Starling is a four-piece Alternative band born and based in Los Angeles, CA, creating music with a soft heaviness, weaving from grunge to songwriter to shoegaze.
The bandâs absolute genre is hard to pin, but the feel is a general yearning for contentment, a person, a place. Combining bedroom warped production with angular leads and rich vocal melodies, Starling offers a uniquely vulnerable and enthralling style of rock.
Lead singer and guitarist Kasha Souter Willett started the project in 2023 without a vision of what it would become. In May 2024, Starling officially formed with three more integral members – Erik Sathrum Johnson, Grace Rolek and Gitai Vinshtok. Their first EPÂ 2324Â was released in September 2024.Â
Confusion, frustration, love and loss are all expressed throughout Starlingâs new EP, Forgive Me,. Written over the course of about a year, the LA band recorded themselves in various sheds, apartments, and garages. The EP was mixed by drummer Erik Sathrum Johnson, artwork was shot by the band and their friends, and then mastered by Greg Obis (MJ Lenderman, Wishy, Duster).
Songs like âQuietâ start off with a slow and delicate melody, and then explode in sound halfway through. The guitars in the song were recorded in the middle of summer in a garage with no ACâa physically intense, almost spiritual experience that bleeds into the recording. The lead single, âI Can Be Convinced,â is a sad and yearning song, with a need to be still; yet ironically, itâs one of the most upbeat songs on the EP.
The EP closes with the nearly seven-minute âKeep Itâ a track Starling had been performing since early 2024. Lyrically charged with frustration, it builds tension through eerie, hushed verses that give way to a loud, distorted chorusâshowcasing the bandâs ability to channel emotion through dynamic contrast.
With Forgive Me, Starling has crafted a deeply personal and fully DIY EP, shaping every sonic detail themselves. The result is a project where every melody, rhythm, and raw feeling is intentionally placed and unmistakably theirs.