Becca Starr – I forgot (In Black Records)
Glaswegian artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Becca Starr floats through the personal times she’s almost forgotten to remember who she has become with a new video for single I Forgot.
Artist: Becca Starr
Release: I Forgot
Label: In Black Records
Released: 6 August 2021
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify | Soundcloud
Always a place with a strong music scene and prolific output with our second Scottish release on the site today is Becca Starr with hip-hop fusion track I Forgot.
Although that Scottish music sound seems more deeply enmeshed with twee indiepop that hip-hop, that heritage does break through within this track, and the accompanying video.
Visually we get home video from Starr’s childhood blended with to-camera pieces from the present, flickering back and forth in time, a journal brandished as if a bible from which the scripture of self can be drawn. It’s awash with the notion that who you once were is also who you will become, and while our experiences make us they can also chip away and shatter us too.
In sound there are passages soulfully sung against those of spoken flow, and while these may be smooth lyrically there are plenty of jagged edges on which to snag as that past self becomes a fractured part of the present, to who you are both indebted and subjugated.
Of the track’s theme Starr said, “Imagine you could have a conversation with your younger self, I Forgot works as a cautionary tale but ultimately exerts a fulfilling vibe of hope. Never forget who you are at the core. So much of our life experience moulds who we are as people. I Forgot is a reminder to observe your own perseverance, appreciate your journey so far and take stock of how much you have achieved. Despite whatever adversity you may face.”
In his book Hit Factories Karl Whitney (not an affiliate link) writes the music coming out of Glasgow has a, ‘desire for beauty that’s underpinned by a fundamental optimism, one that endures in the face of sadness, regret, or deep anxiety about what the future might hold’. While Becca Starr might be just left of the city but that description could well have been written directly about I Forgot, a single which delivers simply on the complexity of identity and experience and picks her out as one to watch.
I Forgot by Becca Starr is out digitally now. Album Speak No Evil is slated for release in 2021.
Find Becca Starr: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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