'Popstars' mocks the attention-starved, insecurity-ridden world of manufactured pop culture. It started life as a jerky chord progression on a nylon string acoustic with a ridiculous chorus line that made my friend's kids jump around laughing. It grew verses to repel celebrity-dominated news, dumbed-down advertising, soap operas, 'reality' TV, popstar-wannabe talent contests and other such insults to evolution. I remember laughing out loud to myself in a supermarket aisle as one line sprang up, with a random shopper looking at me like I needed sectioning.

The lyrics got fine-tuned in spare moments on buses etc and when I was happy with the full arrangement I brought it to the band. Within one rehearsal we had a celebrity-punching rock song with kicking drums and abusive bass. It went down a storm at gigs and soon we had a development advance from an investor who was at one of them. By the time we played the Bull and Gate in Islington we had Popstars nailed. It was the best gig we'd done and producer / Death In Vegas drummer Simon Hanson was in the crowd. Before we knew it we were recording the 'I Spy' EP in his studio with a production deal.

I got threatened with a staple gun and attacked with a broom whilst trying to record a lead break to Popstars. I think Simon Hanson had experienced some kind of guitar solo overkill trauma during the eighties. I sometimes came in and found him alone in the studio shouting to himself with his headphones on and figured it might be best to just go with it, so my guitar tracks got bent out of shape and all sorts of other electronic therapy took hold. It came out sounding mad. Reviewers and radio stations loved it. Xacca Sounds signed Twisterbait and we carried on recording at Hansonic. I guess Popstars resonates with people whose mental spam filters are overworked by constant barrages of mindless crap from every angle of the media. If that sounds like you, behold Electrovee's 'Popstars' video on Youtube and you'll see you're not alone.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the EP and our new heroes in Twisterbait - right here!

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