Cintia Dicker- Featuring Selebrities "Time"

The three members of the band grew up far, far
from each other. Singer Maria Usbeck was raised in the shadow of volcanoes in Quito, Ecuador. Jer Robert Paulin, the guitarist, prayed for snow days in Buffalo. Keyboardist and producer Max Peterson grew up in Delaware. Yet the music the Brooklyn trio makes together is proof of our commonality.

Since right around the time when MTV first powered up its transmitter, pop culture has spewed a thick cloud memories that hangs over all of us. It’s a cloud made of Simpsons quotes, Michael Jackson maneuvers, strawberry shortcake fumes, New Order bass lines and John Hughes characters’ hormones. In other words, we are deeply nostalgic for the ’80s. And listening to the shimmering, sighing songs of Selebrities feels like soaring through that memory cloud.

Maria’s first band, when she was 10, was called Sueno Musical—Musical Dream. She played covers and one original love song on piano; her cousins banged pots and pans. Jer wrote his first song with his brother in seventh grade. It was called I Can See You Through My Window and described spying on the three older girls who lived a couple houses down. “I’m realizing how crucial 7th grade was,” Jer says. Accordingly, the songs on Selebrities’ debut, Delusions, are dreamy and longing, all heartbreak and bliss. “I’ve always liked this quote from German modern artist Heike Weber,” Max tells us. “It’s grand to yearn for something that can never be attained.” Like the older girls down the street. Like youth.

Q & A with Selebrities

The first record you owned?

Jer: Big Willie Style by Will Smith. I wish I was making this up.
Maria: Blur’s Modern Life is Rubbish. After that I bought the entire Blur catalog. I’m wearing a Blur sweatshirt right now.

Favorite sport?

Jer: Basketball. I remember the 1998 championship vividly. Jordan was on the ground clutching the ball and wouldn’t let go. It felt like I won the game. I’m pumped for the Brooklyn Nets, since the stadium is down the street from me. I just imitated doing a fadeaway.
Maria: Fútbol . I refuse to say soccer.
Max: I’m going to have to go with soccer.

Favorite Record?

Jer: Is This It by the Strokes. The 10th anniversary passed by last year and it still had the same effect on me.
Max: Gonna have to go with Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol. That was the first album that got me into “good” music, and pretty much defined my mental image of New York City before living there. Unfortunately, the real thing is not as good as the mental image conjured up by that amazing album.

Your favorite beach?

Maria: Any beach in the Galapagos Islands. Baby seals and sea lions swimming around you. You feel like crying with joy.
Jer: Fort Lauderdale. I went to college there and it’s just like Revenge of the Nerds 2.

Something from the past you wish you could bring back.

Maria: One word. Dinosaurs.
Jer: Every era had one. Then in the mid-’90s—poof, it’s gone.