRIMM: I set out writing songs about people in Port Deposit, Md., kind of short story-esque, like little pictures of where they were at one particular time. Most of the people there are either trying to get out of town or stay, which it’s not too difficult to stay in a small town.

So if Cora Belle was an album of snapshots, what’s the new album?
GRIMM: That’s a good question. We’re still recording a lot of the stuff for the new double album, but it’s more cohesive; sounds working together and we’re trying to find a theme. Timmy, you want to take that because you’ve spent more time with the album so far than I have.
BRACKEN: Well, it’s songs about love, Andrew.
GRIMM: Well, many different types of love, but mostly G-rated love.

Where did the name of the album come from? It’s a gripping name.
BRACKEN: We were driving through Delaware. We were playing the Dewey Beach Americana-Folk Festival, which is a whole different story, and you know those billboards in front of churches that have little sayings on them? This was on a firehouse-billboard-thing and it just said “Love, Honor and Negotiate.” I looked at it and I was like, “I don’t know exactly what it means, but that’s the title of the album.”
GRIMM: It has a lot to do with… Timmy and I are splitting the album 50/50 and this is the first June Star album to have somebody else’s songs other than my songs on there. So there’s lots of love, there’s lots of honoring and lots of negotiating, but very, very positive negotiating.

Why were all the previous albums all your songs?
GRIMM: I’m kind of a control freak. I don’t know, I guess because I was in a band previous to this where we shared three songwriters. You know, it’s one of those things where not everybody was on the same page songwriting-wise. And so, when that band broke up, I decided I didn’t ever want to do that again — where I have to listen to someone’s songs that I don’t like and those people know who they are, I suppose.
When it came down to starting June Star, I just had a singular vision of what I wanted and then over the years, after 10 years of doing it that way, I thought it would be interesting to see how it works the other way. I write almost exclusively by myself, and Timmy writes by himself but he’s done some co-writing with some folks. So I just thought why not make a collaboration — why not try it?

Check out the full interview and live music from June Star on Baltimore Unsigned at 8 Tuesday night on 89.7 WTMD, listener-supported radio from Towson University

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