A song-writing duo from Coaldale has captured first place in a national competition.
Steve Birss, who makes his home in Coaldale, and Austrian Graf, who calls Lethbridge home, are the duo known as Stars of Streetlights. After two weeks of online voting they captured the grand prize in Roland Canada’s third National Synthesizer Competition for their original track- Staggered Breathing.
They were awarded a prize package containing thousands of dollars worth of the latest Roland and Cakewalk products.
Stars from Streetlights was formed in July 2009 when the two musicians began writing together.
According to a press release from Roland the duo classify their genre as “emotronic”, they convey the emotional side of electronic music by combining Graf’s smooth and melodious feel with Birss’ glitchy electronic beats.
“Stars from Streetlights enjoy using a variety of instruments to create their sound, including analog monosynths, digital software and a 30 year old Rhodes. What started as a fun pastime soon turned into a project they have both become very passionate about. Stars from Streetlights are currently in the middle of writing a full length album.”
Birss was born in Vancouver but grew up in Lethbridge after his family moved there when he was five years old. A year ago he and his wife, Kindra, along with their two daughters, were looking for a family home and they ended up in Coaldale.
“My mom put me in piano when I was five.”
He studied piano completing his Royal Conservatory through Grade 9. He also plays guitar and bass guitar, and a little bit of drums. He said he has been writing songs for awhile now, he was 13 when he first sat down at the piano and tried his hand at writing music.
By the time he got to high school he was in a band with two other guys and they played around the region for eight years.
“I was always in a band.”
Church was also a venue for his music. He played there from the time he was 15 years old and still plays at church. He also studied music at Vanguard College. Playing music led him to recording, not only his own music but that of other musicians as well.
“I have all my own recording equipment.”
In fact he said part of the reason he and his wife came to live in Coaldale was because the home they found there had an ideal space for his equipment.
“I’ve always worked on music.”
Birss said he always has several projects on the go and even after a long day working in carpentry he can quickly get lost in his music.
He is the musical end of the duo, leaving the lyrics up to Graf’s creative nature. He said Graf approached him at church and suggested they should write music together. He’d heard her sing and knew she wrote music. He’d even recorded some of her songs.
At the time she was living in Calgary so getting together was a challenge. They wrote one song together and from that seed their musical partnership has grown.
“After the first song we realized we worked well together.”
Graf was born and raised in Lethbridge.
“I also started piano when I was five.”
Her grandmother put her in choir when she was eight years old.
“I’ve been in choirs every since.”
She sang with a youth choir at the University of Lethbridge and attended Ambrose University College. Her studies included two years in music and behavioral science.
Growing up she wrote a lot of poetry even at a young age and remembers at 15 or 16 trying to write music.
“That’s when I started writing.”
“It was a good way to get all that teenage angst out.”
She played saxophone in the school band and has more recently been learning guitar. Her full-time job is working at the music store, Long and McQuade, formally Noteables in Lethbridge.
Graf said she was in Grade 11 or 12 when she started her first band and over the years she has done a lot of solo work. She also teamed up with a friend and performed in the Calgary and Lethbridge regions before teaming up with Birss.
“It was a side project for me,” she said of their original collaboration.
They had first planned to do four or five songs together but when she made the move back to Lethbridge they decided to do a full album. The pair now have about seven songs completed and are continuing to work on what they think will be an album of 10 to 12 tracks.
Their process of writing a song generally begins with Graf coming up with a verse and maybe a chorus and then they work together on the evolution of the song.
“We work so well together,” she said.
“We’ve come to that point where we’re not afraid to say that sucks,” he said.
Neither gets offended by the other’s honesty and this has allowed them to work through rewrite after rewrite until they have a song they can both agree on.
“It’s a good partnership, we always get the best possible song,” said Graf.
She was actually the one who brought the idea of entering the Roland competition to Birss, thinking he might want to enter one of his songs.
He suggested why not enter one they’d written together. The song they entered, and won the contest with, was actually one they’d written for their album and so far, it’s their favourite song.
Both were surprised they won the competition. Birss said at first he thought he’d be happy with sixth place because at least they would make it to the online voting phase of the competition. But once they made it to the top six then he wanted to win.
“Our stuff is so different from previous winners,” said Graf.
With it being a cross Canada competition they didn’t know how they would fair in the voting.
“It’s really encouraging,” said Birss as they continue to work on their album.
“It’s pretty cool,” she said of their win.
The Roland Synthesizer Contest invited composers from across Canada to submit original music tracks created on hardware or software synthesizers. After receiving dozens of entries, a panel of judges, including Canadian Idol keyboardist Tony Padalino and Flashpoint composer Amin Bhatia, narrowed the field to the top six finalists who were then put to a two-week long public vote.
For more information about the contest and to listen to the winning tracks, visit the contest website at www.roland.ca/synthcontest and to keep up to date on the local musical duo visit starsfromstreetlights.com which redirects visitors to their MySpace page.