"This love is a drug… you'll be my heroine," cried Mark Staley on Laden Swallow's debut album Star Crossed. Comparing love to a drug and using a play on the words - heroine and the drug heroin - Staley builds an anthem for the broken-hearted.
Fueled by members of the Humboldt State football team chanting, "You'll be my Heroine," this song has a power and a drive like… well a football team. Members of the Humboldt State girls-volleyball team sing/chant back up on this song to give it an ethereal, unearthly feel. With Chad Halmond's loud hard drumming, Josh Leong's backbone lead guitar and Justin Vanegas's dependable interesting bass playing, Heroine is the landmark song in Laden Swallow's debut album.
Laden Swallow is named after a line in "Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail," but they are far from a silly British comedy troupe. Mark Staley has played music for as long as he could remember, and eventually formed a band to showcase his talent. He recruited music major Vanegas at Humboldt State's dining facility (the Depot). Halmond and Leong came along soon after.
"It was kind of an awkward transition to write music for a band," said Staley, "I've been a solo acoustic artist since high school. We had a lot of songs that just didn't work." Staley described Laden Swallow's sound as "just getting used to playing with other musicians."
Their sound changed since Halmond joined. Vanegas said, "[Our sound] went from pop punk to actual rock, with good screams." Vanegas referred to Halmond's incredible ability to pull deep, dark, loud, powerful sounds from the deep of his chest and belt them out into the great beyond.
Staley plays guitar and wrote most of the songs. "Honestly I just like music," said Staley, "when I don't have any personal trauma, drama or other, I force myself to write about something, whether I've experienced it or not, and challenge myself to make it good."
Some of the best songs on Star Crossed are ones Staley just wrote for the sake of music. Track number six is a song called Blast Off, a simple acoustic piece about love lost and Staley counts from 1 to 10 and then back down again.
"10 times the stress, 9 months today, 18 was young, 7 hours of pain, 6 welling hugs, 5 tears of joy, 4 everything was perfect that day, 3 years down the road 2 much as passed one last tear zero blast off."
Between the intense screaming and hard loud rock songs like Misdirection to the acoustic quiet love songs this album shows off the musician's versatility.
Halmond produced much of the album. It was he who got the football team and the volleyball team on there chanting for Heroine. He just graduated from Humboldt State and plans on moving to the East Coast at the end of the summer. So the band will on the look out for a new drummer with a good set of screaming pipes.
"I'm not saying Chad is expendable, because I really enjoy playing with him," said Staley. "But I'm sure there are other drummers just as capable in Humboldt. It will be fun finding someone."
Vanegas dealt with most of the band's public relations and booked a short tour for the summer. He also helped organize Humboldt State's Battle of the Bands at in connection with Radio Free Humboldt (the student run radio station, where Vanegas has a show), where Laden Swallow competed. The band agreed it was one of their best shows but lost the popular vote to Steel Toed Slippers by one vote. The crowd was responsive and sang along with many of the songs. They have no hard feelings toward Steel Toed Slippers, who opened for them at their CD release party on May 18th. The party was all ages and held at the Azalea Hall in McKinleyville. The band intentionally chose to keep the party open to people under the drinking age.
"People over 21 just don't get into our kinda music," said Staley. "High school kids are more animated. Less worried about what people think about them, just my observations of the crowd."
So with two High School bands opening for them, Steel Toed Slippers and Try Blynd, they should not be short on an animated younger audience. The Strix Vega also played with them, a local funk-rock band with a unique groove and lots of talent. Staley said, "I'm excited to play with Strix Vega cause I've only ever heard them on the radio."
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