Starly Lou Riggs is the person behind Starly Kind, a musician exploring a melting pot of emo punk, doom rock with hints of psychedelia, right the way through to glitch electronics and Brazilian music. Songs often shapeshift in form, largely because Starly Kind wants the music to live in the liminal space between dream and nightmare. “I’m non-binary in everything – you can’t put me in a box”, says Starly Kind.
On their new single ‘Demon Dreams’, the track leaps from punky rock to an outpouring of screams, before taking a cabaret doom approach to the bridge. As the guitars, bass, keys, and rolling drums reach the cinematic outro, they create an ephemeral wave of rock glissandos, draped by Starly Kind’s layered soft vocals. It quite literally rips you from the calm into the void and then places you back on soft ground again. Speaking about the track, Starly Kind says:
“This song says, ‘I am making a home here. I am going to take up space, and I no longer going to let people make me feel small. After I wrote ‘Demon Dreams’, I realised I had been holding myself back. This song fueled me to keep writing.”
From there, the rest appears to be history! The track inspired the rest of their forthcoming debut EP ‘Inferno: (Xe/Xem)’, which is slated for release in May 2026. With such a visceral melting pot of ideas and sounds, I’m excited to hear it. I’m expecting an emotional outpouring rollercoaster. Fans of early Chelsea Wolfe should be right at home.
‘Demon Dreams’ is out now. For more information, visit Starly Kind’s website.
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