After finally deciding to leave their life-long Florida home in October, alt-country rocker Zane McLaughlin, who makes music under the moniker Oldstar, has recently made the move up to New York City. They’re joining the rest of the band here as they work on finishing up their next album and in just a short time have already made a name for themselves in the city’s burgeoning independent scene. Over a cup of coffee, we talked about Neil Young, their summer tour, and bringing back rock music to the youth of America (and ending shoegaze once and for all.)
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Talk to me about this move to New York. I feel like it came so quickly. You were here for a month to record and then boom, now you’re here forever.
I just went back to Florida and I didn’t want to stay there. I kind of knew that was going to happen. I bought a one-way ticket, grabbed some stuff, found a sublet, and now I’m here. Now I have a job, too. But yeah, it just happened so fast. I don’t think it’s set in quite yet for me, but I’m excited.
What are you most excited about?
Having a really awesome music scene, having shows to go to, having people to meet. There was a scene in Florida, but it was kind of the same people over and over again. So this is exciting for me.
Is there anyone that you’ve met already since being here that you’re excited to interact with in the music scene?
Yeah, the band we’re playing at Stone Circle with, Holidays in the United States, is a really awesome emo band and the bass player in that band, Kali, he has a project called Superfan. I’m a huge fan of Kali and everything he does, so, it’s exciting to be around all these people.
I’m imagining the change has been insane. I feel like everything you’ve been making has been very based on the south, based on driving around. I feel like New York is the antithesis to all of that.
Yeah, that is the problem that I am facing. The last two songs I’ve written, the first two songs that I have written here are really different. It’s kind of scary. They’re almost pop-y. Almost. They have choruses and stuff. I’m going to keep watching Westerns and old movies from the 70s and hopefully that’ll kind of keep me at bay. I’m not too worried because the next album is still all driving songs. So there’s going to be a lot of that.
You’re recording that next album at the Clive Davis studios. How did that come to be?
Jackson’s our drummer and kind of the producer now. He got into Clive Davis out of high school. So when I got the band together, he was like, hey, we can record up here for free! And I was like, okay, yeah! Let’s do it. It’s really fun because I kind of just get to do whatever. Before it was me and my room with all these broken machines making stuff work. But now I just have to sing and play guitar. It’s really nice to have to do that. It’s not all on me anymore.
Is this next one more collaborative or are you still the lead…
Yeah, it’s super collaborative. Most everybody is writing their own parts. I’ll have ideas for a part, but it’s not all on my shoulders now. It’s a band thing.
I want to talk about your switch from what you were doing when you first started making music into this country sound you’ve been fine tuning and what drew you to that sound specifically. Being in the South probably added to that I imagine–
Yeah, growing up I listened to Neil Young and Southern Rock because my dad did. But then when I started making music I listened to Duster and Alex G and I was like, okay these guys, they’re not doing anything too crazy. It was something that I could see myself doing. So I started doing that, but then the slowcore music I was getting into, it just kept on leaning more and more into country like Jason Molina, all of that stuff. Like that band Rex– that Numero Group Reissue! And I was like, okay, this is the stuff that’s really cool to me. Where does that come from? Where are they getting all that sound from? Then I got into the alt-country movement of the 2000s like Uncle Tupelo and Wilco and then that sent me further back to Gram Parsons and The Byrds and stuff like that. So that’s kind of the big basis of it. Michael Hurley is a really big one for me right now. A lot of the new songs are me ripping him off.
You mention Neil Young – you do this incredible cover of Albuquerque with the band, at least at the show that I saw, and that put me into this phase of, O.K., I need to sit down and actually listen to Neil Young this summer and I got super heavy into Tonight’s the Night and On The Beach as a result. How did you discover Neil Young and how did your relationship with his music develop?
Well, it was kind of my dad. It’s what I grew up listening to in the car. But then naturally with that, I become a teenager and I’m listening to Dubstep and I hate all this stuff my dad was listening to. But I got over that and kind of started listening to it again– but even then it’s like I just [thought] Neil Young is only Harvest Moon and Old Man, you know, the hits. But then I started working at a record store and this song Tired Eyes, from Tonight’s the Night comes on and I have this moment when I’m like, oh my God, I remember this from when I was a baby hearing it on the cassette player in my dad’s car. And I was like, okay, yeah this is really special and that reignited it for me. I definitely always liked him but that was a big moment for me.
Circling back to being on the road and writing songs about being in the car, tell me about the tour you went on over the summer. Was that the first big tour you went on?
Definitely. We did a couple of runs before just along the southeast and they didn’t really go that well… but then we got the call. I was at work and Cameron from Kan Kan called me and he was like, “Yo, we’re doing this” and I was like, “Okay yeah let’s do it!” It just kind of happened. It went so well for a first tour, it’s kind of insane. But I think we all were just like okay, this is what we want to do now. So we’re just waiting to do it again. We’re planning it.
Do you have any favorite memories or any big takeaways moving forward?
I’m trying to think. We swam a lot. That’s always fun to do. I think Portland, Maine has the best water. That’s my big takeaway.
For swimming?
Yeah, it was just really cold in the summer. It was really good. But, I don’t know. I think the Brooklyn show was kind of where we were like, oh, this is becoming a little real. We did Texas. Texas was good. The South was fun. Washington DC really sucked. But then we did Brooklyn and there were people that I didn’t know singing the words. And that’s happened a few times but it was a lot of people and I was like oh shit this is kind of big. That was the first show where I was like, oh, I’m in a band that people kind of like, and it felt really good. After that we went to Portland, Maine and that was a disaster. We played at this brewery and they had us play behind the bar and we couldn’t be loud. It was super weird. But then after that it all kind of went downhill through the Midwest. Oh, actually we were in a… This is kind of a scary one. Or kind of a good one. But the day Trump got shot, we were in that part of Pennsylvania.
Oh my God.
So, we stopped at a gas station and it was really scary. Everybody was angry. There was graffiti on the walls, some crazy anti-Biden stuff. There were doomsday preppers filling up gas tanks. It was pretty scary.
That Brooklyn show, is that also what influenced you wanting to be in New York?
Not necessarily. I kind of grew out of the life that I was living in Florida. I couldn’t just keep going back, making music and working nine to five. I kind of felt like the song pool for me dried up. Like I wouldn’t have anything to write a song about because I experienced everything I could experience there, which is kind of a weird way to look at it. But, you know, I’m 21. I don’t really have a career yet. I was kind of tired of my job. I was bored with my roommates. I was just like, okay, I should get out of here because Apollo and Jackson are my best friends and they live up here. So, I’ll just go up here with them.
What first influenced you making music? What are your earliest memories and experiences with it?
Well, I started playing drums when I was two, I think. I remember–there’s a PBS ad and it starts out with the kid beating on pots and pans and then drums are dubbed over it and then it transitions to a kid playing a drum set and it says something cute like, “all about how you look at it” or something. But I saw that and then I started beating on pots and pans. So then I just played drums for a while. Then in high school, I wanted to start a band, but nobody wanted to play the music that I wanted to play. So I was just like, okay, I’ll do everything myself. And then that’s how I started playing guitar and everything.
How did you first learn how to record yourself and put your music out there?
It was a lot of trial and error. Me and Cameron actually had a little band before when I was like twelve. No, I was nine. No, I was twelve and he was seventeen. That’s what it was. But I would play a little beat pad and he would play guitar and it was basically low-pitched hip hop. But that’s how I kind of learned how to record. Then I bought cheap tape machines and I just messed with them for hours. There’s some YouTube tutorials too that I watched. But yeah, it was just– I try to preach this as much as I can– you have to just make stuff to learn how to make stuff. You just have to climb the mountain or whatever it is. You got to fuck up to figure out what you’re doing.
Now that you’re going to start having more experiences in New York, where do you hope for your music to go? Do you have any sort of trajectory you’re trying to go on?
I want to be like Foxygen. I want to have a big band and I want to play big fun shows. I want to be pop-y, but I also don’t want to be too pop-y, but I also want to be like, oh wait, they’re a good songwriter too! I want to be everything, which is kind of bad. Yesterday, I was like, I’ve got to be like Townes Van Zandt. I’ve got to write like that… But no, I just want rock music to be a thing and I want to play shows and have fun.
Yeah. What do you mean by you want rock music to be a thing?
I mean, rock music is still a thing, but it’s like, it’s all Brat right now. You know what I mean? I just think guitars should come back more so. Because it’s a thing in the DIY scene and it’s definitely a thing in Brooklyn, every show I’ve been to it’s all guitars. But I just want it to be at the point that it was even just a few years ago. Because right now it’s The Dare and he’s like, “I’m rock and roll.” And he’s not! I wish there were real rockers too.
That’s another thing too. If I hear one more person say indie sleaze, I’m going to lose it.
I’m over that, I’m not into that, and the new indie sleaze people, they’re doing it wrong. They don’t know what they’re doing.
What do you think they should be doing?
They need to be a little more twee. But yeah, I don’t like it anymore. I just want people to–people will be like, we’re going to go out tonight and they’re going to go see a DJ or, you know, something else. But I want them to be like, we’re going to go out tonight and they’re going to a rock show. That’s ultimately what I want for this world. You know what I mean?
How do you think that other people could help you with that? Especially people who are interested in starting bands or making their own music themselves and don’t know what to do.
Well, I think they just need to start guitar bands. I think that’s just like the bottom line. They’ve got to do that. Less guitar pedals too. Less guitar pedals, no more shoegaze. I’ll go on the record and say that too. Just have fun with it. I feel like this slowcore thing, that really gets me down. Because I like it and I liked making it. But it kind of caught on to this whole aestheticism behind being depressed and people really latched on to it. Bands like sign crushes motorist and all that. I feel like those people should have more fun. Because they’re doing shows and they’re selling out, but I’ve heard it’s just people standing around.
Yeah. I’ve noticed that for most of the– not the small DIY stuff– but the medium-bigger shows, no one’s moving anymore.
You need to make music that people can dance to and have fun and you can’t be super serious all the time. Like guitar music, you’ve got to be a little funny.
We touched on the new record a little bit, are we going to hear something new next year? When’s everything coming?
Well, all the songs are recorded. Maybe. There might be one more. I was shooting for next year, like early next year, but I have to redo a bunch of vocals and redo guitar parts. And I’ve just got to clean it up because it’s definitely to my old standard of making music alone in my room. It’s not to a normal person’s ear’s standard. You know what I mean? There’s a lot of stuff that if I was just a little less lazy, I could fix it and it would be a little bit more listenable. So I gotta work on that. But it’s almost there, I think. I would just like to finish it, get it mixed and mastered and drop it. I want to be more methodical and business-y about it, because that’s what I used to do. But I feel like I’m at the point now where if I pitched it to a Spotify playlist, it might do a little better. So I’m going to try a little harder. Maybe I’ll get a manager or something.
Yeah, what are your big goals for next year? Get a manager?
It’d be cool!…No, I want to put out the record and I want to go on a good tour. And I think that’s it. That’s all I’m hoping for.
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