Starbenders release new single/video ‘Tokyo’ via Sumerian Records

Atlanta-based rock quartet, Starbenders have released a new single & video, “Tokyo,” via Sumerian Records. The single is the band’s first release since their 2023 album, Take Back The Night, their third full length, released a year ago, which spawned a Rock Charts hit with “The Game,” and featured a cover of Alice Cooper’s “Poison.” 

“It was really fun to write because that song just fell out of me,” says Starbenders lead singer/guitarist, Kimi Shelter. “It’s about extraterrestrials coming into our world. I can kind of see myself as being the ultra-terrestrial pulled into this dimension of the night time streets. The city is always alive, but at night it’s a whole other world. I think the character comes into the night and doesn’t really understand why they’re there and maybe is confused and then is trying to figure out who they’re supposed to go to.” 

“Tokyo” will be the first single to be released on the band’s 4th album, to be released in early 2025. 

With bandmates, guitarist Kriss Tokaji, bassist Aaron Lecesne and newest member, drummer Qi Wei, Shelter issues forth a high charged, highly committed mandate to rock, drawing as much inspiration from punk/post punk forerunners like Johnny Thunders and Joan Jett as with epic glam rock legends, Queen and David Bowie, and perhaps a wide new wave gamut that bounds from, say, Siouxee And The Banshees to Missing Persons. That said, the result is an entirely current, if not, brand new sound, collaboratively crafted with guitarist/producer/fifth member Nico Constantine, whose storied career includes everything from mentoring furious rockers on his Institution Records label to a multi-year stint as Lady Gaga’s musical director. 

It was Constantine who encouraged Shelter to sing and write songs, giving her and Lecesne the impetus to form a band. In 2016, Tokaji was enlisted and a year later, drummer Emily Moon, rounded the quartet off. Starbenders’ high glam, hard-rock, heartfelt heroics were equal parts anachronistic and futuristic. It was this lineup that caught the attention of Sumerian Records, recording two incandescent rock records, 2020’s Love Potions and the aforementioned, Take Back The Night. 

In early 2024, the band were dealt a significant blow when Moon made the decision to leave the band. “Emily had many moments where she was very present and supportive as well,” reflects Shelter. “I guess she got the seven year itch and had to bounce. It’s illegal to hold people hostage, so there you go.” Shelter wanted to maintain the two-girls/two-guys coed dynamic of her band, and knew full well the job was going to be, in her words, “some big platforms to fill.”

In typical Starbenders go-big mode, Shelter cast the net far and wide online to discover Qi Wei (pronounced “she way”), a drumming phenomenon from China who displayed amazing chops in various percussion competitions and was ready to become a Starbender. Shelter acknowledges the bravery Wei mustered up to take a great leap of faith, heading to America to play in a band whose members didn’t speak her language. Wei’s fears were allayed when some of her friends recalled seeing the band play when they were in London and conveyed their excitement accordingly.

“Yeah, we just went for it,” Shelter plainly states, as if finding a new band member from the other side of the planet is business as usual for any band. “That’s been something that’s really cool with our band. I’m not afraid to do the big jump or the big move. And it’s brought some really interesting people into our lives as a result of that, because we just dream big. No matter what the lineup was at that given time, there’s just always been a fluidity and a clear path in terms of creativity.” When she and Wei became roomies, Shelter had some bonus special moments. “She doesn’t speak much English at all, so we communicate pretty much through music. I have this beautiful gift of playing her Joan Jett for the first time. I’m watching somebody getting to listen to AC/DC for the first time! She doesn’t have that same framework that I or the boys did.” Upon further research, Shelter learned that Starbenders are the first Western band with a Chinese citizen as a band member. 

Unless you’re sedated, listening should inspire a primal urge to see Starbenders perform, and perform, they do. In their decade long existence, they have been no stranger to the road, playing shows literally all over the globe. They are a real rock n’ roll band who understand that playing live is fundamental to who they are. In fact, the band is currently on tour in Europe and the UK, set to play London’s Dome within hours of circulation of this release. 

Says Shelter, “People know what’s genuine. I do think that the truth has a certain frequency. And I think that people are just hip to it… at the end of the day, integrity stands the test of time.”