Randy
So-Cal-based singer-songwriter Starla Starshine, aka Megan Bennett, recently dropped her debut EP, entitled Red Lagoon. She’ll be dropping a new album, called Lover Boy, in December.
In addition to her music, Starla advocates for mental health. She is currently finishing up a book entitled Emotional Overdose, a semi-autobiographical tome disclosing not only her personal journey through life, but also the lessons she learned.
Born and raised in Orange country, Starla wrote her first song when she was 13-years-old. The song was for John Lennon. By the age of 15, she was fronting her own band, called Rebel Heart. The band’s music caught the attention of DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, aka “The Mayor of Sunset Strip.” Later, Starla decided her music didn’t mirror who she really was, so she stopped for a few years.
Now twenty-something, she’s back with music that reflects who she is.
Red Lagoon comprises three tracks. First up is “Bad Boys,” a song about falling in love with someone who most would deem risky, the kind of person your mother warned you about. A pop-rock tune flavored with new wave jazz savors, the song oozes swirling harmonics and a measured, potent rhythm tumescent with a sensuous shuffling feel.
“Lover Boy” rides a pulsing, dark electro-pop melody gingered with dream-pop textures, like Betty Moon covering Depeche Mode. Deep droning synth colors imbue the atmosphere with drifting, wavering filaments and wistful sparkles. Starla’s voice exudes wickedly sultry timbres, deliciously exotic and tantalizingly nuanced.
The title track opens with surfacing synths flowing into a new wave-industrial-electro-pop tune. Dark resolves and opaque colors surge with a sense of imminence. Starla’s tones reflect taut remote hues that switch to vibrant melodicism on the chorus. The feel of the harmonics encloses suppressed muscular pressure.
Red Lagoon seethes with buff dark energy and smoky textures, as well as innovative fusions of electro-pop, new wave, and dream-pop. Starla Starshine definitely delivers the musical goods.
