Zachery Allan Starkey – Fear City: Edge of Night

By starrymag | December 26, 2022

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) I think my sound is a contemporary fusion of Electro, Techno, Disco and PostPunk influences. And I want to reinforce that my sound is a contemporary, forward-thinking fusion of influences, because my music is about the present and the future, not the past. I am trying to do my part to make these influences my own and push these music forms into the future. I have no interest in nostalgia or recreating sounds from the past.

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) A lot of Disco, Electro, Techno, Postpunk, Post Disco, and Funk records from the 1970’s and 80’s, DFA Records releases from the 2000’s-2010’s, and Dark RnB records from the 2010’s.

In terms of artists, New Order, Patrick Cowley, David Bowie, Giorgio Moroder, Lou Reed, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Marvin Gaye, Peter Gabriel, Jamie Principle, Sylvester, The Sisters of Mercy, Neil Young, Curtis Mayfield, Bjork, Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem, Alison Goldfrapp, Sade, Talking Heads, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Patti Smith, Kathleen Hanna (especially her band Le Tigre), Tina Turner, The Who, The Cure, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and Suicide. Too many more to mention.

Day to day life in New York City and NYC nightlife, are also massive influences on my music. NYC is the setting of pretty much every song I write because I’ve lived here for a long time, and I rarely leave the city.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “No Texting on the Dance Floor.”

 

A) “No Texting” is a song I’ve had kicking around for years. I wrote the chorus, bassline and structure of the song years ago, but it never had any real lyrics, and it was never properly recorded, outside of a demo. It was a song I’d play as an encore jam because people always responded to the chorus hook. But I could never figure out what to do with the song, even though I knew it was catchy. Finally, in late 2021/early 2022, as NYC reopened coming out of the pandemic and as NYC nightlife exploded into a new era and renaissance (New York nightlife right now is the best it’s been in 10 years), I finally realized it was the right time and place to properly record and release “No Texting on the Dance Floor.”

So, I recorded “No Texting” in the Spring and Summer of 2022 in Downtown Brooklyn. I wrote new lyrics for the song, and I wrote a bunch of new music parts and vocal melodies, and I recorded the vocals and music at my friend Jon Chinn’s studio, which is in an industrial area close to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Jon is an old friend and fantastic engineer, and we had a lot of fun recording the song. I think we captured something fun and unique with it.

The new lyrics I wrote for “No Texting on the Dance Floor” are very much about how NYC is a dangerous and chaotic place right now, but it’s also about how fun, hedonistic, and insane NYC nightlife is right now. It’s a celebration of both pain and pleasure, and the song is a reminder to put your phone away and enjoy being in the moment.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think “No Texting” is probably the most accessible song I’ve ever released. It’s very much a pop song within the framework of a Disco House track, it has a fun chorus and it’s about ignoring the internet and being in the moment, in a real place, with real people and I think after the darkness of the past several years and the pandemic, people really connect to that.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) I will let Steven Celestin, the director of the “No Texting on the Dance Floor” music video and my visual collaborator, give his thoughts here.

Steven Celestin: “No Texting on the Dance Floor” music video director:

“No one said bouncing back from a pandemic is easy, but most of us would hope that bounce has an excellent beat. ‘No Texting on the Dance Floor’ is the soundtrack to a darkened city’s return, requesting that you be present for its strengthening pulse.”

For me, the video is about showing the nightlife elements that I wrote the lyrics about as well as the New York cityscape that inspired the music. So, I went out and shot the nightclub footage and late night New York street and skyline footage myself, and Steve cut that in with all the performance and conceptual footage he shot and directed.

Steve is really talented, and I think the way he used color and light in the “No Texting” video is brilliant. Steve also got me to give what I think is the best performance I’ve done in a music video. We had a ball shooting the video for this. Steve has a unique vision, and his vision often lines up with my vision of the song in cool and unique ways. We have a lot of fun making music videos together, and we always bring something unexpected out of each other, which is what you want in an artistic collaboration.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) My songwriting process usually starts when I am in a nightclub, a bar or walking the streets of New York. I see something, hear something and experience something and I react emotionally…then I keep the experience in my head, and I write a song about it. I compose the music before I write the lyrics, but I usually know the subject matter of the song and sometimes the title before I start composing the music.

So, I compose the music, then I record the music and then I work on the vocal melody and make it work with the lyrics and music. Then I record the vocals, sometimes I tweak the music a bit, then I mix the song, finalize the production and release it.

 

Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) I compose all of the music, I play all of the instruments and I dictate the final production and mix, which I work on with one of two fantastic engineers, Abe Seiferth or Jon Chinn. I recorded the bulk of the Fear City album with Abe Seiferth at his studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and I recorded “No Texting on the Dance Floor” and “Solitaire” with Jon Chinn at his studio in Downtown Brooklyn. I control every aspect of the final production and mix of my music because I decide on the final sound of the song before I start recording it and Abe or Jon work with me on the final technical aspect of the production and bringing my vision to life.

 

Q) What made you want to expand your album of Fear City?

 

A) The original Fear City album is about life in NYC from 2019 to 2022 about how New York was beginning to fall apart economically at the end of 2019 and then completely crashed during the pandemic through 2020 and 2021. The music videos for the album all reflect this, as they are basically a firsthand, street level document of my life in NYC from 2020 thru 2021 and that story and narrative as continued into 2022 as New York came back from the pandemic while continuing to fall apart, yet sections of the city and nightlife have bounced back better than before. So, it made sense to expand the Fear City project to incorporate life in New York through 2022 into 2023 and Fear City: Edge of Night is that expansion of the original album. Fear City isn’t just an album, it is an ongoing Audio-Visual documentary of New York as I experience life in the city during this historic period.

 

Q) How is your Fear City: Edge of Night album different to the original release?

 

A) Fear City: Edge of Night will have three new tracks that were released in 2022 and not on the original album release, “Solitaire” and “No Texting on the Dance Floor,” as well as a third new single that I cannot discuss yet. It will also have a few new, different mixes of songs and the new tracks will change the overall vibe and scope of the original album, as well as pointing to the direction my future music will be taking because I am currently writing songs for an entirely new album as well. I am still deciding the final tracklisting for Fear City: Edge of Night, actually….it is an ongoing, organic project.

 

Q) Which song on the expanded album holds a special place in your heart and what makes them so significant?

 

A) “Solitaire” holds a special place for me because it is a very personal, emotional song and people really respond to its power and themes of loneliness and isolation. “No Texting” is special because in recording and releasing it I realized a dream I’d had for years, to make a really fun, accessible Disco House track that still had some real emotional weight and meaning.

The third upcoming new single for Fear City: Edge of Night is still being worked on…I can’t talk about it yet, but it’s very special to me and it will wrap up the whole project in a cool way.

 

Q) Will there be a tour in the works to help promote the new album when it arrives in 2023?

 

A) Yes. We’ve already played a lot of Fear City concerts in the New York area and are looking forward to taking the show to Berlin, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Manchester and hopefully other cities as well. Touring is very difficult right now due to economic conditions and inflation; these have affected everything negatively. But I love playing live and the musicians in my live band are terrific. We really enjoy playing the Fear City set, the songs are powerful live and work well in concert with older live staples of mine like “Hard Power,” “Into the Sun” and “Come Inside.”

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) I’ve already collaborated with Bernard Sumner (New Order/Joy Division). I am not sure where I could go from there because he’s a legend. But I’ve always wanted to do a track with Juliana Huxtable because I love her work, and I’ve known her for years and she’s really nice, and I’d love to play synths on an Illustrious Blacks track one day. I’d love to play some synths on a Pet Shop Boys song. I’m friends with James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem). If he ever wanted me to play some synths for him, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d love to play synths for Ryuichi Sakamoto. I can’t play synths on a David Bowie record, sadly, but maybe I can do so on a remix someday. I’d really love to play synths for Janelle Monae or Jhene Aiko as well. Those are two contemporary artists whose work I really enjoy. I’d also love to play some synthesizer and keyboards on Funk, RnB and Hip Hop tracks. Mark Reeder, who is a producer and one of the Godfathers of the Berlin Techno world, did a remix of my track “Coked Up Biker Anthem” last year and I’d definitely love to do a more collaborative track with him in the future.

With my own music I don’t collaborate really because my songs and music are very personal and once I get the concept for a song, I have a very clear, concrete direction for it.  Bernard Sumner is the only musician I’ve really been able to successfully collaborate with and working together was his idea. I think Bernard and I work well together because we are good friends and have very similar concepts about music direction and songwriting. So, for me to fully collaborate with someone, I think there has to be a lot of trust and shared musical direction and concept.

But I think it is really fun to play synthesizer on other people’s songs, in just about any genre of music. I think it is fun to play synth and keyboards on other peoples’ songs.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) I can’t really name one single new band, actually. A lot of the newer music I like is mostly fairly obscure Disco, Electro and synth based tracks I hear in clubs or find on the internet. Despite the fact that we are going through a worldwide economic recession, general political insanity and hard times for most people…a lot of current artists are making really bland music that doesn’t really day to day reality, it’s music made for rich people who are insulated from economic issues and problems. Not very relevant to my day-to-day life because I am very much affected by economic issues, inflation, etc.

That being said, band wise, they aren’t exactly new, but I quite like Viagra Boys and Alabama Shakes because they both combine older influences into something modern and vital, and they both write great songs.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) Well, I am a really private person and social media allows for me to put my creative work into the world without too much hassle and it is something I can oversee and manage directly. More importantly, social media allows my music and creative work to reach people far beyond the confines of New York City and that’s something I am grateful for because there’s people from all over the world that have contacted me and told me that my music connected with them emotionally and that’s really an incredible thing.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) To anyone who has listened to my music, watched my music videos, come to a concert – I say thank you. Even if my work isn’t to their tastes, I say thank you for taking the time to give my work a shot.