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Emerging from L.A.’s restless underground, Starling lays it to you soft and heavy.
Founded by singer‑guitarist Kasha Souter Willett in 2023, the four‑piece alt‑rock band boldly defies every sense of genre, blending raw vulnerability, layered textures, and cinematic tension into stirring, emotionally charged music.
With the addition of Grace Rolek (bass), Erik Sathrum Johnson (drums, mixing), and Gitai Vinshtok (lead guitar, vocals,) Starling officially solidified in May 2024. Their debut EP, 2324, released in September of the same year, captured nostalgic, grunge‑tinged reflections infused with a modern sense of irony and timeless poetic longing.
Continuing their DIY ethos — tracking in sheds, bedrooms, and sweltering garages — Starling’s new EP, Forgive Me, drops on June 27th via Sunday Drive Records.
Our publisher, Kristin Prim, spoke with Kasha and Grace ahead of the record’s release to speak about nostalgia, authenticity, and everything Starling.
KP: Liverpool has such a rich musical legacy, from The Beatles to Echo & the Bunnymen. How has growing up in that city shaped your sense of showmanship and storytelling as Luvcat?
LUVCAT: Liverpool is definitely full of storytellers and showmen. My grandad always spun mad, mystical tales and lit up every room. It’s very inspiring to grow up by the water. There’s something dark and mystical about the city that bled into my writing. The Bunnymen are a big influence for me. I’ve seen them every time they play in town.
KP: Speaking of your roots recently, you said, “That’s what my dad always taught me as a kid: ‘comfort is killer.’ You’ve gotta always have that bit of abrasion when you’re young, otherwise you don’t grow.”
How do you feel that philosophy has shaped the risks that you’ve taken in both your music and your career?
LUVCAT: I think it’s important to live a little dangerously and mischievously, especially when you’re young, especially when you’re a writer. My dad always said to me “no backup plan, just make plan A work”. I know how fortunate I am to come from a courageous, kooky family who always supported my wild dreams.
KP: What advice would you lend to women who are afraid of change — or afraid of failure?
LUVCAT: It’s not over till it’s over. It’s never too late too rip it all up and start again. And make it sexier.
KP: In that same conversation, you said that you “never stopped kicking the door down” and kept evolving even when things didn’t work, which is a favorite attribute of mine.
What were some of those pivotal moments where persistence paid off in unexpected ways?
LUVCAT: When I was a young teenager, my local BBC Introducing in Merseyside show wouldn’t play my tunes. It was really competitive in the area and I also wasn’t very good. So I changed my postcode to a carpark in Blackburn and tried my luck at getting a first radio spin on BBC Lancashire. And it worked haha. Now BBC Merseyside are very supportive.
KP: What kept you going when the going got rough?
LUVCAT: Always just the music. I feel like it courses through your veins and gives you no choice other than to keep pushing on. It’s a calling, a knocking that never ever stops.
KP: Much of your music deals with love — or, more particularly — passion. You said, “My parents are madly in love, and have been for about 35 years; my grandparents were madly in love for 64 years. So I’ve had incredible, mad love around me as a kid. Maybe I’m just a bit loopy, but I really think it’s there if you just look for it – that kind of magic in the everyday.”
How has witnessing that kind of devotion shaped the way that you write about passion and search for “magic in the everyday” in your own life?
LUVCAT: It’s easy to write about crazed, eternal love when you’ve seen it with your own eyes. And I do love to find poetry in everyday goings on, definitely. I think if you love the world, it’ll love you back.
KP: What advice would you lend to women who often settle in mundane relationships, or in partnerships that do not suit them?
LUVCAT: Fuck it off. Go to Paris !
KP: Your forthcoming record, Vicious Delicious, is out on October 31st — congratulations! You’ve mentioned that the record is “lipstick a little smudged” and “stockings a little torn.”
How does imperfection play into your storytelling?
LUVCAT: I have always loved lyrics that are grand and whimsical but have a grit and a bite. I think everything feels more alluring when it’s a little undone.
KP: What can we expect from the record sonically?
LUVCAT: The souls of all my bandmates.
KP: How do you balance the album’s “eroticism and innocence” without losing either quality?
LUVCAT: I read a quote the other day which resonated. Everything is sexy, and nothing is erotic. I think nowadays old school romance and sensuality can get a little lost. It’s fun to try and paint a naughty picture but almost by what you don’t say, and letting the listener get there themselves. The record is also littered with wide eyed innocence. I’m just a naive little misfit discovering the dark sides of love and lust.
KP: Is there a particular track on Vicious Delicious that you feel is the emotional centerpiece of the record? If so, which is it and why?
LUVCAT: I put “Bad Books” last because it’s playful and waggish. There’s themes of longing, loneliness and twisted, torturous love on the record, but I wanted to make sure that it ended with a wink.
KP: One of my favorite tracks of yours is “Love & Money.” I really love it. Can you tell us a bit about its inspiration, writing, and recording?
LUVCAT: Thank you. For a song about making a sextape, I think it turned out pretty delicate and sweet. We recorded it by the sea. We’d go for moonlit walks on the pebbles in the early hours. It was all very charged and romantic at that time. Maybe you can hear that in the dreaminess of the recording.
KP: Your name nods to your love for The Cure. If you had to pick a few formative songs or albums — from any artist — that either informed your early days or your present, what would they be and why?
LUVCAT: The Whole of The Moon by The Waterboys. I think it’s lyrical perfection. There’s handycam footage of 3 year old me standing on a cushion stage, dressed like a fairy, belting it out in the living room. The band heard me busking that song and took me on the road with them when I was 19. Truly crazy full circle moment. The two albums I vividly remember from the back of the car were Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. My dad and my grandad have very different music taste but I guess the one thing in common is the dark, passionate theatricality of it all.
KP: What would you tell your younger self?
LUVCAT: Buckle up, baby!!!
KP: What advice would you lend to women about life, work, or love?
LUVCAT: Be curious.
KP: What do you feel makes a provocative woman?
LUVCAT: Stilettos on cobbled streets.
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Photography (in order of appearance): Danica Robinson, Joaquin Castillo, Danica Robinson
