When a scream is heard in public, or even in your own home, it usually sparks alarm. But on select small stages in São Paulo, Brazil, when a scream is heard, it turns audiences’ heads and commands them to move their bodies. But whose scream in particular? Starly Kind’s.
“There is just something really incredible and powerful about being able to get on a microphone and be allowed to scream because it is not something that is socially acceptable in most spaces,” explained Starly Lou Riggs, the lead singer and the mastermind behind the band, Starly Kind.
Based in Brazil, Riggs describes their current project’s sound as alternative screamo/emo. What began as an idea in graduate school has since evolved into a full-fledged passion project. “I went to graduate school for visual,” Riggs began. “I was working on a lot of stuff around drag performance, and queerness, and this alternate persona you kind of become when you are performing gender. That turned into this thing called the ‘Starly Kind.’ It was like creatures from the stars as a queer representation. Over time, that marinated in my mind, and when I started a band, I was like, ‘This is kind of like the perfect way to put that out there.’”
“Starly Kind is sort of like an alter ego. It’s a part of me, but technically, it’s the band,” they continued. “It’s my music. I write the music, and then I hand it off to the band to play. I write the guitar parts, but when I perform, I am just on vocals, so I can fully immerse myself in this character.”
Riggs didn’t start performing in Brazil, but rather in the United States. Before Starly Kind, Riggs was part of a group called Death Parade based out of Portland, Oregon. “[Going solo was] something I have always wanted to do, but, to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of time in the U.S.,” they said.
They explained how their 40-80 hour work week with minimal pay impacted their way of life, and when they moved to Brazil, their funds were able to last longer. “I had the gift of time,” Riggs said. “With that, it helped me to create this project, and I am really grateful for that.”
After the move to Brazil, mostly because their spouse resided there, Riggs began to focus on their solo career. Being in Brazil not only affected their way of living, but also their music. “There is a whole different music culture here,” they commented. “There is a lot jazz and communal playing where people invite each other onto each song. When you go to some events here, every single song, someone new is being called to the stage [in different instrumental roles].”
Riggs has been channeling this exact idea into their own band. “Live, I have been playing with Leo Fazio on bass, Pedro Labrador on guitar, and Walner Del’Duca and Omar da Matta alternating shows on drums. Most recorded drum tracks, I programmed, but on ‘A Grieving Goblin,’ Max Souza played drums. The live EP I released has my live band with Walner Del’Duca,” they said.
Aside from the rotating band, Riggs has also adapted new instruments into their sound that they didn’t expect. They elaborated, “I have, in my album, tracks where there is flute, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, and even cuica. Even though my sound is more based in doom, hardcore, emo, punk, and all of these things I was exposed to growing up in the U.S., it is now a mixture of all these things, which I think is really beautiful.”
Starly Kind currently has two single releases and a new live album on all streaming platforms. But Riggs admits that new music is in the works and being shopped around to different record labels for a future release.
“Right now, I have in the works an EP and an album, and they both go together,” they said. Both based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Riggs plans to tell a story about queerness through the three parts of the story: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradisimo. “It’s about queerness in those spaces. I grew up going to Evangelical churches, and I remember the image of hell being horrifying. The ideology around being queer is very stigmatized in those spaces and includes a lot of shame. [The album and EP are about] finding comfort in that ‘hell.’”
Riggs found themselves and their voice in Brazil away from the American music scene that tends to focus more on male performers in the industry, though similar sentiments echo in Brazil. “In the U.S.,” they started, “I was a lot less confident; it took me a long time to call myself a musician. When I came here, I was able to control my own music and my own performance.”
One of Riggs’ favorite parts of this project is getting to perform live and, well, scream, for an audience. Growing up, Riggs admitted to being a “theatre kid” and plans to tie that into their live performances through costuming. At each show, Riggs wears white to get into their character. They expained, “I have this character (Starly Kind) in mind. When I am performing, I get on stage, and it’s a snap. The music starts, and I am a whole different persona. I think a big part of that is being able to have the fashion component because fashion in itself is an art.”
Starly Kind’s most recent release, Behemoth: Live at Maquinaria, captures the energy channeled into their live performances as it is a live EP recorded at their second show ever performed. “Listening to [the album] now, it sounds so rough,” Riggs commented. “Now we are really locking it in all together as a unit…Every show I feel like I am stepping more and more into this role.”
“After each live event, I have people coming up to me saying how touching the music was to them,” Riggs says. “To me, that is success. If I can reach people in a live setting, then that’s the most beautiful thing.”
Image taken from Instagram/starly.kind | Interviewed on July 22, 2025
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