A newcomer stepping into today’s music scene is like wandering into a neon‑lit maze where every turn offers both opportunity and overwhelming challenges. Algorithms shape first impressions, social platforms demand constant visibility, and trends shift before a debut single has time to breathe. Yet there is a strange freedom in this chaos: artists can build audiences from their bedrooms, experiment without gatekeepers, and find communities that champion their quirks rather than polish them away. Navigating it all means learning to balance authenticity with strategy, embracing the grind of self‑promotion while protecting the spark that made them create in the first place. It is messy, exhilarating, and wide open for anyone bold enough to carve out their own sound.
Austen Starr emerges into a modern rock scene with a voice that cuts through the noise, a raw and deliberate presence and carrying the grit of classic rock influences but filters them through a contemporary edge, crafting songs that are definitely as personal as they are powerful – Starr isn’t interested in chasing nostalgia or trends and her debut album I Am The Enemy – is something of a revelation. Eleven ear worm songs all deftly crafted but the mystery was this – where has this bright new talent come from?
“Well, I’ve grown up around music, I’ve been working on music my whole life,” explains Austen. ”I wrote my first song when I was eleven but that one is going to my grave with me and is never going to see the light of day, it was terrible. My dad, who is a musician – and he did the vocal tracking on my album – helped me put chords to it because I just had the top line. I would go to all my dad’s gigs and eventually I started gigging through this music school where they take four or five musician kids who aren’t in a band and make them a band in eight one-hour sessions and then they do a gig. The way that this happened though was that I was a camper at Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp. It was a Paul Stanley camp, so I got to meet and perform on stage at House of Blues Vegas with Paul Stanley, which is really cool. A few years later – during the pandemic, actually – the director, the office manager, I guess, of Rock Camp, Britt Lightning from Vixen, posted something on Facebook saying, ‘Hey we’re looking for an assistant, if anyone knows anybody, let me know.’ Weirdly enough she had gone to high school with my friend from extracurricular activities. As an adult. I am part of a dance company, so she was one of my friends in my tap classes and she asked, ‘Hey didn’t you go to this camp?’ and she sent me Britt’s post, I applied and I got the gig.
From there I was working with all these counsellors who are all touring musicians; Vinny Appice from Black Sabbath, Tony Franklin from The Firm, and of course Joel Hoekstra from Whitesnake, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Cher, and Night Ranger. I started building a rapport with the different counsellors and eventually I had the audacity [laughs] to show Joel the demo for what ended up being Medusa. He said, ‘you just need eleven of these and you have an album.’ I said, ‘Really? Would you help me with that?’ And here we are.”
Austen Starr is an engaging interviewee who brims with effervescence. The conversation is peppered with laughter and big smiles but in telling the story of “and here we are” there is both a sense of wonder and enormity of sharing a stage with Paul Stanley and building that rapport with touring musicians and the laughter following the ‘audacious’ ask of Joel Hoekstra has the ‘don’t ask, don’t get’ cheekiness to it but there is nothing other than reverence for her fellow musicians on the album – Joel Hoekstra who played guitar as well as producing and co-writing the album with Austen; Steve Ferlazzo (Hugo’s Voyage, Avril Lavigne) on keyboards, Chris Collier (Mick Mars, Lita Ford) on drums, and Chloe Lowery (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on backing vocals.
One of the many highlights of I Am The Enemy is its dynamism, the variety of styles nestling together and that natural glide between heavy hitters, pop-rock and ballads. Was this a conscious decision?
“Yes and no,” says Austen. “The way that we put together the album was that Joel asked me for a playlist of songs that I wish I had written that could be on my album. Joel used those for inspiration on how to go about creating these tracks and he did a really good job of managing to emulate them without making them cheesy or too close to the original. It was a tough task because the songs that I put on that playlist were all so different and that is how the album turned out to be different. I do think that there was a conscious decision when we were sequencing the tracks, though, ‘Okay, well we don’t want to put this one next to this one. That is too much of a clash but then these two are too similar so we don’t want to put these together.’ We tried to show a couple different genres within the pop-rock scene, partially just because that’s how it happened and because, as a new artist, I don’t know what people are going to like.”ing to like.”
The sequencing of an album is a valuable component in its creation but there is more to it on I Am The Enemy and the deliberate strategy for the singles from the album. “The first four tracks that you hear are the singles that we released,” says Austen. “You’ll notice that between those four there’s a lot of different styles, Remain Unseen is a little bit heavier, Medusa is a little bit poppier, Enemy is very poppy and then Read Your Mind is a ballad. We tried to make sure that each part of the album would be represented in one of the singles so that people weren’t surprised., we consciously made that decision to release things that showed different styles on the album.”
During the interview, the word “pop” comes up many times and Austen Starr is not shy as to her musical influences and how they have shaped her as a musician and her debut album. “I was actually a pop girl” exclaims Austen. “I was into the Spice Girls, the fictional Josie and the Pussycats, Hannah Montana from, Miley Cyrus’s alter ego from Disney, Hilary Duff – a lot of the pop stuff and I think that is where much of my wanting to be a musician came from, and especially the movies that relate back to that music such as the Spice World movie. The poppy stuff is what made me want to do this. I also listened to a lot of Avril Lavigne, she was a major influence especially on this album and oh my gosh, especially because we have Steve Ferlazzo on keys. Much of the music that my parents listened to was the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. My mom listened to more metal than my dad did, she had AC/DC on all the time. It was an eclectic mix. Kelly Clarkson is another one; Kelly Clarkson was also a big influence and then when Taylor Swift came out, she was a lyrical influence and so was Fall Out Boy, so was Panic! at the Disco, so was My Chemical Romance which is why I’m so wordy.” [laughs].
I Am The Enemy and especially the title track, the Avril Lavigne influence does stand out but at the mention of Taylor Swift and after taking a number of listens was like trying to figure whether that influence was there or just imagined. “Well, in terms of Taylor Swift, she is a billionaire and the most successful pop star on the planet so if you compare me to then that is a great thing. There was actually a review, and I don’t think that they liked the track All Alone, they said that it sounded like if ‘Taylor Swift played Def Leppard in 2008.’ It was not supposed to be a compliment, but I thought that it was hilarious.”
One other subject that Austen Starr is not shy about is her self-deprecation. It was startling to read promotional information about the album where Starr’s anxieties are laid bare describing herself as “an anxious wreck” or to see that songs describing “the origin of my villain arc” and playing her own antagonist – the album title is a dead giveaway, really. While the album plays with themes of self-sabotage and vulnerability, there is also exploration, absolution, and self-discovery and whereas some artists may lyrically hide, Starr is overt and even in songs that she wrote as a teenager. “Medusa is the one I wrote forever ago,” says Austen. “I put on this mask, and I put on this character of a siren-lie seductress who is this man-eater type who uses and loses them, so to speak. It was an interesting departure from my actual personality, but it was really an exploration of what it would be like not to have abandonment or attachment issues.” [laughs]
Making albums is not a short process, how long was the gestation process? Austen bursts into laughter, “Well, that initial playlist, I sent it to Joel in November 2022, and the album came out in February 2026, so you do the math!” Surely, that played havoc with anxiety. “Oh yeah! 100%,” says Austen. “I had anxiety about every point in the process, whether it was the lyrics, are they good enough? Are they stupid? Are they something I want to have on this album or am I going to regret this in a couple of years? When it came to the vocals, I am not super confident about my voice, so I was like is this good enough? Is this going to make Steve Ferlazzo think ‘wow, why am I doing this project? Or is going to make Chloe Lowry say, ‘do I really have to sound like that?’
As we got into the mixes, Chris made everything sound incredible, he made all the effects on my vocals and the necessary pitch correction, all of the timing movement and the doubling of the vocals. Chris made it so that it was at least palatable to me [laughs]. When it came to time to release the first single which was I Am The Enemy [in July 2025] I was a nervous wreck. I had no idea how people would respond, I didn’t know if anyone was going to watch the video at all. I said to Joel something like ‘I feel like seven people are going to watch it and maybe one of them will like it.’ As it turns out, fifty-thousand people watched it so that’s a little different from seven [laughs].
[I Am The Enemy is] everyone’s to do with what they wish, it’s just a bizarre feeling because it’s no longer mine, it’s everyone’s to dissect, to love or to hate
Austen Starr
I Am The Enemy was released in February 2026, taking everything into account, what has the response been like?
“It’s been wild to say the least!” laughs Austen. “People seem to like it but then numerically it is not like it’s ever getting ten out of ten, it is never getting four-and-a-half out of five at best. I have been thinking ‘ok, but the review was glowing’ [laughs]. I suppose that is how it goes.”
Considering the immediacy of and the wanton brutality of social media has there been any serious negativity about the album? “Oh yeah, of course, there is always going to be negative on anything no matter how good it is,” reasons Austen. “It is a debut album, so this is the first impression that I am leaving on anyone who happens to listen to it. When you are new, people don’t really expect the most from you, right? People tend to react better to artists that they are familiar with and have been around for a few albums. I’ve been trying not to be afraid the comments or afraid of watching or reading the reviews. I am not doing fantastically well on the not being afraid front, but I have been lurking to see what people are saying.”
Shortly after the release of the album, Austen posted on social media that she was about to read the reviews, and it was accompanied by a photograph where it appeared that Austen was walking towards something. Whether this was deliberate or not either way it made an impression and it must be said that a great many bands and artists will say that they that they do not care what critics say about their work.
“I do feel like people tend not to admit that they Google themselves,” laughs Austen. “However, and especially as a new artist, I do want to know such as which tracks are doing better than others and because the album has so many different styles on it. I am trying to figure out which direction I go next. Do I go more poppy like I Am The Enemy or Not This Life? Or do I go darker like Effigy or Get Out Alive? It is guiding me on what people have been responding well to.”
I Am The Enemy is not just a clever, deep and personal album musically but also visually with album cover – and especially with the hot topic of AI, it was refreshing not just to see a photograph as the cover but one that directly reflects its musical artist but one of the songs on the album. “Oh yeah, a lot of the cover came from the visuals that I envisioned for Remain Unseen,” explains Austen. “We have the mirror which is Alice In Wonderland and what the song is about. We have got the skull which is from the bridge of the song, ‘oh have I lost my head? Your queen will want me dead’ Speaking of queens, we have the two chess pieces with one knocked over. ‘Her white rose is red,’ that is another one. The imagery really from Remain Unseen more than any other song but the imagery does relate to most of them.”
As the zoom clock begins to tick down and frantically flash, VT’s time with Austen Starr is coming to an end but now that I Am The Enemy is out in the world – granted not that long just yet – but it needs to be asked – what is next and will Austen tour the album? “Oh yes, there is more to come,” Austen beams. “I have written enough material for a second album so hopefully that comes to fruition. I am getting a band together now; I actually have a plan to get a band both up here and Massachusetts and down in Nashville which is where my drummer lives. If I can get two groups and I fly between the two, we can do gigs up here and down there and hopefully get somewhere with it.”
Austen Starr is a captivating figure, and I Am The Enemy is one of those albums I probably shouldn’t love, yet it’s been on constant repeat. One of its biggest hooks, what Austen calls “saccharine,” is beautifully contrasted by dark, thought-provoking lyrics that take time to sink in. With the world in such a rough state, music and the joy it brings feel more vital than ever, and for those navigating their own daily challenges, there’s something here that resonates on a personal level—not just a glimpse into someone else’s story. The blend of styles is a delight, appealing to anyone in the rock scene. Thanks to the instant access of streaming, give this rising artist your time, then go buy the album and really dive into the lyrics. You won’t regret it—watch this Starr rise.
Go down the rabbit hole…
I Am The Enemy is out now on Frontiers Music. CD and merch bundles are available directly from Austen Starr’s official website and check out VT’s review of the album.
Austen Starr online:
Austen Starr on streaming services
No comments! Be the first commenter?