Chocolate Starfish

It’s been 12 months since Adam Thompson and Chocolate Starfish came to Geelong to play at the inaugural Motor City Music Festival, and now they’re set to return for a set at the Sphinx Hotel on July 11. This time around however, the band has a new EP out and like the rest of their discography it is nothing but sensational. Entitled Primitive, this new release makes the first new material from the band in years and talking about this upcoming run of shows, Thompson is very excited that the band has new material to showcase and to get back out on the road again.
“Straight up mate, I’m going to tell you that it’s fantastic that we finally have some new material we can shop around and show people. It was a long time coming to put it together, because everybody has other things in their lives going on and Starfish isn’t a full time thing anymore. It freshens everything up and it’s a welcome change for us I think,” Thompson said.
In 2015, Starfish are getting out and playing gigs to the masses, however, it isn’t like the mid ’90s when the band were originally together. Throughout the four years that the band were active (’94-’97), they played around 700 gigs and at one point played 22 shows in a row. The writing process for piecing together albums as Adam tells me, is different to 20 years ago. “The writing process between Zoran and I was something that we just did everyday. For Primitive Tim Henwood and I had to fit writing in between our other commitments. Everything from inspiration to finding the right time to write was different. When it was your full time job back in the day, it was easier to set aside time to do it. Everyone now has other jobs and businesses, it’s a little bit of a process to find time to dedicate to Chocolate Starfish.”
In 2014 following on from the likes of the Foo Fighters, U2 and Crowded house, the band recorded a wholly acoustic album of favourites called Born Again Versions (BAV) with the premise that “If a song can stand the rigours of a rework and still hold up, then hopefully it has the hallmarks of a good song”. If you are headed along to their Sphinx show, you are lucky because you get to experience the Starfish in all their different platforms. “In Geelong we will certainly do a BAV segment and I used to love it when U2 used to do that where they would bring it down to just acoustic guitars. Crowded House did it as well. I think that this Geelong show is going to be very special for us,” he says.
“Most of the members are from Geelong and K-Rock was the first commercial radio station to play our song which was quite a surreal experience let me tell you. It’s been a very gracious city to us and it will be good to get back to play there once again. Come out Geelong and Rock!”
Given that the band aren’t playing six nights a week anymore, take the opportunity to see a legendary Australian outfit, while they’re in town. You won’t regret it.
When & Where: The Sphinx, North Geelong – July 11
Written by Tex Miller