by izzy petraglia
photo by gabe long
New York City is widely-known as a nucleus for producing some of the greatest guitar bands — especially during the peak of its underground DIY scene in the 2000s to 2010s. Coming together over mutual yearning to exist in this space after it had ceased to exist, Been Stellar was formed. Vocalist Sam Slocum and guitarist Skyler Knapp began performing under the band’s name in their Michigan hometown as high schoolers, and were later joined by bass player Nico Brunstein, guitarist Nando Dale, and drummer Laila Wayans — completing their close-knit quintet.
After playing numerous gigs at bars and creating a scene of their own within New York — collaborating with close friends in the process, the group reconfigured themselves when the world came to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic. They utilized that time to hone in on creating their own signature sound and promptly hit the road when live music returned to support acts such as Fontaines and Shame. Time spent on days off during these tours allowed them to piece together Scream from New York, NY, their shoegaze and post-punk blended debut album released in June 2024.
This album truly showed why they’re one of the best bands coming out of New York right now, especially after connecting with the crowds on their most recent tour with Fontaines D.C.. Unclear caught up with Nico following their opening set at Fontaines D.C. in Toronto on navigating the saturated New York music scene and creating a sound that reflected the band’s personalities.
First of all, I loved your set Friday. The crowd also seemed to really like you guys. I was reading people’s posts after the show, and I saw a lot of people complimenting your performance!
Nico: “Yeah, it was good — the reception was really good. We met a lot of people at the merch table afterwards so that was really nice.”
How has touring been so far? Are there any stark differences between touring with Fontaine's versus other bands you've been with?
Nico: “Touring’s been great. Definitely, I think personally this [tour] has been my favorite one. As a band, it's been our favorite just because the crossover has been so successful.
This is definitely the first time we as an opener have felt that the headliner’s crowd has really gravitated towards us. We toured with Just Mustard and there was good crossover, but they definitely also have a more noisy and aggressive sound. So people who are diehard Just Mustard fans are gonna get lost by a couple of our more pop-y and sweeter songs. [Touring with] The 1975 was obviously a very stark difference — not to say that people didn't like it, but the ratio of people who were instantly hooked by our set was not nearly as much as it has been for Fontaines. So yeah, this has definitely been the most different one for sure. I think we're making the most fans even though these aren't necessarily the biggest shows that we've opened for. It’s been very fulfilling.”
Definitely. Even though it may not have been the biggest shows you've opened for, like you said, I feel like fans of those bands that are still coming up tend to appreciate an opener a lot more. You kind of end up gaining a stronger fan base from those sort of headlining sets. I know not all of you are from New York, but you guys started the band in New York. I've read pieces where you spoke about how it was kind of difficult to break into the New York music scene at first, especially because it is very, very saturated. There's obviously a lot of music that comes out of New York, but I wanted to know how you guys navigated building your presence around the city and are now building it around the world as you continue to grow?
Nico: “When we first moved, it was Sam and Sky’s project from their high school band, and they wanted to keep it going. So they self recorded and put out an album during their senior year of high school. Me, Nando, and Laila joined in to fill out their band. We were playing a lot of, I don't want to say shitty venues, but bars, essentially. We were just saying ‘yes’ to every single show, which maybe it was good, maybe it was bad, but I think we definitely got our name out there our first three years from 2017 to 2020.
Honestly, leading up to COVID, live music was in a really terrible place. It was so expensive to go out to a show and I think people in the US are less inclined to just do music discovery, like buying a random ticket and trusting the booker. I was also booking shows and I think people were just really desperate to fill out rooms, so you’d just go by Spotify listeners. So yeah, there was no music discovery going on or going to a random show because it was so expensive, drinks are also really expensive, and then you don't get a lot of younger people because they're really harsh on IDs. Then, there’s early shows and late shows in New York. If it's an early show, you get hard kicked out at 9pm, which is too early and now you've already spent like 40 bucks on tickets and drinks. Or it's a super late show and you don't start the show until 10 or 11 and you're not done until 2am. It was never ideal to go out to live music for smaller bands in New York pre-COVID.
I think COVID was a really good thing for us in terms of being a band, because I think that's when we looked at each other and decided whether we keep doing this or not. I think we decided that if we're going to keep doing this, all five of us need to write and contribute equally. I think that was a big changing point — just focusing on writing together instead of performing together. We did a DIY tour in the US with this band called Catcher that we're really good friends with in 2021. I feel like that was the first time we went out trying to get our name across nationally. The US is really hard because it's so big and a lot of people here still don't really care about rock music. It's getting more popular now, obviously.
In the UK, it was a lot easier because it's kind of the opposite of all the problems that the US or New York had with live music. Tickets are cheap, the drinking age is 18, promoters are well known to curate good bands. There's just a lot of trust, and the thing to do is to go out and go to a show. Also over there in England, pubs close at 11pm or midnight and that's a hard cut, whereas shows I think can go until two or three AM. So it just makes way more sense to go to a show if you're going out. Rock music has always been popular there and it never really fizzled out in the 2010s. So honestly, that's what helped us when we put out our EP. We weren't really doing well in the US or in New York until we came back from the UK. We got buzz in the UK and came back, it was weird how it happened.”
True — okay nice! That's really fascinating because I feel like, like you said, there's always rock bands coming out of the UK, but it kind of died down a lot in New York. Like you said, it’s just starting to come back, but that brings me to my question, who is on your Mount Rushmore of New York bands?
Nico: “Personally or as a band?”
Either or, I’d say why not do both!
Nico: “I'll try to maybe combine them. I would say The Velvet Underground is a big one for me and Sky. Television is also a big one. Recently, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I didn't really grow up listening to them too much, but more recently, I've gotten pretty deep into them. Sam and Sky are big fans. And then I'll do DIIV.”
All good choices!
Nico: “Yeah, their new album is probably my favorite of the year so far. That was another one that I wasn’t really exposed to in high school, but Sam, Sky, Nando and Laila were all huge DIIV fans in high school and now I'm on the wave.”
Now you're like, okay, I get it now. I'm catching up.
Nico: “Yeah, exactly.”
Just going off of that, I guess a lot of these bands can be inspiration, but what did it look like to navigate creating your own personal sound beyond each of your own musical influences?
Nico: “We all come from different backgrounds. Nando is from Brazil, he grew up playing a lot of bossa nova so he has definitely more jazzy chords sometimes. I think he was maybe scared to introduce that at first, but then we leaned into it a bit more. When I first started music in high school, I didn't really play any instruments, I was doing a lot of electronic music. So I was thinking a lot about production and structure, and making it more pop-y, if that makes sense. Laila produces a lot of trap and rap beats, so I feel like that influences a lot of her drumming.
I think it took a while for us to ‘gel’ the five of us as songwriters together. I think that's what the EP shows, the first bits of what that looked like. When we started touring more consistently, like the first real bit of touring we did, was right before that EP came out — so after it had been recorded. We were on the road for three months together. I think that's the first time where all of our music tastes started to compile and homogenize a bit. I think you can hear it a bit more on the album, where it's more contained but I feel like everyone has a voice on each song. There's definitely a more consolidated version of what the five of us really look like on the album, whereas the EP was still trying to figure all of our voices out.”
Nice, love it. I also didn't know at first that you guys named your band after Ben Stiller. This guy I know told me and I was like, that's fucking awesome. I'm obsessed with that. And no shade at all, but I was just wondering, why Ben Stiller?
Nico: “No yeah, I don't know — Sam and Sky came up with it their freshman year of high school. Sky says that he didn't mean to. I guess they talked about this artist called Com Truise and using a celebrity's name. I think Sky just came up with it on his own. I hate when people ever ask me what the band’s called. It takes me about a minute to describe it to them because when I say it out loud, they think I’m just saying the actor’s name. I think when you read it, like if you haven't heard it out loud at first, it looks cool and it sounds cool, and like, maybe you don't understand the pun at first. But yeah, always telling people what the name is, is like, I don't like cause I read the name first.”
Yeah, I read the name first, so when I found out I was like, '“Wait, Ben Stiller?”
Nico: “It's kind of weird that our name is attached to him. Because there's no homage paid to him at all.”
Yeah I was just really curious why him? Because if I ever named a band after an actor or something, I'd pick Michael Cera, or like Kieran Culkin.
Nico: “Yeah, I don't know. I don't think any of us are particularly fond of — I mean, I like him.”
Yeah, no, it’s not shade!
Nico: “I really like Severance, which he directed and I think wrote as well! So I am a fan, but I don’t think any of us are obsessed.”
I love that piece of lore. I just have two more — what were some challenges you guys may have faced as a group while recording your debut album that came out a few months ago?
Nico: “I think the biggest problem at first was maybe the nerves of doing it. We were working with Dan Carey, and for me personally, he was my dream producer. So I know I was a bit nervous working with him. I was hoping to work with him for years leading up to it. I just remember on the first day when we were trying to track, everyone was really stressed and nothing was sounding right. We were just playing way too fast or what not.
After a couple of hours of just settling in, we started to lock in a bit. So I think the nerves were tough. Then, we spent a week and a half just on vocals, we finished all the tracking of instruments in the first three or four days. The next week and a half was just on vocals. Not that Sam was struggling with it, he can sing the song perfectly every time. Dan really pushed him to get something extra out of him, which I know was pretty tough for Sam. I think he learned a lot as a singer doing that, and I think he improved a lot as a singer through that — but I know it was tough for him. Because [at that point] it was like, everything was kind of on him since all of our work was done as a band. It's also different because you can play a song on bass or guitar 100 times super easily, but vocals, I can't imagine the vocal strain that he was facing.
It was also our first time recording a full album and we didn't record any demos onto a computer.
We just knew the songs and how to play the songs live. We didn't really come into the studio with any ideas of overdubbing or any extra ideas that we wanted on the tracks besides the raw sound of the band. So I think we felt a bit of pressure to come up with stuff to layer on top of it and knowing when to stop. I think at first it was this notion that we had to record a ton of extra tracks to make it sound more full. Just learning to not overdo it was definitely a big thing.”
Honestly, I can't imagine the vocal strain in the process of recording music, having to do it over and over.
Nico: “Yeah, it's also singing with a band going on at the same time. I feel like it’s one thing being the only one in the room just singing from headphones, but it must be really different and probably a bit more intimidating [with a band]. You're not being masqueraded by anything. But I don't know, I'm kind of speaking for myself, just imagining.”
We’re just imagining what it could be like — it’s not like we know [laughs]. On that note, finally, I just wanted to ask now that the album's been out for a few months and this tour has been underway — what can people expect from you guys within the next year? What are you hoping to accomplish in 2025?
Nico: “In 2025, we're writing as much as we can now so we're gonna try to start recording as soon as we have another album. We're doing headline shows in January on the East Coast and headline shows on the West Coast in May, and I think we're starting to plan out a bit of a festival run in Europe right now. So I'm really excited for that. And then yeah, that's about it for 2025 so far.”
Not even just about it, that's a lot for 2025!
Nico: “Yeah [laughs], just trying to book out the rest of the year right now.”