The setting is the East Village’s Nublu, the band is Starfox and the Fleet and it’s the same old story – boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy gets pregnant … okay, maybe there’s a twist or two to the tale.
That bit of narrative is a new addition to the saga of this neo-psychedelic, dreampop, glamrock band as they have recently added a theatrical element to their presentation, which wasn’t a great shock to their fans, who were accustomed to band leader Starfox’s dramatic tendencies.
The band has been building up a following with their original genre-mashing tunes, composed by Starfox, and the leader’s flair for spectacle on a budget. Using each venue as inspiration for her costumes, Starfox works with Katie Estaba of the Team Kitty Koalition to create a new costume for every performance. All of which is just the beginning of the culmination of her childhood dream.
“I had piano lessons at age five,” she recalls. “And I got into musical theater when I was six or seven. My dream was to sing and dance and act on Broadway.”
She was dropped by her very strict piano teacher after competing in numerous classical piano competitions all throughout her childhood because she didn’t want to dedicate herself to that world.
“I didn’t touch the piano again for a few years”, she recounts. “Until I got into the Ben Folds Five and the Dresden Dolls, I saw how the piano could be cool. So I picked it up again and started playing pop songs. I just did it as a hobby — I never thought that I would be a musician.”
After settling on a career in cancer research and moving to New York from Bethesda, MD, Starfox found that the city had a profound effect on her.
“Living in New York was very emotionally expansive,” she notes. “I underwent a lot of trials and tribulations in my personal life that gave me something to write about. I didn’t think that I could write a song, but the first one just kind of vomited out of me and I said, ‘Wait a minute – I didn’t think I could do that.’ Then I wrote ten songs in 10 days.”
“At first, in 2018, Starfox and the Fleet were just me and the producer,” she adds. “In 2021, I was performing as an acoustic duo, and in 2023, I put together a full band.”
The band’s name resulted from her fascination with “retro-future sci-fi” and her interest in “evoking the inner child.” The name Starfox (nope, she didn’t grow up with that moniker) was chosen from a video game from her early years. The Fleet is a reference to that quasi-military style that was once sported by Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Who, and Michael Jackson.
The back story is that the band has travelled backwards in time from another planet in the future, where they are already famous. Their goal is “to transport you to another dimension where radical self-expression and creativity reign supreme.” Doesn’t sound bad to us; in the wise words of songsmith Dan Hicks, “Hell, I’d Go.”
The music is a mix of whatever it needs to be at the moment — dreamy doo-wop, crunchy metal riffs, prog-rock, psychedelic 60s and more — none of which is surprising when Starfox checks off the list of her favorite bands, now and then: from the old guard of David Bowie, the Beatles and Queen to current fave St. Vincent and her “two favorite bands in New York City – Tony and the Kiki and Pinc Louds.”
“I find it inspiring when I see live music,” she says. “It makes me feel special. When I perform, I want the audience to feel connected with me. I’m a huge fan of Pinc Louds – they showed me how to engage an audience.”
Some 80% of the tunes come solely from Starfox, with a couple co-written with a former band member. Covers are occasionally mixed in, so the crowd might be treated to “Venus” by the Shocking Blue or Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”
The current show opens with “Saturn Return,” a ditty about “sexual tension, desire, uncertainty and excitement, seduction, unrequited love in space and the anticipation of something new beginning.”
If that hooks you in, you can stick around for “Telepathic Love” (“love, wonder, limerence, reverence, the mysticism and science of connection”), “Kicked in the Teeth” (“rebellion, frustration, self-doubt, commentary on adderall and capitalism, cognitive dissonance”) and “Love Machine” (“choosing love in the face of hardship, optimism, hope, perseverance”).
Between the numbers, there are scripted vignettes that tell the story of an interplanetary love triangle that involves Starfox and a difficult decision that relies on audience participation to resolve.
“My goal as an artist is to awaken people to their own main character energy. I want to show them that they can do anything – they can stand up and voice their opinion, wear the clothes that they want to wear, make the art that they want to make. I want to inspire people to be less passive and more active in their lives,” she muses. “In the future, I would love to have a fully immersive show on a grander scale where the action is happening all around you. … I want to deepen my connection with the audience and show them that they have the power to change the world around them. It was always my dream to sing, dance, and act in New York, and now I’m doing exactly that – not on Broadway, but on my own terms.”
And, she adds, “I’m very serious about being playful.”
Starfox and the Fleet are performing next at the Sultan Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn on June 13. Look for info at thesultanroom.com
Their website is starfoxandthefleet.com and there are two Instagram pages — @lady.zeppelin for Starfox and @starfoxandthefleet for the band
