You may not have heard of Finding Jupiter yet, but this rock band is hoping that its new EP, released in mid-July of this year, will catch your interest. The four-member band came together on the campus of Stanford University two years ago, and already has one full-length album under its belt. Out singer-songwriter Sarah Masimore is an outspoken LGBT activist and co-founder of the National Marriage Boycott who has no problem singing about lesbian relationships and is committed to raising awareness and acceptance through visibility.
Windy City Times: For anyone who isn't familiar with Finding Jupiter, what can you tell me about the band?
Sarah Masimore: We started in the fall of 2009, at Stanford University. The band is composed of me [ lyricist, vocals and rhythm guitar ] , Dean Schaffer [ lead guitar ] , Peter McDonald [ bass ] and Taylor Brady [ drums ] . Dean, Peter and I were actually in a blues band at Stanford. After the blues band disbanded we decided that we really wanted to start a rock band. I'd been writing a lot throughout college so we had stuff to start and work on.
WCT: You have one full-length album out already, and now you are releasing an EP, io. What can you tell me about the EP and the album?
SM: The album is called Racing Against the Sun and we released that last summer. Most of that stuff were songs that I'd already written before the band started. So it was a lot more of me. On this EP each song is developed entirely by the band so it is much more organic.
WCT: Tell me how the song writing process goes.
SM: Basically, I'll write lyrics, melody and song structure with the chords and then I bring it to the band. Often we will write a bridge together and then we basically take the song from this skeleton to this full-bodied work.
WCT: Do you have favorites out of this new set of songs?
SM: I would say the second track, "Stars." I think that is one of our favorites. That is the one that we spent the most amount of time on and really got the most amount of creativity into. It's such a raw, passionate song.
WCT: What is "Stars" about?
SM: I was home alone and I was at this point where I was feeling down, you know at the brink of doubt and failure. I had to make this conscious decision to be optimistic even though it was so much easier to just think about how bad things were going or how unhappy I was. So that song is really what came out of that conflict of wanting to be optimistic, but feeling sad and unhappy.
WCT: Tell me about the song "Roses."
SM: When you are in a lesbian or gay community it is hard to meet people who you know are gay or lesbian, and when you are single that is always on your mind. So chances are, the way you are going to meet other lesbians is going to be through your friends or girlfriends of friends. It's inevitable ... "Roses" was one of those situations. I basically fell in love with someone, who I am still dating now, and it was just incredible how perfect we were for each other. The downside, of course, was that one of my friends had just been dating her and they'd had a pretty long relationship that had just ended.
Both of us had this pull towards each other that was entirely unstoppable and we started dating. As soon as that happened there were a lot of people who were really upset. It very quickly got blown out of proportion and became this intense drama that I had never experienced before. So basically the song is a way for me to come to terms with this whole situation, but at this same time embracing this new relationship that was so wonderful.
WCT: Did you make a conscious decision to be out in the band or was it just sort of an "I'm out and that is how it is" situation?
SM: A little of both. I kind of came out while I was starting to write music. So music was an essential part of my coming out experience. I was writing songs about girls before I really knew I was gay, which is weird. So it kind of naturally grew like that. I came out and when I came out I got really involved with LGBT activism so that was a way for me to explode on the scene and not be shy about it. I kind of forced myself to be really open and then I started doing the band stuff at the same time.
WCT: It sounds like you are kind of newly out. What is it like to make your more personal thoughts so available to the public?
SM: I've always been a really open person. In all of my personal relationships that is what I value most is being entirely open about everything and not keeping anything hidden. I think when you don't talk about things that is when they get stigmatized. It does have sort of a downside when everyone knows what is going on in your life, but at the same time I want that to be so. I feel like it is almost helping. I mean I want to be on stage yelling "I'm gay" because I think every time someone does that it helps move it along in general.
WCT: Your bio says that you are obsessed with the National Marriage Boycott. What can you tell me about that obsession?
SM: The National Marriage Boycott is a youth-led movement. It's actually the only youth-led LGBT national LGBT-advocacy movement. It came out of the passing of Prop 8 in California. I am one of the co-founders. We really wanted a youth voice and a way to connect with other colleges and high schools across the country and build an infrastructure ... We have about 45 branches of high schools and universities across the country and about 15,000 members.
WCT: What else about the music would you like fans or potential fans to know?
SM: I would say our music is pretty diverse. Our rock songs are pretty all out and raw and in your face, then we also have an acoustic side to us. For example, track number three on the EP is called Soldiers it is really soft acoustic song that was written in like an hour. We also work with a couple of DJs on the East Coast who do some remixes of our music.
To find out more about Finding Jupiter visit, http://www.facebook.com/findingjupiter.
