Former sound engineer now front and centre in silver starling

You can’t miss Marcus Paquin. At 6-6, the frontman of Silver Starling, a Montreal based indie pop-rock band, literally stood out in a small bistro in Little Italy. Tall, but far from intimidating, Paquin’s band has just released their self-titled debut, which he produced.
Prior to forming Silver Starling along with violinist Marika Anthony-Shaw (who is also Paquin’s wife), drummer Liam O’Neil, guitar player Gab Lambert and bassist Peter X., Paquin worked as a sound engineer.
“I got a Masters in sound engineering at McGill in 2000 and ever since I’ve been working with a wide range of different bands,” said Paquin, an experience that he said was not always pleasant. “I guess there’s probably times when every recording engineer wonders why they’re doing what they’re doing, if they’re working with a band they don’t really enjoy working with. My sort of overall mantra is learn from whatever situation you’re in. Even the gigs where I didn’t really enjoy the musicians, or the music, or even the personalities of the musicians I was working with, I did my best to learn something.”
Having decided to branch out on his own, Paquin began playing cafés and open mics alone. He didn’t last long before deciding to get a band together. “I think I played about six gigs at the most and it was interesting playing that way because you’re so exposed and you know there’s nowhere to hide when you’re just a dude with the guitar.”
Paquin set out and began gathering what would become Silver Starling. ” I just happened upon this jazz gig and Liam, the drummer of the band, was playing. When I saw him play I thought yeah that seems like a guy I could work with. So we started working together.”
From there Anthony-Shaw became the next to join, followed by Peter X. With the band together, Paquin could see the record beginning to take shape. “At this point in time I had song ideas of my own and I found musicians who’re amazing collaborators, amazing writers, amazing players, and amazing people. I feel like the timing was right to make a project of it,” he said.
“The cool thing about being a musician and a sound engineer is that by being on both sides of the microphone, you recognize really clearly what the priorities are in the studio: conveying songs, and the emotion and getting the vision of the musician across in whatever way you can.”
The album was touched by loss, as a close friend of Paquin succumbed to an illness during production.
Silver Starling’s songs certainly succeed in affecting the listener. A fact that is often attributed to the loss of Paquin’s close friend . Although the album is dedicated to his friend, Paquin said he doesn’t consider it a “cathartic record.” He said the record is about more than feelings of loss. “Seeing someone in that scenario makes you think more deeply about all the other scenarios in your life and you see the greater good in things. You appreciate things that you never even looked at before and so a lot of this record is about beautiful things and amazing things that happened to myself. You know I got married while we were making this record and my wife and I bought a house. We did a lot a travelling. We went to Australia and New Zealand and so I don’t think necessarily there was any closure necessary but more an exploration of emotions.”
Paquin said they’re all ready thinking about the future: “we’ve got all these new tunes written that we’re pretty much ready to go into the studio and start recording. But timing wise, it makes more sense to spend our time getting the music out there.”

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