The alternative, indie-folk band ultimately known as Sci-Fi Romance have released their third album, Dust Among The Stars. Highlight Magazine caught up with singer/songwriter Vance Kotrla to talk about the independent band from Los Angeles, California’s new record and the years leading up to its release.
How does it feel to know your third album is released?
It feels very fulfilling. Basically, life jut sprang up very literally. We had done The Ghost Of John Henry record and it got really good reviews and we had some nice momentum going. Suddenly I found out we were expecting surprise twins so that kind of put everything on hold. We actually had a number of the songs in early 2013. We had about half the songs written and we were starting to think about the next record. So about seven months after (The Ghost Of John Henry), it went on hold for about 18 months.
So it’s life that has delayed things for you guys.
I’m actually a father four times over. The two older kids had come down to the studio while we were doing the John Henry record and a couple of the other one-off projects. I’m optimistic we’ll do album number four, so now the twins will be able to come down and visit the studio, as well.
What does the album’s title Dust Among The Stars mean to you?
The last record was very specific. It was a concept album about a particular guy, a particular place. With this record, I wanted to have an emotional art like that one had but I wanted it to be on a little bit of a grander scale. When I wrote the song, “Pale Blue Dot,” there was a picture taken by this spacecraft that was exiting the solar system and turned around and pointed back to Earth. It was this tiny fraction of a pixel. When I wrote that song the line “dust among the stars,” it was something that was stuck in the back of my head through the entire recording process. When the record was done and I was listening to it I tried some other titles out to see if they fit, but it always came back to that’s the one I wanted it to be.
It seems like you guys are passionate about art and movies. How did you want Dust Among The Stars to tie into this aspect?
The artwork is derived from a Hubble photograph. It’s a Photoshop job where you have this original Hubble photograph that is combined with a figure walking away. So it’s got the metaphorical sense that we are individuals out floating among the stars. In terms of movies and how that affects it, I think it’s my deep love of sci-fi movies and of runs through a lot of the stuff I do, whether it be music or film or whatever. On the first record (…And Surrender My Body To The Flames), the first song is called, “Gulliver Foyle,” which comes from the book called “The Stars My Destination,” by Alfred Bester and it was when I wrote that sing the whole idea of the band came into focus for me. I wanted to really make that a little more tangible on this record. I think a lot of people can be forgiving for looking at a band like Sci-Fi Romance and figuring, ‘Why did you make a concept album about a guy that worked on the railroads in the 1800s?’ And I understand that (laughs). I wanted it to be a little more overt this time.
It seems like you knew the exact direction you wanted to take with this album and just pursued it.
I think that’s right. I think one of the joys of being an independent artist is having that freedom and I’m not sure that people really take advantage of it to it’s fullest extent, and I hope to.
How do you balance your time being a father and creating music?
I think that I’m very lucky and I definitely have to make conscious choices to maintain a balance. In a lot of things life is about balance so there are things I have to not do on both sides of the equation to make everything work. When it comes to being really lucky, we started recording this album right about a year ago and I’ve lived with these songs literally at the house with the kids for about a year and the babies have grown from lumps that don’t do very much to walking around dancing and talking with these songs so they will grab a toy guitar and start singing at “Goodbye At The End Of The World” or “Let’s Run” and there is so much joy watching them do that, I wouldn’t trade that.
Does the thought how your music might affect your kids once they get older every go through your mind while creating music?
Probably a similar thought. Not so much how I wonder how they’re going to take it because at some point, I’m just going to be the old man that doesn’t get it (laughs). I would like for them to be able to look back at this stuff and have a record of this kind of time. I didn’t have an endless amount of time or resources but I went and pursued the thing I wanted to pursue. I told the story I wanted to tell and I hope that is an example to them. I don’t know if they’re going to go in the arts at all, but I know that they have stories to tell and I want them to feel like they have an example that they can do that.
What else are you trying to accomplish this year?
I kind of make a point to not try to make grand plans. The last time I had a big plan for what the band was going to do we got two twins. My policy, especially artistically, is to be open and just say, ‘Yes,’ and to be open.
