I had the pleasure of first meeting and hearing these guys at a house party where they performed, I knew I was in for some type of experience when I was greeted with a pair of ear plugs, "You'll need these later", I was told. After they played I knew I had to work with them; their style, their sound sound, the experience. Moody and mysterious are the two words that come to mind when describing Startographers’ music. The members hail from all over the United States, but lucky for Austin, we can now claim them as one of our own.

A brief bio: Ian Lund and Mike Pawlowicz met in Wisconsin and played in a band called The Danger several years ago. Mike eventually moved on to New York City, where he played in three bands over a span of six years. Ian moved to Texas shortly after and played bass in Austin’s own Gentleman Rogues. When a room opened up in Ian’s apartment, he invited Mike to move in. Mike made the move to Austin and soon, the music started to flow. As most bands do, they turned to Craigslist for a drummer, where they found Nebraska-native Matt McCandless. After meeting Katherine Peters at a mutual friend’s party, she rounded out the rhythm section and Startographers was born.

We prepped for our evening stocking an ice chest full of Lone Star sprinkled with PBRs, a playlist of contemporary indie-rock with the occasional hints of 90s punk and began our adventure.

The shoot ended with some Jay-Z, where the band “walked it off” on a red carpet. The libations were all consumed at this point, and if you look closely, you’ll see evidence of this in the photo set.

You can check them out this week for some unofficial SXSW shows: Wednesday, 3/12 at 11pm @ El Mercado Thursday, 3/13 at 11pm @ Hole in The Wall Saturday, 3/15 at 8 pm @ The Grackle (outside stage)

Hear them here (Highly recommended) https://soundcloud.com/startographers "Like" them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/startographersmusic

This was an absolutely fantastic evening, thanks to Startographers for the opportunity to work with them. Many thanks to Joey Miller from Vain Salon, for hosting the shoot at her space, and keeping the band’s hair looking fly. Also thanks to multi-talented Cody Evans with Evokt Elements for lighting assistance and set building. And as always thank you Brit, for keeping the jams relevant and for the styling and art direction.