Spotlight - Stars and the Underground

GetMusic's artist spotlight features Stars and the Underground, sharing the story behind the music, the latest work, and what comes next.

Introduction & Background

Please introduce yourself and share a bit about your background.

We are called Stars and the Underground and we are from Auckland, New Zealand (Aotearoa). The current lineup is John McDermott (Drums and Production), myself, John Mason (Guitars and Vocals), and Hannah Berry of the local band Talmar (Keyboards and Vocals), contributing in a guest capacity.

What's your musical origin story?

Oddly, at high school I was walking past the common room and heard a song from U2’s Unforgettable Fire drifting across the concourse as the door was open. I was like, what the hell is that guitar sound? So immediately went out and bought all the records like Boy, October and War. We lived in a small New Zealand University town, so every weekend I’d go out on a voyage of discovery buying all sorts of records, cassettes like New Order's Technique, Yello’s Stella, Shriekback’s Big Night Music. I went to a party, and there was this really cool guy just sitting in the corner of the room playing along to a Cure song, and I thought, what a cool thing to do. It started from there, really.

What were the driving forces or pivotal moments that inspired you to pursue music?

Music is full of moments that enrich your life both through the people you meet and the connection it creates between you and other people, and also very importantly what you can communicate through it. It's there, it's always there and you miss it when it's not there.


After I left University I came back to live in my home town Auckland immediately joined a band. A lot later I was playing in a band called Winterland we loved bands like The Sound, The Mission and The Sisters, Comsat Angels, Bauhaus and The Cure we were just normal looking guys. We were spotted by the a goth guy called Scott down the back of a venue we were playing one night who tipped off Mark Wallbank a local promoter and head honcho of industrial band Heironymous Bosch whom was running independent avant-garde gigs and the Goth Vampyre Ball in Auckland invited us to play. We stepped out onto the stage at the Powerstation, and it was packed with what can only be described as a cast of really cool and beautiful horror movie! That really started us thinking about what we were doing, and I don’t think I ever stopped thinking about it since!!

Musical Identity

How would you describe your style of music?

Stars and the Underground is a post-punk band with shoegaze and dark synthwave tendencies if we are writing an elevator pitch. But the longer version is that we are a band of dichotomy. We delight in the ethereal whether it be layered keyboards and guitars some times intricate and sparkling that showcase a late night type of feel then call also call upon a more wall of sound driving guitars and spatial keyboard sounds over solid rolling bass grooves and cool drum lines designed to reach the back of a room. The third motif is more the synth-and-bass-driven songs and danceable grooves with a retro synthwave flavours but darker a newer thing.

How is your personality reflected in your work?

I think for the most part the aesthetic of beauty in the monochrome has never left me so people take that on face value or like perhaps a sketch in pencil that is never coloured in but still holds to me just as much meaning as full colour painting if you want a deeper explanation. But this doesn’t mean that the journey lacks emotion its just raw I think that illustrates where the work is. Perhaps one day I’ll understand what colours may be good to add it maybe that the work is a representative of the personality.

Lyrical meaning

To me another subject entirely but related to the personality in the work. “Guardians of the Night” and the songs that will end up on it I’m very proud of. Each of them has a place some comment on direct life experiences and environments, some relate to the plights of others, some are repeating motifs that point to states so if the overall labels for those states were like North, South East and West. The planisphere/compass that Stars and the Underground the vehicle navigates is The Ethereal (Blue), The Emotive(Red), Night Vision (Green), Monochrome these colours represent the predominant filters through which the subjects are interpreted I don’t know why things have to be processed and then expressed in this way. Guardians of the Night is a reference to a native New Zealand Brown Owl called Ruru or Morepork it is the link to New Zealand in the work and a kind of spirit guide that flies along the vehicle helping it choose the right path.

Describe your creative process when you write new music.

I think the adage that the song is never finished is a good one. There are a great many songs on this album that have been rewritten even up to four times for me. The process that I previously thought was finite the lines are starting to blur as you realise that the project is evolving. So that means in some cases, even releasing a song may not be the final version; it may still evolve. One song I remember working through with an earlier line-up, and we couldn’t agree on how it should sound. I wrote some great lyrics conceptually and the original root note of the song, then completely rewrote the music to fit the vocals, new chord progressions, bass guitar, and keyboard lines, so a new song, musically, yes. Another song got completely passed over then I thought yeah this concept is great so filled in the gaps in the vocals and lyrics with a concept then finished the arrangements and the having a goal of creating a good live song out it popped. I think it's easy to pump stuff out in this day and age, but you have to be able to challenge your ideas and to completely start again if they don’t create a connection and communicate what you truly want them to say.

Nowadays, John McDermott, who produces the band's material, arranges a lot of stuff now and suggests alternative directions and production insights so we get stuff down in the studio then work through it together. Hannah, in her capacity as a guest artist on the album, is adding a lot of additional colours with her keyboards and vocals. 2026 is the year that we want to knuckle down and finish things off (if life doesn’t get in the road too much lol)

Current Work

What is the name of your latest release?

Echolocation is the most recent single and is off the forthcoming album Guardians of the Night

What was the inspiration for that release?

Echolocation is a song from the more monochrome/night vision green filters in the creative planisphere. Looking back on it, it’s a commentary on becoming blocked in situations and not being able to find a way forward, and the additional sense that Echolocation refers to an ability to find solutions for things. So perhaps its appropriate that we took the original version of the Evolution Circle Ep then pretty much rewrote all the guitars and rearranged the whole song John really got the song to drive along with all the production tweets and his great drums. Then I invited Hannah to contribute some vocals from the ethereal side of the compass and bang there’s the difference between a great song and one that was a good idea. It’s mind blowing to think that the original was in 2019 and it’s now 2026 it took that long to get out of the habit of the old way and understand what was needed to push the song forward.

What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?

The recording of Echolocation was a good moment for us, we’ve changed slightly the process to come into the studio rather than tracking a lot at home and I think this has been good as its allowed for on the spot conversations about how to advance the songs even more we record every idea and additional part we can think of then John McDermott really comes into his own so I’d expect the remainder of the album to be completed in this way.

Promotion & Engagement

What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?

In the old days it was about sending CDs off to the far reaches of the earth and getting weird looks from Post Office workers about where things were being sent. How things have changed but one thing that hasn’t is that you have to build fan by fan in the independent space. I think the power of a global reach can add up to quite a lot and with a lot of independent influencers out there just get your stuff out there and create an interested parties list and service your music to those people first.

How do you engage with your fans online and offline?

Over the year we’ve been lucky to be associated with the local music scene and a crowd so we tend to collab with a lot of local artists to pool our resources and play together. Online its more working the channels figuring out what people respond to and go with that. Luckily people like music and with AI starting to be involved I just don’t think people who care about music will support it because where are the models getting their ideas from and that is a problem it will be very interesting to see how the music industry responds perhaps the tech companies will finally meet their match.

What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?

In December 2026 we are playing with The Sisters of Mercy in Auckland so that will be a very special night it was an honour to be asked. We have an album scheduled for release in 2027
called Guardians of the Night which is going to be fantastic to have that out and a signature line in the sand so people know what we are about. Then we’ll look at where we can tour.

How can folks contact you?

https://linktr.ee/satu.co.nz
and booking via duskaotearoa@gmail.com