Soft Power With Phebe Starr
Phebe Starr is a songwriter and artist from Australia. Throughout the entirety of her near-decade-long career, she has examined the inner complexities of herself through songwriting.
Her debut album, Heavy Metal Flower Petal, released independently this month is her most potent and liberating work to date. It soundtracks the journey of self-discovery that followed her divorce, as she abandoned the narrative she had of herself and embraces the vulnerability and soft power that comes with a growing identity.
Phebe can be found on YouTube and Instagram at @phebestarr
I have yet to see a narrative that allows women to be vulnerable and creates space for softness within our power and capability. The societal messages we receive as women, mothers, educators, and professionals, instills in us to be invincible beings who feel shame if ever we waiver from that role.
Yet every woman who has inspired me in music from Dolly Parton to Aretha Franklin to Bjork has dared to tell their truth, without shame. All have been criticized for it and yet their art seems to transcend the constructs of patriarchy and introduces us to other ways of being.
Through their art these women have shown us that there is deep magic in a narrative absent of shame. With this mindset as my guide, I explored it through my work and met myself in new ways.
My new album, Heavy Metal Flower Petal, captures my journey through building awareness of my identity and exploring my connection to femininity. The vulnerability of deep self-questioning led me to a soft power that bloomed as I emerged on the other side.
As an artist who has always been put in a box that comes with assumed characteristics and behaviors, this feeling of soft power resonates deeply with me. The album gave shape to my own desire to embody the contrast between the toughness, the ‘heavy metal’, and the softness, the ‘flower petal’, that exist in me.
Soft power has given me a freedom to let myself feel things that I was previously afraid to and allow for tenderness and vulnerability within my strength. Embracing and embodying the many facets of femininity is a profound mindset shift. A beautiful reminder that when we collectively change the narrative, we write a new one.
