Starcoast - Scroll
If you’re looking for a tune to get you out of the anxiety-riddled façade of importance that is the worldwide web of social media, look no further than Starcoast’s latest release, ‘Scroll’. This wonderful Indie track invites you to “step outside your world”; that digital realm everyone has been living in for the past year and a half, and actually experience real life; flesh and blood! I know this might seem like a strange concept and I know that people were shutting themselves away into “social” media pockets searching for unsustainable validation years before the pandemic loomed over us all, but Starcoast has really hit on something that I think people may actually begin to listen to now that they’ve been ordered to shut away for so long.
While ‘Scroll’ has a wonderfully smooth and upbeat feel, it really does hit a very serious issue that our digital society is facing. “We love to be loved but it’s never enough”. That is the epitome of so-called social media and the way it creates deeply rooted anxiety and bitterness, but if we just took a step back out into the real world, devoid of filters and facsimiles, we might actually be able to reconnect with the world on a personal and healthy level. We could reach out and feel for one another and not just dismiss fellow human beings with a simple ‘Scroll’. The fact that Starcoast really digs into the way that this digital world pushes you “to get attention in a way that’s not healthy or sustainable…because [you’re] addicted and anxious and none of it’s retainable” is just right on the fucking money! I know too many people who lose their minds when they lose the internet, even for a few hours. They need their shows, they need their “connection”, they don’t want to miss out and they want to make sure they are liked…it’s heartbreakingly pathetic the way we all care so damn much about a single digital thumb up.
Before I even really dig into the music here, and while I’m still on a rant about the ridiculousness that is the social media addiction, I have to pay a good deal of admiration to the music video for ‘Scroll’. This video is masterful. It’s done in the now unfortunately common vertical axis-style of shooting and it opens with a shuffle through filters to find just the right one to look just the right way before calling out the bullshit that is this filtered and phony world that we all take part in. The majority of the video shows us the band playing the song in both greyscale and obscuration. There is always a blurred or fractured block covering the actual faces of the band members and this is wonderfully indicative of the way in which we obscure our own lives, to hide away from reality. I absolutely love how we manage to see slightly more and more as the video progresses to at last have a fully realized human being at the end in a demonstration of hopefulness that we may all be able to take that “step outside” and be real once again.
To the music itself, I am such a fan of Tom Hunter’s vocal range. He sits in a decent mid-range for the majority of the song but both his baritone and falsetto qualities shine in this piece. Even his spoken voice work here is incredibly effective and the composition of the piece to work all of these aspects of one man’s voice is beautiful. Add to that the smooth and sonorous harmonies of Jim Hunter and the constant upbeat and wonderfully classic vibe of the Hunters’ guitar and bass and David Johns’ drums and you get the wonderfully powerful and positive and dreamy track that is Starcoast’s ‘Scroll’. This is the first I’ve heard of Starcoast and I must thank Whitney at The Marketing Mixtape for introducing me to this genuine and creative band. I will certainly be digging into their discography and look forward to newer additions to it.
And I have to say, before things started opening up again, I very much agreed with Starcoast: “I’m tired. I miss my friends and the nights when the conversations never end”. So go be with the ones you love. In-person if at all possible.
