RISING from the ashes of his former outfit Pelican Tusk, Sam Bancroft has emerged with a new project called Starsky-Rae.

Broaching new sonic territory while retaining the surrealist, experimental flare of his previous material, ‘Who Drank My Cans’ marks his first release under the new pseudonym.

The project started to take shape in the midst of lockdown, when Bancroft was left to his own creative devices, and what emerged was something psychedelic, zany and wholly unique.

‘Who Drank My Cans’ encapsulates this perfectly. Fun and irreverent, it’s also a burst of spontaneity. It finds the artist furiously ranting over an immersive instrumental, lamenting the loss of his cans over syncopated beats and shades of jazz, indie and electronica.

Speaking about its creation, he told us: “I had been working on the beat earlier that day with the producer BinBoss. When I got home I found out someone drank my cans. I couldn’t believe it, and was super emotional as you can imagine. So I just plugged in the mic and spoke my truth.

What I find interesting musically about the track is that this is probably the only song on the album that’s truly spontaneous. Every other track has been tinkered with and re-recorded a thousand times. So the fact I personally enjoy this tune so much will hopefully be a reminder in the future to me that sometimes the first take is good enough. (Although still, I do think…what if the 105th take is even better LOL)”

Talking about the new project more in depth, he added: “It’s a massive cliche at this point but having no gigs/ +pandemic was an opportunity to experiment and spend a long time recording. When you’re writing for a band, there’s a certain pull to write songs you hope the band members will enjoy playing. Which is extremely fun, it’s also fun to have no pull and just see where the songs take you without imagining them played live. Having said that, I’ve been working with amazing musicians to rework the songs live and it’s so exciting to bring them to life in a more raw format. Can’t wait to play King Tuts on the 12th of Jan.”

Catch Starsky-Rae at King Tut’s New Year’s Revolution on 12th January.