INTERVIEW: Starley releases debut album 'One of One': "I always want to explore and push boundaries for myself"

It has been a long and tumultuous road to Australian Starley’s debut album. After thirteen years on the music industry path, along with countless setbacks and a billion-streaming single thrown into the mix for fun, Hope finally releases One of One on September 25. While not the kind of singer to attract constant media attention, she has proven over the past four years to be one of the most talented and versatile artists making music today. One of One stays true to the totally genre-diverse soundscape we have heard from her to date, with Starley authentically inhabiting musical styles that don’t usually sit so well together: the album embraces hardcore dance tracks, guitar-driven ballads, acoustic pop and electro-pop with ease. Add in her incisive lyrics on life, love and loss, and you’ll find an album to connect with no matter what mood you are in.

To celebrate the release of One of One we recently caught up with Starley to find out all about the creation of this gem.

Hello Starley, how are things in your beautifully musical world? 
Oh, they're awesome. i finally finished my debut album! That's a huge thing for me. Super excited about it. 

This album makes me so happy listening to it. It features some massive hits including ‘Call on Me’, ‘Love is Love’ and my personal favourite ‘Lovers + Strangers’, as well as a load of new tracks, including your latest single ‘Let Me In’. It's like a story book, country heartbreak lyrics with your quintessential voice. Where did this track come from?
This song was actually the only song on my album that I didn't write. The reason why I decided to put it on my album was Amy Allen is a boss song writer and to be offered such a beautiful song from her is incredible. She did the Marshmello song ‘Be Kind’ with Halsey and she's [written for] Harry Styles and a bunch of big artists. But aside from that, the actual song is very country, very soulful and it was something that I felt i needed because I love that kind of sound. It was super broken down and I felt like this is the perfect thing for me to do some raw vocals and tell a story that's very similar to all my experiences in love. i seem to always be apologising for things and losing people that I truly care about because I’ve effed up in some type of way. 

The style is new for you and I'm all over it. When you heard the song and you had the lyrics, was that quite a push for you personally to go, ‘you know what I'm just going to trust this guitar to play out the percussion and it's going to be all my voice’? 
Yes, that's it. If I wasn't signed to a dance label, I might even just do a whole acoustic album. It's the way that i actually write my songs. When I write it's very, very raw. But I'm always a pop artist no matter what. I love beats. I love all those kind of things. But it definitely was not scary for me to have my voice so raw and open because I think that's where I sound my best. 

You do. It's very honest, i's very soulful for a better choice of a word. It doesn't sound like you're trying to sing,. it's just your natural voice. It's gorgeous. So it's been a real treat to hear it on ‘Let Me In’ as well as the title track ‘One of One’. Again, it's just you there and you're pushing those boundaries of familiarity into uncharted waters. How important is that for you, that experimentation and change with your music considering like you said, you are signed to a dance label and you are kind of known for your uplifting tracks?
Yeah, I mean it's the reason why I do this. I always want to explore and push boundaries for myself and just become a better well-rounded writer in general. i wrote ‘One of One’ on the rooftop of my old apartment in LA. I was sitting with a guitar and I was playing some chords and I was feeling this from a relationship and I came up with the idea. I knew that it wasn't going to be a dance record. It didn't feel like a dance record. I just go with the flow because at the end of the day I’m essentially a pop artist, no matter which way I look at it. Because I'm very melodic and because I sing about relatable stories, I'm always going to end up falling into the category of pop no matter what. There's a lot of freedom within that because you can just do so much, you know. There's endless sort of options when it comes to fusion and what you can do with that. 

I like that. Now ‘Arms Around Me’. You've got this beautiful way of creating joyful dance pop tracks. But then when stripped back to those core lyrics, they're punctuated with the conflicted emotions of the breakdown a relationship. Is that joyful ‘turning over a new leaf’ on a bad situation, is that something that you feel was missing from music that you were listening to growing up? 
Actually, I think that what was in music I listened to growing up. It's almost missing from music now to a degree. I don't hear that many artists that do that kind of thing. I performed in church for so long and there's always this hopeful essence in church, in gospel music that always resonated with me. So when I write I do always write from an introspective kind of place. But at the same time, even though I'm usually sad when I'm writing a song, I try to find the things that make things feel hopeful because at the end of the day that's why I listen to music. I don't listen to music to stay sad. I listen to music to relate to it. But then I want to feel that i can still go up and believe in a better day tomorrow kind of thing. 

You put on most of your songs and you cannot deny anyone a dance. Obviously with the situation in the world right now, people aren't allowed to dance together. What have been your experiences in releasing dance music in a time when people are just dancing in their homes?
It has been an interesting time. I try not to really think too hard about that because at the end of the day people always need music to make them feel good. That's never going to go away. It's almost even more necessary at this point in time. I don't know how many people were dancing to my music but I hope that they are in their homes. I miss dancing a lot and so I'm just going to keep bringing out those types of songs no matter what because I feel like it's always something that’s necessary and needed. 

2020 has been one train wreck after another. We’ve had fire, we’ve had riots, we’ve had a pandemic and some of the worst human beings being held accountable for their horrific actions. But there has been quite a lot of gold that's been panned from the wreckage creatively and with regards to humanity and connection. What have been some of those moments for you? 
In the beginning when everything started to happen, I felt myself getting a little bit depressed. Everything was just stripped back without my doing. But I really had time to reflect on where I am in my life and the things that I am grateful for and what matters to me most. I got stuck in Australia waiting for my visa for America and I had no choice but to get my mind into the right space and when I started to think about what I was grateful for I was so happy to be with my family, you know? I haven't lived in Australia for a long time. almost a decade. I've been here the longest I’ve been in that decade and it's been amazing to reconnect with my family on a deeper level because we just have this everyday connection now which is so awesome because we're in the same timezone and i get to see my nieces and nephews and things like that. So being grateful has been the biggest takeaway for me. Funnily enough, because I've been stuck here I've been celibate for most of the year and that's helped me really focus on my music and really focus on my really deep emotions and things that I don't normally, sometimes i try to block them out. I've had no choice but to go deeper because there's so much stuff going around. There's so much chaos that I’ve gone inside and I’ve started to work on myself a lot more. So I’m really grateful for that experience to be honest. 

I bet you never would have thought that would be your gratitude. “I want a year of no sex and living with my family. It's going to be really good”.
Yeah! I mean i don't live with my family but they're close enough. You know, it is funny because I do think it helped me to focus a lot. It's almost like the next person that comes into my life that even tries me I'm going to be sceptical. Is this going to take away all this goodness that is coming because I’m so creative at the moment? I almost just want to keep to myself. I don't even want to give my newly found virginity away. 

We're going to lock you in a tower like some kind of fairy tale princess. That's the next move. 
Yes, writing music!

Being locked at home and celibate for the last year, are you noticing a change in the way your sounds are coming out? The ones you're writing and developing now as opposed to last year in the States?
Yeah. I had this idea this morning after I finished at the gym and I started putting it down. I did like two or three ideas this morning. Just quickly, just voice notes. I keep them for later for when I'm actually sitting down and doing that writing. And they're all super uplifting and super kind of connected to the things that are happening to me at the moment and things that I'm grateful for. So I guess that does impact my music quite a lot. 

Beautiful. With this gorgeous body of work, is there one track on there that you're really excited for the listeners to hear? 
I'm so glad you asked this because ‘One of One’, which is the title track of the album, is my favourite song on the entire album. It's coming out next and it's got a music video that we're currently editing and I'm just so stoked for this song. I really hope everyone loves it. 

I was really excited to hear it as well. It is really gorgeous. There's real confidence in that song. It's beautiful. 
Yeah, and my voice is a little bit more raw. I've allowed it to be that way because that's how I felt when I was singing it. It's not as smooth as you might hear in ‘Call on Me’ or anything like that. It's a little bit more raw and rough around the edges and I love that. And slightly urban, which is cool because that's kind of the music that I grew up on.

See, we're developing and self-awareness and it's coming out in song. I love it. And Starley, lastly what is on the horizon for your gorgeous self?
Definitely after this album comes out I’ll figure out a way to do some shows online. I'm just going to be creating more music and put out another project afterwards. I'll just keep going with that until I know that I can go and tour somewhere. I don't know when that time is. I think every artist is waiting for that moment, but until then I just have to keep creating and just keep my mind in that space.

One of One is out on Friday 25th September via Central Station Records. You can pre-order it now here

To keep up with all things Starley, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.