Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone is back in the spotlight, but this time he's not the one singing lead. After five years of writing his most personal material yet, he's finally convinced his wife, Sheila Rathbone, to take the mic. Together, they've formed STARMOTHER, an Austin-based disco punk band that's loud, quirky, and fiercely independent—and their debut album, Disco Punk is Dead, is a raw, danceable exploration of addiction, recovery, and love.
The project marks Rathbone's first musical outing in six years, and it's a far cry from his earlier work with 100 Monkeys. The couple actually met through music—while Rathbone was touring with that band, they shared a bill. He'd long dreamed of making music with Sheila, but initially imagined a rockabilly sound, inspired by her voice's resemblance to Wanda Jackson. That didn't click for her. It wasn't until Rathbone started writing songs that felt authentically hers that she agreed to step up as lead vocalist.
“In the last three years, it became apparent to me that it was her voice that I was writing it for,” Rathbone told Collider in an exclusive interview. “I've heard her sing constantly, karaoke around the house, and I've been obsessed with her voice forever. So really, for me, it was just convincing her to do something, and I had to make the songs that would excite her.” Sheila, who had only done background vocals before, finally found music that called to her. “Style-wise, I really have always wanted to do this,” she said. “This is what calls to me, and I'm really excited about it.”
A Record Born From Sobriety
The songs that won Sheila over emerged from one of the most challenging periods of Rathbone's life. He spent roughly five years writing Disco Punk is Dead, using songwriting as a therapeutic outlet while confronting his alcoholism and recovery. “Writing became a therapeutic process for me during my recovery from acknowledging and then addressing and confronting my alcoholism,” he explained. “That was the impetus of this record, or that was the theme of the record for me, was radical honesty.”
Rathbone admits he'd previously kept audiences at a distance with his lyrics—whether through the tongue-in-cheek style of 100 Monkeys or the guarded vulnerability of American Spirit Blues. “This record stripped everything away,” he said. Ironically, writing for Sheila's voice gave him the freedom to be brutally honest. “I think I had the comfort of writing for Sheila's voice,” he noted. “It allowed me to be more honest with myself than I'd ever been before.”
That partnership also meant learning to let go of his perfectionist tendencies. Rathbone often writes enough lyrics for a ten-minute song before trimming it to three or four minutes, and Sheila became a trusted editor. “I have to trust my bandmate here,” he said. “If she says that it's, ‘No, this is right,’ then I believe her and I trust her because she's got great taste, and she's the singer.” The collaboration even revealed a quirk: Rathbone writes with a Southern accent, which didn't always translate to Sheila's voice. They'd rewrite lines until they felt natural for her.
'Karate' Turns Pain Into a Party
The album's lead single, “Karate,” perfectly captures STARMOTHER's contradictory spirit. Rathbone wanted a song that sounded ridiculously fun while addressing something deeply unfun. Inspired by what he calls “stupid-fun pop songs” like Sabrina Carpenter's “Espresso,” he started with a simple challenge: find a three-syllable word that's fun to say. “Karate” came to mind, and the song evolved into a meditation on addiction—specifically, the reality that sobriety doesn't erase the struggle. “It's always there, and I have to acknowledge it without feeding into it,” Rathbone said. “It's a precarious balance, like a violent peace within the soul.”
The track almost had a different title: “Horses and Glue,” referencing the stigma that lingers even after someone gets clean. “We used to make glue out of horses. We don't anymore, but the stigma and association is still there,” Rathbone explained. “Carrying the weight of a dead past life is cumbersome. It fucking sucks.” Ultimately, “Karate” is about learning “mental self-defense” and re-parenting the inner child—a theme that runs throughout the album.
STARMOTHER's debut single and music video are out now, offering a bold first look at a project that's equal parts cathartic and danceable. For fans of streaming picks or genre entertainment, this is a refreshing detour into raw musical storytelling. As Rathbone puts it, the record is about radical honesty—and with STARMOTHER, he's finally letting it all out.
