Starcharm – Fake Blood

Today, Starcharm — the Chicago band fronted by Elena Buenrostro — present their new single/video, “Fake Blood.”

“Fake Blood” is a brooding track, following a trail of singles and performances which have earned Starcharm praise from Pigeons & Planes, Alternative Press, Chicago Reader and more. Though only having formed Starcharm in 2025, Buenrostro has been a staple of Chicago’s much-discussed alternative rock scene as the former frontwoman of Soft & Dumb. After dissolving that project in late 2023, Buenrostro began crafting new material as Starcharm. Shortly after, Sarcharm signed to Fire Talk Records’ emerging artists imprint Angel Tapes, home to fellow Chicago upstarts Sleeper’s Bell, ira glass and Immaterialize, as well as New York City’s shower curtain and Retail Drugs.

“Fake Blood” is spellbinding and introspective, continuing along Starcharm’s path of explosively confessional rock. “I’m so over it,” Buenrostro wails atop screeching guitars and death march percussion. The moody and stunning “Fake Blood” is presented alongside a self-directed video. Edited by Alexander Trevino and styled by Maya Buenrostro, Starcharm’s “Fake Blood” music video collages eerie and evocative footage of Buenrostro haunting Chicago’s beaches, parking lots, and kitchen floors.

“In short, ‘Fake Blood’ is about the horrors of dating in your twenties,” Buenrostro says, continuing, “‘Fake Blood’ is a song about a relationship that resembles something close to what you want, but actually isn’t at all. It’s about the refusal to voice your dissatisfaction and instead choose to swallow your feelings to maintain this hollow version of your true desires.”

She adds: “For the video, I always imagined me holding a dagger on the beach at night, in some sort of ritualistic frenzy. Casual dating made me feel a bit insane, so I wanted to depict it like a horror movie. It also feels like a humiliation ritual, so images of me face down under a car tire and swallowing fake blood in 40 degree Lake Michigan felt par for the course for a song about hook up culture.”

“Fake Blood” comes fresh off of Starcharm’s performance at Do Division Festival in Chicago, in which she shared the stage with Fire Talk affiliates Wild Pink and Wombo, and precedes her forthcoming tour supporting Makeout Reef.

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