The Donde Stars

Soaring anthemic tunes - BBC Wales



The Donde Stars are set to make a real impression - South Wales Echo



The Donde Stars are a 4 piece alternative rock band based in Cardiff, South Wales. The soaring and tragically beautiful vocals of (lead singer and guitarist) Luke Williams, float seamlessly over the intricate and lush textures of Tyler Rhys (guitars/keys/vocals)’. The band is completed by the driving and schizophrenic rhythm of bassist Mathew Acreman and drummer Steve Rodd, who can collectively transform Vivaldis in to Vampires.



The band have been described as ‘F***ing Brilliant’ BBC Wales, are 'set to make a real impression' South Wales Echo, with '‘Moon-lit Epics’ BBC 6 music' and are hotly tipped to do extremely well in 2009. The band have already supported the likes of Kate Nash, The Streets, The Super Furry Animals and Red Light Company, and will be supporting Supergrass at a festival this summer.



The Donde Stars are currently sprinkling the last of the fairy dust on their debut album ‘Farewell…Tragic Lightning Boy’ at Arial Studios in a remote farm in Carmarthenshire. Legendary producer Tim Lewis, formerly of Spiritualized, has again exceeded himself doing a phenomenal job and the band are extremely excited about the album’s release penciled in for sometime between September and October 2009. As drummer Steve comments, ‘The album is a real triumph for what is good in music. We have completely self funded the album and have paid for all the recording sessions. There have been no silver spoons and no hand outs, we have managed to retain complete integrity and the album sounds exactly how we want it to sound. Admittedly it has taken a while, but the whole experience has been worth it.’



The album ‘Farewell… Tragic Lightning Boy’ will be preceded by the release of new single ‘America’ in late July. ‘America’ is a sweeping existentialist lullaby that details a conversation between god and a drunk. The B side to the single, ‘Merciless The Sky Is’, is an edited poem written by frontman Luke Williams that details a character's own contempt of his seemingly perfect life that he cannot reconcile with his childhood aspirations. The song is truly unique and the band's fondness of it will probably mean it will become a bonus track on the actual album.



The contemporary collective of individuals known as The Donde Stars was formed in 2008. Despite its founding members, Luke Williams and Mathew Acreman, both attending the same shitty comprehensive school it was not until much later that they would meet each other in a chance encounter in a cyber chat room and form the foundations of The Donde Stars. As Mat comments 'It was probably a Karate Kid appreciation chat room or something, I remember we both really liked the Karate Kid!' As Luke explains ‘Our school was like some Neo- Darwinian experiment, we pretty much just kept our heads down and that’s probably why we didn’t get to know each other sooner’.



Having struggled to find the band members who could fully realise Luke and Mathew’s vision, they came across accomplished local film director and solo artist Tyler Rhys, through an ad on a local gumtree page. Sharing a mutual disillusionment with his musical peers Tyler joined the band and the chemistry worked immediately. Mat comments ‘It was like going through a skip and finding a widescreen telly’.

Several months later the band came to the attention of locally renowned sound tech Steve Rodd. After mixing a Dondes acoustic session Steve enquired if the band needed a drummer. Though a bassist by nature, Steve decided to take on the roll of the drummer after a careful statistical analysis of bassist vs drummer mortality rates.



The name ‘The Donde Stars’ originates from a poem that Luke penned at the age of 11 entitled ‘Donde esta la luz’ (where is the light). Luke explains, ‘I wrote it with a rudimentary 11 year old’s grasp of the Spanish Language and the poem was about how insignificant I felt compared to the stars in the sky. As such the name is a kind of loathsome amalgamation of the two words! I just wanted a band name that kind of represented that kind of romantic nostalgia of being a kid as that features quite heavily in our song content’.



The album ‘Farewell….Tragic Lightning Boy’ to be released on the band’s own label ‘Antic Records’ is sure to be hailed with critical acclaim upon it’s release. Tyler states ‘Loads of unsigned bands continue to put out EP’s all the time. This band has always been about the bigger picture and we wanted to show we can work hard enough to create a full-length album on a shoestring budget and still have it sound fantastic. These are big songs; sometimes epic, sometimes delicate and dreamy, but they are always honest-we live in the real world.well, most of the time'



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