AUSTEN STARR
I’m ecstatic to finally be releasing an actual album! This project has been a long time coming–a lifetime in the making, as cliché as that may be. It’s a really wild feeling to be putting music out into the world after being so afraid to for the duration of my existence, and the fact that the first couple of songs have been received well is completely blowing my anxious, self-deprecating mind. With the release of this debut album, I feel like I’m putting my life in your hands just to see what you’ll do with it. It’s terrifying, exhilarating, and freeing. Thank you so much to everyone at Frontiers, thank you to Joel Hoekstra, Chris Collier, Steve Ferlazzo, and Chloe Lowery, thank you to everyone who has made this project possible, and thank you to everyone who listens to the music. I hope you all enjoy it!
Read Your Mind
“‘Read Your Mind’ was the first track written specifically for the album. Joel [Hoekstra] came up with the music and most of the melody, along with the line ‘If I could read your mind / For a day or two.’ I tried to keep his lyrical hook in the lyrics while writing, and I wrote 6 vastly different versions of the song that I hated before finding the words I recorded. The final lyrics were written in a 22-minute zealous dissociation on the train ride to the studio on the day of recording. The image evoked is a freeze-frame of that unfortunate moment within a tumultuous relationship shortly before you realize you should give up on it completely. Everything feels unsteady, you’re blaming yourself without giving the other person any credit for the downfall, and you’re wishing that there was a way to make it better, when ultimately there is no resolution to be found. This video is the last and the simplest of the four singles’ videos, showing clips from my vocal tracking sessions at the studio interspersed between shots of the video musicians playing the track. This track is the wistful one, and while I would hope listeners have been spared that pain,
I’m sure many will be able to relate!” — Austen Starr
Medusa
"'Medusa' tells a story where I'm this evil seductress who strings guys along just to break their hearts and 'turn [them] to stone.' For the video, we definitely took creative liberties with the myth. Medusa's mask keeps her power sealed, and she is playing with the guy like a cat plays with a mouse, but she intends to let him go--with a turn when he really falls for her. 'Medusa' has a special place in my heart because I wrote the song when I was really young and pretending to be confident, and it became the demo shown to Frontiersthat sparked the entire album. I'm still waiting on that confidence, but this one little song from forever ago has cultivated something better than I ever could have imagined. I hope 'Medusa' evokes a feeling of power in listeners the way that writing and performing it did for me!" — Austen Starr
Remain Unseen
“‘Remain Unseen’ is a heavier track than my first single, ‘I Am the Enemy.' Lyrically, it creates a realistic remix of the fantastical Alice in Wonderland story by tweaking it into an adult situation and giving the beloved protagonist a sinister spin. I’m excited for this song to become part of your summer-to-fall soundtrack! Down the rabbit hole we go!” — Austen Starr
I Am The Enemy
"[My new single]’I Am The Enemy’ leans slightly into 'pop,' but has been a favorite of everyone involved in the project, and the timing seemed right for a summer release to be this upbeat and deceptively saccharine. The video intends to show the dichotomy that exists around my desire to live within this 'rockstar' persona; one side is really tortured about it and the other is excited about it. The version of me that you see on the Viper Room stage is the culmination and resolution of those two parts.” — Austen Starr
this is austen.
Austen hates bad grammar, the smell of leather, wet objects, living in the Northeast, the color yellow, and herself. Especially because she used bad grammar in one of her own singles, because it fit the meter.
To learn more pro tips on hypocrisy,