Diary – Love Star

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghost

April 18, 2016

Do you believe in Ghosts? Will and I were super excited to go explore a ghost town in Mississippi. We had read there was a population of 2 in that town. We thought they meant people, but we would soon find out that maybe they meant something else. We arrived early and they were right. Not one person was around. It was quiet with only the sounds of toads from the nearby swaps, crickets, and other unrecognizable sounds that were strange to a city girl like me. It was the perfect spot to film our lyric video for SOLA! We headed straight for the building that stood out the most. It was an abandoned church. We went in, set up camp, wasted no time and started filming. As we were filming I started hearing a really loud banging coming from the top left side of the church’s ceiling. I’m aware that these old places have rats, or critters nesting in the crevices and nooks, but this noise was different. At first I tried to ignore it, but then the banging got louder. The video recording caught a confused me looking to the corner, where the noise was coming from, and asking Will if he could hear it. To make things more confusing, Will couldn’t hear what I was hearing. The last bangs I heard gave me goosebumps and I told Will as I ran for the door that I no longer felt comfortable there.

Next we decided to film inside this house that was practically in ruins. Will told me to go inside, climb to the second floor, sit on the broken window and he would film from the outside. It took me about 15 minutes to do so. The wood is completely rotten so I had to go super slow for fear that a piece of wood would break and I’d end up in the swamp below the house. I made it upstairs to the window. We filmed for a while. All of a sudden the hairs on my arms stood up and for some reason I felt the need to look back and I saw shadow movements in the closet. I wanted to run out of there but couldn’t because of the condition of the wood. I was so freaked out, Will had to go meet me halfway to escort me out, since I was afraid to pass the closet which I had to pass on the way to the staircase. I felt desperate to get out and wanted to scream with every, slow, cautious step I took. After that I put my foot down and quit. I told Will I would no longer go inside buildings in that town. I didn’t feel safe.

We decided to switch roles. Across the house was another church. This time I would film William the Brave, walking in and out of the church. Will is not one to show fear. He is the bravest guy I know, or at least he does a good job of hiding when he’s scared. He walked around the church like a champ. Then I told him I wanted to film him going into the church. He did. He disappeared for about 8 seconds and then walked out at a pace I had never seem him walk before. He was kind of pale and almost running as he practically yelled “Let’s get the hell out of here.” As soon as he said that we both sprinted to the car. We got in and drove out of that town.

Later in the rooms at midnight, no joke, an alarm we did not set went off. This happened for three consecutive nights in three different states during the tour. When on tour, our days are super long, and usually we don’t make it back to the rooms until late at night. That’s the time we usually review what we’ve filmed. The scariest part came around 11pm as we were reviewing what we had filmed in the ghost town. We were looking at the footage of me inside the first church when all of a sudden we heard the loud banging coming from the roof of the church that I had heard earlier. The banging that Will for some reason could not hear while we were there. Will asked with terror in his eyes “What IS THAT?!” I told him, “That’s the knocking/hammering I heard while filming. Remember I asked you if you were hearing it and you couldn’t?” Without saying a word he turned off the laptop and said we’d review tomorrow. That night I slept with the light on. I have the feeling Will did too. And for the next few nights we had an unwanted visitor in our rooms. We couldn’t see it or hear it but we totally felt it lingering. Those leepless nights weren’t fun.

Starla Turns The Doctor Into a Love Convict

April 8, 2016

I got excited when I found the abandoned Magic Mountain site in New Orleans while searching online. It had been abandoned after Hurricane Katrina. I knew it was the perfect place to film for our lyric video for “Sola.” But as I read on I discovered that it was closed off to the public and those caught trespassing would be fined, jailed or both. Every person that wrote on that blog had experienced either being fined or taken in. Since my band was on tour in the area, I decided we’d film there. It was just to cool to pass up. I came up with a plan on how to get into the park and decided not to mention to Will the part about no trespassing. I needed him relaxed for filming purposes. I also knew that we had to be super dressed down, almost like ninjas, so we wouldn’t catch attention and that is the reason why I broke my own “no jeans in videos” rule.

I showed him the site and he was equally excited. The day arrived and everything was going according to plan. We were inside the park and had already spent a few hours filming when we heard a patrol car inside the park. Will was shocked as I yelled at him to drop. He crawled under a bush which was full of bees. He must of seen the fear in my eyes because at that time he asked me to spill it. I did. We decided to stay under the radar for a bit longer and capture a few more shots.

The park was eerie. Because of the water, there were swarms of bees everywhere and some of the rides were being taken over by vines and nature. The part that stood out to me the most was finding a wet stuffed animal toy. The kind they give you when you play and win a game.

The time had come for us to go home and face the music. As we were approaching the front gate we heard someone tell us through a loud speaker. “Make your way out. Police Officers are waiting for you outside.” When we walked out, sure enough, they were waiting. I told Will not to say anything and let me do the talking. We walked over and I flashed the biggest smile I could. To my surprise their angry faces turned into smiles as well. While talking to them I could tell the main officer was not happy. After talking to the main officer for a while he turned out to be quite nice and he let us go with a warning. After we left, Will was not happy and I had some explaining to do.

Love Star Loses It in Front of Confused Strangers

March 29, 2016

As soon as I woke up I knew what day it was. I had been waiting for these results for months now. It was the day that they would be announcing the finalists for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Almost every songwriter friend of mine had submitted for this and since the contest is open to songwriters everywhere, I can’t even imagine how many entries they received. I know that winning or losing would not shake Love Star, but this contest did mean A LOT to me. We strongly believe in our music and I had been wanting to enter for years. This year we finally felt we had a few strong songs, and Will and I had sat down one night to decide which one to send in. We made a list with all our songs and started the elimination process. We continued until only one was left… SOLA.

Had we made the right chioce? Was it strong enough to make the cut? It was 6:30 am and I decided to go to their website to find out. As the page was loading, I changed my mind and quickly clicked off. I decided to wait until lunch time. When lunch came I still couldn’t get myself to look. I called Will only to find out he hadn’t looked either. We decided that we would meet after work in one of our favorite Hollywood spots (a small cafe) and look together.

The moment had arrived, and with coffees in hand and butterflies in our stomachs, we opened the page. And there it was…. SOLA-1098763457. We were screaming in shock , beyond happy and losing our cool in front of confused strangers. Then it hit me… why in the heck does it say SOLA-1098763457?? Ugh, it was our mistake (long story). We’d have to call them and get that fixed, BUT we were finalists!