The Brvtalist is pleased to premiere a new video from Zachery Allan Starkey. “Solitaire” is the first of three non album singles preceding the release of an expanded physical edition of Starkey’s acclaimed album FEAR CITY.

Composed and produced by Starkey, and featuring collaborations with Bernard Sumner of New Order and Joy Division, FEAR CITY is Starkey’s long running audio/visual project documenting his life and surroundings in New York City during the global Covid-19 pandemic, with his previous singles and music videos capturing a stark, brutal portrait of NYC in economic and social crisis.

Driven by gritty Electro/House rhythms and swirling symphonic synth melodies, “Solitaire” brings Starkey’s FEAR CITY narrative into 2022. Recorded in Downtown Brooklyn and topped with one Starkey’s most nuanced vocals and lyrics to date, “Solitaire” is a song about dealing with feelings of isolation and solitude.

Starkey elaborates on writing/recording ‘Solitaire” and making the music video:

“I wrote ‘Solitaire’ years ago. I’ve never properly recorded or released it. I’ve had a hard life, so I’ve become a very isolated, solitary person, and I wrote ‘Solitaire’ about embracing my feelings of isolation and solitude and being empowered by them, rather than saddened. Essentially, with ‘Solitaire’, I am saying I wish to live my life on my own terms as an individual, rather than compromise in order to be part of a group of ‘friends’ who will inevitably let me down and hurt me, as has happened many times. I view it as a positive song, but I wrote ‘Solitaire’ as a way to deal with my own heavy feelings of isolation and depression, as well as my increasing difficulties with connected to other people. These feelings of isolation, depression, and solitude increased dramatically over the course of 2020-2022, and, as such, the lyrics to ‘Solitaire” took on a deeper meaning for me. As the narrative of my FEAR CITY project comes into 2022, it seemed like the perfect time to record an entirely new version of ‘Solitaire’ and release it as part of the upcoming expanded FEAR CITY physical edition, as well as giving me an opportunity try a new approach to singing that I’ve developed over the pandemic.

Celestin’s neon streaked, nocturnal, hypnotic video for “Solitaire” captures Starkey as a man trapped in his own dystopian urban hell. Celestin and Starkey filmed the “Solitaire” music in Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn in January 2022. As usual, Starky delivers a raw, visceral look inside an ever-shifting New York during a global pandemic where the worlds we once new are gone while trying to deal with an uncertain future. Starkey admits this is one of the most personal songs he’s ever written and his emotions bleed through the track which fuses retro electronics with modern force.

Hear the full version of the track and pick up the single now at: https://zasmusic.bandcamp.com/track/solitaire

“Solitaire” is composed and performed by Zachery Allan Starkey, produced by Zachery Allan Starkey and Jon Chinn, mixed by Jon Chinn and Zachery Allan Starkey, and recorded, engineered, and mastered by Jon Chinn. “Solitaire” is released by DeathTrip NYC and administered by Mill Rock.