Drag-presenting and boundary-pushing pop artist Tripping Jupiter is proud to share their newest single “STARLIGHT” — a cosmic and deeply emotional rock ballad about how humans of all walks of life are all made up of the same matter that once came from the stars. The song has an anthemic and sweeping pop-rock sound that evokes massive acts like The Killers or Kings of Leon but with a distinctly David Bowie flair, with bass playing done by frequent Bowie collaborator and legendary session musician Gail Ann Dorsey, who appears on several tracks on the forthcoming Tripping Jupiter album.

The video for “STARLIGHT” tells the story of a young child — a representation of Tripping Jupiter
architect Madstone Rowan’s younger self portrayed by a child actor dressed in identical drag
makeup and matching outfits — traversing across New York city and slowly attracting a diverse
crowd of strangers who follow her to a park. The video’s emotional climax features Tripping
Jupiter coming face to face with their younger self, as the crowd of onlookers and the two main
characters all become entranced by the vast sky above them, realizing that we all come from
the same place. The video was executive produced by Mike Smith (director of the Amazon
Prime documentary Cherry Grove Stories) and directed by director Jordon Bolden.

Mike and Jordan’s initial storyboards immediately captured the vision of what Madstone had in
mind, and the casting of Gia Innamorato, a 9-year-old child actor, for the starring role of Young
Madstone in the video really brought everything together. “She literally makes the video”,
Madstone says “I can’t imagine it existing without her. I was made up in drag by the amazing
drag artist and make up artist Eric Dorsa – and the decision was made to make up Gia in the
exact same way. So we’ve got a little 9-year-old girl in full drag, looking amazing, starring in this
video about bringing a message of love and connection to the entire world – and she just makes
the whole thing come together. Gia’s exuberance and joy comes through so clearly in this video,
as she makes her journey through the streets of New York City, touching the lives of everyone
she meets along the way.”

In addition to Madstone Rowan (they/them), the singer and multi-instrumentalist behind
Tripping Jupiter, and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, “STARLIGHT” features the work of billboard
charting producer and mentor to Tripping Jupiter Barb Morrison (they/them), a platinum record
holder who has worked with the likes of Blondie, Rufus Wainwright, Franz Ferdinand, LP. and
many more. Barb’s production work on “STARLIGHT” adds a much needed sense of epic scale,
with Madstone saying that “They made it grand. They made it big. They gave it the production it
deserved… Barb had said that they wanted the listener to imagine that they were standing on
the side of the Grand Canyon, looking at the vast expanse of all that beauty.”

Speaking to the cosmic themes of the song and their inspirations for writing it, Madstone said,
“While wrestling with the depression and anxiety throughout the pandemic, I had gotten into
watching physics videos. Videos on the universe, the origin of the universe, the vastness of the
universe. And I was reminded of something I had heard years earlier – that all we are comes
from the stars. One night I was listening to a physicist saying that the very iron in our blood, the
element that allows our blood to transport oxygen and keep us alive – didn’t come from our
world. The element of iron was born out of supernovae billions of years ago, right after the birth
of the universe. And every single iron atom that exists in this universe, including the iron in our
blood that allows us to breathe and process oxygen – came from those stars billions of years
ago. As the astrophysicist Carl Sagan famously said ‘We are made of star stuff.’

Photo Courtesy: Jessica Bartow