Toronto-based instrumental ensemble Lavender Town have officially released their brand-new single, “Starman Jr.”
Following a string of headlining performances at iconic local venues including Lee’s Palace, The Great Hall, and The Garrison, alongside festival appearances at the Toronto Jazz Festival, MixTO, and Wavelength, “Starman Jr.” captures the group at their most focused and formidable.
“I wrote Starman Jr. at a time when I was listening to a lot of the work of Vocaloid producer Jin and the LA modern jazz group “Outside World”. The way that both these artists combined catchy melodies with modern jazz harmony and a noisy rock and electronic aesthetic spoke to me on a deeply personal level. Most lyric-centered pop/rock leaves me wanting more musical complexity, and a lot of modern jazz lacks the emotional character and relatability that pop-leaning music brings, so a big goal of mine is to write music that accomplishes both. The song’s namesake is a character from the cult-classic JRPG “Earthbound”, a game known for it’s offbeat humor and that famously inspired Toby Fox’s “Undertale”, another huge source of compositional inspiration for me. The verse of the song was meant to capture the energetic and optimistic vibe a lot of anime intro music has, while the chorus drifts into a sound somewhere between moody indie rock and spiritual jazz ala John Coltrane’s “Naima”.
– Lazar Miric (bandleader)
Formed by a collective of formal jazz musicians, Lavender Town purposefully bypasses typical fusion tropes, swapping expected funk grooves for the raw, abrasive textures of progressive rock, hard-hitting rhythms, and spontaneous, high-voltage improvisation. “Starman Jr.” delivers a dark, punchy, and massive sonic assault.
