It is a crazy time in the music world. More and more sophisticated AI is flooding the market, and purely computer-generated bands are receiving airplay and column spaces. Whilst they may be slick and incredibly technically brilliant, it is all so very soulless. Fighting against that tide, there is a wealth of artists knocking it out of the park with real music made by real musicians, and when it is of the quality of Austen Starr, you know that the future is in truly safe hands.
Austen Starr – I Am The Enemy
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Paul Monkhouse
For those who love a mix of melody and muscle, the outfit’s debut album, I Am The Enemy, is the perfect fix, full as it is with irresistible hooks as it is with dirty guitars. With singer Austen Starr having met famed six-stringer Joel Hoekstra at Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp, the two became firm friends, and so impressed was the guitarist that he started working with the vocalist and with the help of a few friends, a new project was formed.
As well as Hoekstra, the band also features Chris Collier on both drums and bass, along with keys player Steve Ferlazzo and backing vocalist Chloe Lowey, each bringing their own special magic to the release.
Whilst the singer and guitarist are the main driving forces, having written all the songs, this does not feel like a marketing department’s wet dream but has all the energy of a proper band and certainly both the performances and the songs have something addictive about them.
The production too has the right balance between polish and bite, making it equally something at home on the radio or blasting out of a backroom at a dirty bar at the end of a town just off Route 66.
There is a dark edge here, the heaviness full of threatened menace. But this is counterpointed by Starr’s pure, but not too sweet, delivery and the opening salvo of the relentless Remain Unseen and the adrenaline rush of single Medusa perfectly illustrate this tension.
The title track sounds like an amped-up version of the sort of perfect pop-rock that Avril Lavigne built her career on. But Starr can do something heartrending as the emotional ballad Read Your Mind stays away from the saccharin and adds a little swing to things.
Changing direction again, Get Out Alive has a big arena feel like Alter Bridge, mixed with some mysterious Eastern spice and a dash of Blade Runner electronics. It is certainly a head-spinning blend. But it is a testament to all involved that it really works, especially as symphonic rock elements are thrown into the explosive Effigy, expanding their range even further.
Arguably, where the album scores biggest is in the ability to knock out great pop rockers, and there is a wealth of them here to be enjoyed, with Running Out Of Time and closer Until I See You Again being prime examples.
For those who may turn their noses up at anything that smacks of being commercial, then they are missing out, as I Am The Enemy has some of that same energy that Bon Jovi had at their peak. With numbers that you will find you are singing along to throughout the day and those hooks that will not leave your subconscious, this is a treat.
“This project has been a long time coming,” Austen Starr says, “A lifetime in the making, as cliché as that may be. It’s a really wild feeling to be putting music out into the world after being so afraid to for the duration of my existence, and the fact that the first couple of songs have been received well is completely blowing my anxious, self-deprecating mind.
“With the release of this debut album, I feel like I’m putting my life in your hands just to see what you’ll do with it. It’s terrifying, exhilarating, and freeing.”
A great debut and an excellent start to what promises to be a compelling and swift rise. Austen Starr is burning bright.
I Am The Enemy was released on 13 February 2026 via Frontiers Music Srl. For more details, visit ffm.bio/iamtheenemy.
