STAR POWER
PRODUCTION AND INTERVIEW BY Y.A.M.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARIS
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
Alexander Star is an anomaly.
Born to a father of African and Native American origins, and a Jewish mother whose roots traverse Central and Eastern Europe, the Tennessee-raised lyricist grew up celebrating Christmas and Chanukah, and describes his upbringing as nothing short of a blessing.
While Star and his family undoubtedly stood out in the Deep South, he eventually learned to use his multiple identities to his advantage.
He states, “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which crowd I fit in, and what defined my life, I believe, was realizing that I don’t belong to any of the crowds – I take from and contribute to all of them.”
Star can trace his love for music and singing back to his childhood. His father was a concert pianist, and so Mozart and Chopin were household names whose melodic reverberations conveniently doubled as vocal practice for this multi-hyphenate artist. His first memory of rhyming was inspired by a box of chocolates given to him by his mother for a show-and-tell in second grade, and he’s been expressing himself (and eating chocolate) ever since.
Peek into Star’s story to find out what was the aha moment that pushed this Emmy-nominated artist to pursue music full-time; what he finds challenging as a modern-day music artist; what he would tell anyone seeking to become an independent music artist; and why he believes going against the grain is the secret to (patient) success.
Unafraid to admit his failures, Star recalls a moment in his life when he aimed to fit in: “I would say the biggest time – especially in my music career – when I failed, is when I was trying to please other people.”
He explains, “I would try and make records that I would think would make people dance, or records that I would think would make people happy or make people wanna go out and have fun. But I failed in the sense that – that didn’t really start happening with my music until I started writing to make myself dance, to make myself happy, to make myself think.”
“When you are operating with a purity that is so scarce in a business full of fast food, people are hesitant to want to go for the purity, because they’re so used to French fries. And when they see a home-cooked meal, they don’t think that they can sell a home-cooked meal, because the whole world is hooked on junk food.”
The lyrical lesson of Star’s story: stand out and stick to your standards.
While he’s since learned to flow against the status quo, Star acknowledges there’s a price to pay for opting out of producing commercialized lyrics. Although he’s been told by an executive label that his music is not “ratchet enough,” this talented southern gent is not fazed by superficial sentiments.
Star points out, “When you are operating with a purity that is so scarce in a business full of fast food, people are hesitant to want to go for the purity, because they’re so used to French fries. And when they see a home-cooked meal, they don’t think that they can sell a home-cooked meal, because the whole world is hooked on junk food.”
When asked why he doesn’t write lyrics that would easily grant him mainstream success, he responds, “[The music industry] – it’s not a pretty game. It’s not a pretty business. It’s not easy doing what you love to do and making money at it. It’s not at all…People will tell you what you need to do to ‘make it,’ and to a large degree, that’s right. But I don’t put my faith in people. I put my faith in G-d.”
He adds, “And for one reason or another, I’ve had certain standards instilled within me that allowed me to understand that what I’m doing isn’t being recognized on a mass level right now because I’m metaphorically in an incubator. I’m being told in many different ways and [in] many different signs to just keep doing what I’m doing, even if nobody’s looking.”
Star joined a recording group at 15 years old.
He summarizes his early music career: “I was already in a recording group called The Free Agents, and we had been doing music for a long time. We had lived with an NBA player for a year and a half. We sold 9,000 records just from singing acapella on the streets. We had success.”
He continues, “I got with them in eleventh grade…I didn’t go to prom. I didn’t go to Homecoming. I didn’t – I’m not even in the yearbook. Because from the moment I got with my group (they were older than me [and] they had all graduated while I was still in high school), I would do my work. I would get my straight A’s. And I would leave and go do music after school, you know? So, this is what I’ve been doing.”
He then tells me the moment of truth that revised his musical mission: “When I reached that shift after experiencing enough of the world of money, the world of celebrities, [and] the world of music – especially from living with that ball player – I reached a point when I found myself asking the question, ‘If I die tonight, do I have music that I would want them to play at my funeral?’ For everybody to know, ‘Yes, that was Alexander Star.’ For my mom to say, ‘Yeah, that’s my son in that song.’ And, at that moment, I started writing nothing but self-reflective music, after [previously] writing a bunch of party records and things that I thought people would like. I started writing things that, if I were locked away in a castle in the clouds – with nobody around me and nobody to influence me – [then] what would I write about then? What would I be thinking about in solitude?... So, I had gone through a period where I went back to school and I had been writing nothing but conscious music – nothing but conscious records.”
On the night of his high school graduation, the 4.0 student with an affinity for the English language opted out of college, leaving behind a Bright Futures Scholarship in exchange for a one-way ticket to New York City with his bandmates.
A risk taker by nature, Star lives for the unexpected.
He states, “The risk in pursuing music — and I’m sure it goes for anything that’s not a 9-to-5 — [it’s that] you risk stability, you risk structure...You have to have the faith in what you’re doing, [and] to know that, ‘O.k. I’m sleeping on this couch for two years, but it won’t be like this every day for the rest of my life...I’m willing to not even care what my situation is like right now for the end goal.’ It’s seeing past your current moment, and a lot of people are scared to risk not knowing what tomorrow is going to hold.”
If you’re thinking about trading in your W-2 income to chase a full-time career in the creative arena, and you’re not entirely sure what avenue to pursue, Star suggests the following self-awareness exercise: “I think that when you have something that you’re good at – and not just that you’re good at, because you can be good at a lot of things – but when you have something that you naturally find yourself doing effortlessly, and other people react to it very positively – that’s what you should be doing in my opinion. It’s a concept [Darius Brown] called ‘employed by my vision.’ ” [Sends shout-out to Darius Brown]
He continues, “Being employed by your vision is basically finding that one thing that you do without question, without thought, subconsciously – you just do it, it’s natural – and finding a way to make it your living.”
While Star acknowledges that making a profit from your purpose is easier said than done due to the 9-to-5 grind, family responsibilities and the hardships of life, he asserts, “What is necessary is to do what you have to do. Work that job that you don’t wanna be at...[and] think of how you’re going to get out of that job by doing what you’re good at. You have to calibrate yourself to your own situation and find the right tools in the toolbox that you have been given, because we’re born with everything we need to succeed.”
Besides being an artist extraordinaire, Star is also a humanitarian at heart. On his down time, he serves as the Chief Brand Ambassador for AFR Clothing, a fashion brand rooted in social responsibility, and a Lyrical Expressions instructor at the Miami-based Motivational Edge.
Star composes music sourced from his experiences and is inspired by the world that surrounds him. With his shark mindset, sharp talent and “universatile” ballads, I expect to see Star performing on the global stage with the likes of Norwegian duo Nico and Vinz at some point in his career, because there’s no doubt in my mind that, for lack of a better phrase, this twenty-something singer-songwriter is a star on the rise.
STAR POWER.
PRODUCTION AND INTERVIEW BY Y.A.M.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARIS.
FEBRUARY 23, 2015.