Stevie Starr releases 'The Rising Tide Of Conformity'
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:09 pm

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STEVIE STARR
www.thesteviestarr.com

‘The Rising Tide of Conformity’
Single Release: 21 April, 2009

NZ Music Month hits this May, so before the tidal wave of commercialisation rises, Stevie Starr is offering NZ music something new.

Described as one of the ‘Acts to Look Out For In 2009’ (Rip It Up Magazine) Starr’s debut album ‘We Hope In All Things New’ 'juxtaposes straight vocal guitar pop with subversive lyrical themes. With moody electronic tinged compositions marinated in a propensity for emotive classical style arrangements; his debut is an enjoyable listening experience to say the least'. Rip It Up

Following four years of determination, recording in showers, churches, and professional studios, whilst managing a stint as editor of Victoria University magazine Salient, Starr’s LP is due to be released, and distributed by Border Music, on 15 June. His first single ‘The Rising Tide of Conformity’ will be released on Tuesday 21 April, available as a free download (with voluntary koha), at www.thesteviestarr.com.

‘The Rising Tide of Conformity’is a reflective song for economically obsessed times.
“After feeling fed up with how far the music industry has gone in terms of neglecting creative values, I wrote 'The Rising Tide'. The audience is far smarter than the industry thinks,” says Starr.

While sounding like a classic pop song, 'The Rising Tide's' lyrics have far more subversive undertones. Referencing Norman Mailer's 1952 Essay 'TheWhite Negro', 'The Rising Tide' pleads with an increasingly dissatisfied generation to run from the rising tide of conformity, ironically in the form of a commercially viable song. “I think that modern times are making us feel like we are a cipher in some vast statistical operation. The courage to speak with one's own voice is increasingly absent.”

Influenced by Arvo Pärt, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, but mostly ‘the world’, Starr wrote his songs from expeditions hitch-hiking around NZ and Europe, following gigs at the Starclub in Hamburg, meeting Maori tribe elders at Waitangi, dossing with crab farmers, and drinking with locals on the road, exchanging musical tales for beverages.

We wish you to listen to and place ‘The Rising Tide of Conformity’ as much as possible on your website. Stevie Starr would be most appreciative.

Album release show: Thursday June 18, The Mighty Mighty, Wellington

www.thesteviestarr.com www.myspace.com/thesteviestarr