earthstar bio
Who On Earth Are We?
Earthstar are production team duo Simon Wong and Ken Shaw whose aim is to develop a conscious music label that produces quality music to chill to, reflect to, and groove to.
GENRE AND INFLUENCES
Although difficult to categorize, they loosely fit into the uplifting chillout pop arena inspired by artists such as:
Brian Eno, Bee Gees, Massive Attack, Jimi Hendrix, Carpenters, Stone Roses, David Sylvian, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Robert Fripp, William Orbit, Burt Baccharach, Kitaro, The Beatles, Art Of Noise, Lenny Kravitz, Faithless, Pink Floyd, Harold Budd, Spiritualized, Beach Boys, Moorcheeba, and Nitin Sawnhey, in fact any music really, we love music.
History
Fuelled by their discontent with the plots of Sunset Beach, Europop and after effects of takeaway curry they set out to dedicate themselves to be as important as the legendary Colonel Sanders (strange since we're vegetarians) and maybe in the process bring a little more peace and love to the world.....
Whilst Ken makes a wicked pizza, it's not the only thing he brings to the Earthstar phenomenon. He is producer, visionary and principal lyricist for Earthstar. |
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| Apart from being a rubbish dancer Simon also has a few strings to his bow. He is a singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, sound engineer and lead vocalist for Earthstar. In the late 80's he played with several teenage bands experimenting with rock, funk, indie and pop, then diversifying into ambient soundtrack music. He is self taught in guitar, piano,drums and fingersnaps and in the 90's he built a professional music studio where he learnt the art of modern sound production and engineering. |
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They share the art and design side of things which adds to Earthstar's truly independent spirit.
Where It All Started
On one fateful day on January '93 a chance meeting took place in a London meditation centre.
Simon noticed a tall bloke coming out of the dining room and said" Hello Admiral!"
With a smirk Ken replied "Hello Captain!" And thus Earthstar was born!
(We would like to add however that neither of us has been in the Navy, been onboard the Starship Enterprise or sung with The Village People)
After a bit of a chat we found that we shared similar interests in music, popular culture,philosophy, inner space travel,conscious living communities and a very strange sense of humour. Ken came up with the name Earthstar which comes from the belief that we are all stars of the Earth, each playing a leading role in the drama of our lives..... pretty corny innit? But remember guys-corny is the new cool!
We started to experiment with tunes, one of which was a Cockney sing-along song called Lovely Street, but the thing that concreted our partnership was producing a soundtrack for an experimental play to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.We both felt the beginnings of a trust and chemistry in what we were doing and as our journey into spirit and sound deepened, we decided to set up a creative living and working environment.
Our creative base was situated in North West London Harlesden, a vibrant afro indo community where the rhythms of life and the beats of a kaleidescope of music
pumped through the walls and floorboards of our chilled out meditation zone.
Together with soaking up the sights and sounds we didn't escape the darker side of Harlesden with the loss of equipment from several burglaries and being held at knifepoint in our own home by a crack addict! We tried to sit him down and give him a tarot reading but he wasn't interested in the future, he preferred to stay in the moment!
(The crack addict was caught later that day cornered in a council estate by police swat team wielding sub machine guns..... maybe he should have had the tarot reading after all !)
There were many other adventures but that's for another time-let's get back to the music....
So embracing the light and dark of what was going on around us we carried on developing the Earthstar sound and the dream of the Earthlounge Studio became a reality.
Our daily study of peace and meditation continued at the centre where we met and in 1997 we released a relaxation meditation instrumental called Jewel Purpose with a live performance at the Mind Body Spirit Festival Alexandra Palace.
The cd became a worldwide best selling New Age classic.
Whilst still writing songs and experimenting with production techniques, our desire to effect positive change on a community level lead us to undertake creative projects coordinating, collaborating, producing and performing in a variety of events across the UK and abroad.
It was a rich experience working with other musicians, singers, performers and dancers in musical theatre, peace concerts, festivals and interfaith sessions taking place in town halls, community centres, churches, universities, theatres, outdoor marquee tents, Wembley Arena and even Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
This cultural exchange of the profound and humourous gave us insights and inspiration to the way Earthstar music was taking shape. Work had begun on a trilogy called A Faith Odyssey of which Being In Love is the first installment.
Come 2004, Destiny served us a detour to a Norfolk farm to help out with the birth of a new holistic health centre.A year long soap opera ensued dealing with builders, architects, staff disputes and relationship dramas- this was the stuff that reality tv was made for. If it had been made into a tv show, it would have been a national hit!
Despite all the fun and games, we had an album to finish and we set up a temporary makeshift studio on the building site.
It wasn't ideal with electrical power inconsistencies that blew out some of our gear and passing tractors knocking speakers to the ground but it had to do!
The results of the production on Being In Love are unbelievable considering, please check it out!
So to 2005....
We return to London and reestablish the Earthlounge Studio this time in North London, an altogether more relaxed environment and less hazardous than Harlesden where there is an annual gang related murder!
Working on launching the website and promoting Being In Love has been our main focus so far and also trying not to get blown up on public transport. Bus riding is one of Simon's favorite things, being a stunt guy flying out the top of a bus in a terrorist drama certainly isn't.
Boy does the world need to chill.
Where We're Going
The next chapter will see us networking conscious creative minds around the world, to develop the Earthlounge to be a landing site and forum for all inner space cadets to hang out in, to produce the next installment of A Faith Odyssey which will be funkier and livelier, squeeze in some public events but most importantly continue to love and enjoy life whatever it may bring.....
The adventure is only beginning, join Earthstar in their quest to bring universal multi-dimensional interplanetary world harmony or failing that, just a smile to your face will do:)
Love and Peace (altogether now) Love and Peace
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