STARFRUIT

Starfruit is a pop entity/collective formed in 2016 by singer/composer/director Ava W Boehme (she/they). Starfruit’s aesthetic harnesses integral elements of collage, both visually and sonically, resulting in elaborate arrangements with moments of hectic free improvisation contained within elegantly organized orchestrations. As an ensemble, Starfruit has fluctuated in size and sound but currently performs as a 6-8 piece group with vocals, saxophone, keyboards, synthesizers, bass, guitar and drums. After self-releasing their debut 7” EP in 2017, Starfruit is now preparing to debut their first full length album, Wild West Combat, due out on January 24th, 2020 via Dreamy Life Records.

Dallas art and culture blog CentralTrack.com describe Starfruit as an “ebullient experimental-pop band. . . a soundtrack to body positivity,” and praise their first single, “Still a Baby”, and its accompanying visual as, “a powerful, self-affirming video for a lively song that sounds like a mix between Deerhoof and Le Tigre,” with, “a tone of empowerment in Boehme’s performance.”

“[The video] is a celebration of the divinity of bodies, the carnal deconstruction of bodies, fear of sex, fear of gender, fear of flesh, and hectic liberation,” Boehme says.

“I wrote this when I was first coming out and coming to terms with my identity and sexuality. I was listening to a lot of Hunx & His Punx, and I wanted to write something super loud and obnoxious and unapologetic — my own big anthem about gender and sex and stuff. Now gender seems kind of passé to me, but I had to majorly freak out about it before I could get there.”

“The debatably NSFW video features a who’s-who of Boehme’s ‘freak friends’. . . together, they engage in a choreographed dance while wearing baby blue garments that cover their genitals and not much else.” – Garret Gravley, CentralTrack.com (https://www.centraltrack.com/exclusive-premiere-song-of-the-day-starfruit-still-a-baby/)

“The lyrics of Wild West Combat deal with my experience of transitioning as a nonbinary trans person living in Texas. Finding my identity, birthing myself, and navigating a Wild West where emotional and physical safety felt scarce,” explains Ava Boehme.

In the Spring of 2020, the group will be embarking on their first US tour in support of the release of Wild West Combat; with more singles and accompanying videos preceding the album’s release, Starfruit have empowered themselves to share their modern western saga with the rest of the world through vignettes of tender yet cacophonous, triumphant, and blissful sound and vision.