Interview with STARLEY

“I kind of steered away from being an artist until later on in life, and I think the biggest lesson I learned was not to take on people’s opinions too heavily and just kinda do your own thing.”

In 2016, Australian-born artist Starley rocked the world with her debut single “Call On Me”, gaining Top 10 status in over 30 countries and becoming the 2nd most streamed Australian artist on Spotify with over half a billion streams around the world. She’s toured with other superstar acts such as Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson as well as have performed on the likes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Good Morning America, and her success only seems to etching higher and higher.

I was able to head to the Universal Music office in Sydney to hang out with Starley and ask her about her childhood love for music, the song that changed her entire career and the insight on her new single “Touch Me”.

Photo Credit: Cath Connell Photography

Hi Starley, how are you today?

Good, thank you. Thanks for having me!

Awesome! So, for people who don’t know who you are, Starley Hope is your actual name and that’s because your mum always knew you were going to be a musician, am I right?

Yeah. So Hope is my real last name, but my first name, she said she knew when I was born that I’d be an artist so she gave me a stage name.

Cool, did music always come naturally to you from a young age?

Yeah, My mum used to sing. She wasn’t, you know, a big popstar or anything, but she used to be a lounge singer and so she’d always sing around the house, when she’s cooking and whatever. I heard so much music in our household, so it was pretty normal for me to just go ahead and start singing.

Who were your musical influences throughout your life?

I’d say one of my first influences was this guy called Ritchie Valens, whose an old 60’s, 70’s rock type singer and the movie “La Bamba” really influenced me and I loved all those melodies when I was, like, four or five. And then, from there on, I was really into Mariah Carey, Phil Collins, and Destiny’s Child. I think they were, like, my biggest influences. I remember just seeing Mariah Carey and seeing that she was a singer/songwriter and I remember thinking “If I’m gonna do anything in music, I have to write my own music”.

Photo Credit: Cath Connell Photography

So, in the early stages of your career, you faced a lot of challenges both in Australia as a musician and in England as a songwriter, how did those challenges affect you as an artist?

I think I learnt a lot of lessons from an early age and there was a thing with me where I took on people’s opinions too much and people would tell me “You need to change”, “You need to straighten your hair”, “You need to lose weight” or, “If you want to be an artist, you gotta sing more pop” and “You gotta do this” and I took on all their opinions because I was just a young kid. And I thought, “You know what, I’m not gonna be an artist. I don’t wanna do that anymore. I’m just gonna be a songwriter and stay in the background because then, I won’t be criticised so much”.

And so, I went to England, that was in my head, I was very strong-minded that I’m just gonna be a songwriter, no matter how many people started to ask me, “Are you an artist as well?”. You know, I was growing into being a young woman and people were asking me and I guess, cause I might’ve had a certain vibe that I should do music too, and I thought “I can’t do that” because I had it in my head from an early age that it’s not possible for me, and I was too scared to put myself out there. So yeah, I kind of steered away from being an artist until later on in life, and I think the biggest lesson I learned was not to take on people’s opinions too heavily and just kinda do your own thing.

Do you think that without these challenges, your career would’ve taken a different path?

Yeah, I think if I would’ve had it too easy, I might’ve been a completely different artist, and there was lots of near-misses as a songwriter and if I actually made it as a songwriter for real and I was making big hits and things, I might not have ended up being an artist because I would’ve been very comfortable being in the background and very happy to stay there.

So you go face all these challenges, and you turn those challenges into a song — which is “Call On Me” — and suddenly, everything starts falling into place for you, career wise. How did that feel to suddenly have that break and have your music acknowledged around the world?

I think it was both gratifying and the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered in my life. It was gratifying because people were connecting with the music and I loved that, like I thought “Man, that’s what it all about”. For me, it’s just the music so I loved that side of it, but then, I was fully, completely scared and fearful of putting myself out there and so it came with, like, a two-pronged situation where I’d get to perform in front of people and I’d be scared out of my life. But, you know, you get used to it and you start to learn. Unless you face those challenges and unless you do things you’re scared of, you don’t get the biggest rewards that you’re meant to have in life and it’s super important to face those things.

With your breakthrough now, does it still feel like like a dream?

Yeah, I think a lot of the time, sometimes I’ll wake up and think, “Is this really my life still?”. It happens all the time and it’s an amazing thing, it’s really beautiful.

Photo Credit: Cath Connell Photography

So, let’s talk about your new single. It’s called “Touch Me”, tell me about the concept behind it and how did it evolve into the song it is today?

Yeah, so I basically know this guy named Bryce [Wilson, producer], who is one half of the band Groove Theory, the original band that created the song “Tell Me”. That’s the original song. Not everybody knows that song but I loved it as soon as I heard it when I was a kid and so, I asked [Bryce Wilson], “Can I remake your song? I wanna rewrite it and change things around” and he said, “Yeah, go for it, do it” and so, I took that song and made it into my own thing and made it about being in a relationship with someone and getting too comfortable and not learning how they respond to feeling good and what makes that person feel good and I think it’s super important, either if you’re in a new relationship or an old relationship, learning what that person is into and learning how to touch them in a way they want to be touched so whether that’s physically or mentally or romantically, you know, figure out what people like and the lyric “Touch me how I want you to” is about that.

Since “Call On Me” had that huge reaction behind it that boosted you as an artist, did that put more pressure on you when you went back to record “Touch Me”?

I think, for me, I’m just happy to make music so I kind of feel like I’m going to be putting music out there, no matter what. I’m not going to be putting a precedence on myself that it has to be a certain way, that it has to skyrocket in the way “Call On Me” did. For me, I just think it’s constantly about putting out more content which I’m planning on doing now, I’m just gonna give more songs and keep delivering stuff and let people see who I am and learn about who I am as a person. I’m going to constantly evolve and constantly just keep putting out music so yeah, I don’t really feel that. I did in the beginning but now, definitely not.

Cool, how long has it been since you were back in Australia?

I haven’t been here for eight months.

How does it feel to be back home?

Yeah, it feels amazing. I saw my parents for the first time the day before yesterday and yeah, it was really amazing.

What is next for Starley? Will there be an EP or album, maybe an Australian tour, in the future?

Yeah, it’s gonna be either an EP or an album, we’re gonna be putting new music out really soon within the next couple months and then, the album will come shortly after so you’re gonna hear a lot more music for sure and I’m going to be performing the stuff on tours that I can’t announce yet. There’s something in the UK coming up and I’m going to be performing all the new songs there.