When did showing our feelings become something to fear? When aggression commands more attention than tenderness, showing how we feel can be an act of defiance. Jesse Jo Stark understands this better than most. After years of building a world around gothic romance, she’s removing the armour. Her new album, MUSE, is an emotionally naked exploration of heartbreak and the unexpected strength that comes from embracing our most vulnerable selves.
Alongside her work as co-creative director of Chrome Hearts, Stark has developed a musical identity rooted in gothic romance and the darker corners of rock. Her previous album, DOOMED, immersed listeners in that cinematic world, where mystery was as important as the music itself. But what happens when the person behind such a carefully crafted aesthetic decides to step into the light?
The answer began to take shape in November 2024, when Stark drove to Aspen, Colorado, in search of something she felt she had lost. For three weeks, surrounded by snow-covered mountains, close friends and collaborators, she allowed herself to create without knowing where the music might lead. Picture the stillness outside, candles burning indoors and musicians gathered on the carpet, writing songs far removed from the noise of everyday life. She arrived carrying the weight of heartbreak and left with an album.
The first glimpse came in late September with colorado, a delicate love letter to the place that had offered her refuge. Its stripped-back guitars and intimate vocals hinted at the sound of the album. When announcing MUSE, Stark described driving towards somewhere that could hold her, “where everything felt bigger than my own fears.” The resulting record trades much of the gothic rock of DOOMED for a country-folk sound that brings her voice to the fore.
But there is much more to this story than heartbreak. “Fragile but fierce femininity seems to be the theme,” Stark wrote when introducing the album, describing songs about losing yourself, finding yourself and remembering what you are made of. On age of being honest, that fierceness takes centre stage as she confronts the expectations projected onto her, refusing to become a character in somebody else’s fantasy. Who decided that tenderness and ferocity couldn’t coexist?
“Even though I felt very hurt n broken, I also felt an immense amount of freedom,” she recalls of the album’s creation. That freedom runs through MUSE, where imperfections become part of the beauty. As Stark herself puts it, these songs are “letters and they are reminders.”
Stark is releasing the album through her Deadly Doll imprint in partnership with BMG and has signed with WME. At a time when so much energy is spent appearing invulnerable, she reminds us how much courage it takes to let ourselves be seen. Perhaps true strength begins the moment we stop pretending we cannot be hurt.
