Aussie indie pop singer/songwriter Phebe Starr first emerged onto the Australian scene with her breakthrough 2013 single “Alone With You,” a track that grabbed the attention of the national music industry and received heavy rotation on Triple J. Since then, Starr has been extremely busy: her work has appeared on Spotify editorial playlists globally including New Music Friday, Fresh Finds, Young and Free, Indie Arrivals, Indie Pop, Women of Pop and thousands of fan generated playlists, which has resulted in millions of streams. Her work has appeared in ad campaigns for Sony, Samsung Galaxy — and in HBO’s Ballers.
Starr has written songs for some of the world’s biggest and most beloved artists and bands. And adding to a growing profile, she has shared stages wqiuth Of Monsters + Men, Cub Sport, and The Paper Kites and a growing list of others.
The Aussie pop artist’s full-length debut, Heavy Metal Flower Petal was released earlier this week. The album reveals an artist, who has become more in touch with self than ever before. Arguably, some of her most liberating and honest work to date, the album’s material was written in the wake of divorcing a man she married as a 21-year-old. Featuring guest spots from Cloud Control‘s and VLOSSOM‘s Alister Wright, Xavier Dunn, and Japanese Wallpaper, the album sees Starr peeling back the layers and exploring new territory and depths within her, showing a contrast between the toughness (the “heavy metal”) and the softness (the “flower petal) that exists within her life.
“The whole album is about my process of letting myself feel things that I was afraid to,” she says. “It’s about letting myself be tender and vulnerable, learning how to incorporate the feminine into my narrative,” Starr explains.
Earlier this year, I wrote about album “Everything,” a slinky Stevie Nicks and Still Corners-like slinky bop centered around a a sinuous bass line, Starr’s sultry and plaintive vocals, finger snaps, strummed acoustic guitar and a soaring hook. While revealing an unerring knack for craftsmanship — and a great hook — the song sees the Aussie pop artist examining the ways in which the quest and desire for love can often lead us to strange and unfamiliar places.
“My Magic Moon,” Heavy Metal Flower Petal‘s continues a run of slinky and glittery, hook-driven bops — but while arguably being the most disco friendly and upbeat track on the album, thanks to a punchily propulsive bass line and relentless four-on-the-floor paired with Starr’s sultry delivery.
“I was so sick of writing heartache songs. I wanted to write a song about how I wanted to feel and how future me would feel, but I didn’t have a muse,” Starr explains in press notes. “I looked outside the window and I always felt like the moon looked like it had it figured out, so as one does looking up to the moon pining for vibes, I found my muse…My Magic Moon.”
The accompanying, trippy, black and white video sees Starr performing the song with some self-playing instruments and getting down with her beau, Lizard Man in outer space while she fantasizes about her lunar muse.
