BIG STAMPS BUZZ
Dance-pop duo brings breakout sound to Pride Fest
Stamps is a band on the verge. The dance-pop outfit, featuring Cypress native Ren Patrick and drummer Adam James, has picked up the kind of momentum that often translates into a full-blown national breakout. Gossip blogger Perez Hilton gave Stamps a big push when he showcased several tunes on his website, featured them performing live in studio and put them on his “Pop Up #3 Compilation” (alongside Icona Pop, Betty Who, Foxes and Tom Odell).
“I didn’t even know we were on his radar,” Patrick says. “Just to wake up one morning and have a tweet from him with a heart on it and him saying how much he liked one of our songs — and the fact that it didn’t stop for a while, that was really cool.”
Patrick met Hilton earlier this year at his SXSW party in Austin. Stamps also played the mammoth music festival for a third time, another sign of growing industry buzz.
“He was standing there just watching all the acts, looking super-stoked, with a little drink in his hand,” Patrick says. “I just ran downstairs and was like, ‘Hey, Perez, it’s Ren Patrick.’ He was like, ‘From Stamps!’ I basically hugged him and thanked him. He was really nice and smiley.”
Stamps recently toured with Nickelodeon star Drake Bell and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas as part of the High School Nation Tour, playing to thousands of young fans for several months on the road. It took them across the country and served as a crash course in fast-paced touring — and onthe-road discipline.
“I’m very outgoing. I like to hang out. Basically, everyone on the entire tour was out partying or hanging out or doing something that’s probably not good for a vocalist — yelling or talking late at night,” Patrick says. “I ended up, almost the whole tour, going to bed at 8 p.m. It was very hard, but it was worth it. I was able to sing every show and not feel like I was a lesser version of who I wanted to be vocally.”
“The band was very proud of her,” James adds with a laugh.
Patrick and James (who hails from Elmhurst, Ill.) have also spent more than a year writing for other artists, including a few as-yet-unnamed acts on the Sony label.
“It was just the right person hearing one of our songs,” Patrick says. “The word just gets around. Some of the artists we’re writing for are way more R&B. It’s really, really fun for me to get to, like, play Beyoncé for a second.”
Stamps’ own sound has been carefully honed over the past few years. The original lineup featured Panic! at the Disco’s Ian Crawford and the Hush Sound’s Bob Morris and showcased a scrappier, indiepop sound. Patrick and James took the reins in 2013 and moved toward a bigger, bolder dance-pop groove, typified on last year’s terrific selftitled album. Standout tunes “Timebomb,” “Love Is Dead” and “Tell Me True” stand up easily against anything on Top 40 radio.
A new EP is due this summer. Early demos suggest more dance-floor magic, with deeper strains of electro and disco. Patrick also seems to be connecting even more with her inner pop diva.
“It’s just never being satisfied, really,” James says. “Everybody doesn’t work on the same clock all the time, whether it’s emotionally or foodwise or whatever. I always find that the days I’m lacking are the days when Ren wakes up and is on fire and ready to go. It’s really helpful — give and take, to be able to pick the other person up.”
“Two Kids,” a song about Patrick’s final summer in Cypress before leaving for Los Angeles, is pegged as the likely first single. It’s alternately nostalgic and mischievous, wistful and wild — the kind of song that inspires an instant sing-along. And another promising step forward.
“Houston is really special to me. It’s a really great place to grow up. I loved every single part of growing up there,” Patrick says. “I feel like I have to say (I miss my) family or my mom will write a really annoying Facebook status about it. But outside of that, all I think about almost every day is good Tex-Mex. I wish I could go to Del Pueblo (on Jones) all the time and get pechuga sauce and fried avocados. There’s just nothing like it out here.
“I even miss the weather. People think I’m crazy, but I actually like the humidity, and I like how hot it gets.”