Brion Starr lives and works in New York City, joined by a group of foreign and domestic collaborators.
Their latest album, A Night To Remember, is a meditation on night itself, a spinning sci-fantasy through this future darkness we all contemplate, a journey to the end of the night told as a story of one evening in an internationalist future city with no up and no down, no beginning and no end. Passing through the seedy clubs, with all their trappings, are you being followed? Have you lost your mind? Blackout and wake on a train. Is this a dream? We are nocturnal. There’s fire in the streets. The first tier look down on your. So find the ones you love and hold them tight. Yes, the kind of night where you land right where you’re meant to be.
This album is a meditation on night. A concept record built in rhizomatic thinking, phenomenological thought, and too many nights that turn into days. From going out and letting loose, dancing until you can’t dance anymore. To study your friends’ behaviors compared to nocturnal creatures (as well as your own). To an overnight ghost train ride to Chicago on a line that doesn’t exist anymore. To a sci fi-noir film you dreamt up one night and began to write down while you’re practically asleep. A reluctant poem observing the loss of a friend to the darker corners of the mind. The recalling of a moment of joy you spend in the arms of someone you care so deeply about, two people in fact.
The album was recorded at the Chateau d’Herouville and produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T Rex, Sparks)
Today Glide is excited to premiere Brion Starr’s video for the standout track “The Butler.” Perhaps it’s the presence of Tony Visconti, but it’s hard not to see the resemblance in music and style to Low-era David Bowie. Brion Starr is a slender figure with a sense of mystery, traversing a cityscape in the dark of night. Glam meets goth with just a hint of disco in this work of brooding pop. Starr seems proud to emulate the Thin White Duke, exuding cool aloofness and untouchable style.
Brion Starr describes the inspiration and process behind the song:
“This was the first song we finished for this album, or at least I thought it was finished. Tony pushed me in the studio to add a lower 5th vocal for portions of this and I am really glad he did, I didn’t hear it at first but when it clicked the whole song stuck together as if someone had vacuum-sealed it. ‘The Butler’ tells the story of a drug dealer that I knew. I was very high one night and I started thinking about life from their perspective. Just trying to survive really, feed their family. It is a sympathetic look at a job people don’t have much sympathy for. The solo is so insane, a real trip, I love the way the guitars and synthesizers blend into each other and become this hybrid thing. It really sounds to me like it is one living instrument we haven’t invented yet. I love the raw sounds that the engineers Thierry Garacino and Jean Taxis got, especially on this track.”
WATCH:
Photo credit: Edouard Plongeon
One Response
Damn, borderline offensive how hard this bloke is trying to cop Bowie. Surprised Visconti is down with this. Something Spinal Tap about the whole thing.