Philly based dance/pop singer and longtime LGBT ally and advocate Jade Starling is releasing her first solo album Aug. 12.
Starling rose to fame in the late 1980s fronting Philly dance-pop group Pretty Poison, which was known for the hit “Catch Me I’m Falling,” among others. Pretty Poison may have faded from the pop charts but Starling, with support from her loyal LGBT fans, has remained a fixture on the international dance-club scene and has been headlining Pride festivals for more than two decades.
Starling said her first full album in her own name means a lot to her as an artist.
“The title ‘Captive’ is significant because I felt captive to my own ambitions to the writing process of this album,” she said. “Now that it is about to be released, I want to captivate the audience with this record.”
Starling said she has many favorite songs on the record beyond the club hits that the album has already generated.
“I love all the songs on the record. They all have great meaning to me. ‘Think About You’ is the latest single. It’s no. 2 on the Billboard Dance Chart. This is my second single from the album. The first, ‘Insomniac,’ was top-40 on the dance chart. So I’m releasing an album that already has two dance hits on it. I really like ‘Love of a Lifetime’ because I think a lot of people with loved ones in the military who are gone for years at a time will be able to relate. It pulls at your heartstrings. It’s a beautiful song. Another one of my favorites is ‘Place in the Sun.’ We had a wickedly cold winter and spent a lot of time in the studio, day and night. It’s about getting away. As people, we generally work too hard and don’t get a chance to play. That song is about getting away.”
Starling will be getting away soon enough, as she has plans to tour internationally for the record. She said fans of her Pretty Poison days should enjoy her new songs, as she stays true to the cutting-edge dance music she has always written and performed. “[Guitarist and keyboardist] Whey Cooler from Pretty Poison produced my record, along with Lee Dagger from Bimbo Jones, DJ Lazslo and Franck Dona,” Starling said. “So I have quite a European-sounding record right now. Lee is from England, Lazslo is from Hungary and Franck is from France. Getting to do collaborations with these DJs and producers was just the icing on the cake. This album is very contemporary-sounding and very relevant for today. We’ve been doing electronic-dance music since day one. Now it just has a title: EDM.”
“Captive” will be available Aug. 12. Jade Starling performs at a CD release performance as part of DJ Expo, 8 p.m. Aug. 11 at Black Box Cabaret at Scores Atlantic City, 1000 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, N.J. For more information, visit www.jadestarling.com.