‘Starchamber’ was the first song I wrote for this record, and it became its namesake. I don’t know how else to describe the writing process, other than that I was possessed by the spirit of something unknown, and possibly malevolent, that was using me for its own ends – to bring this song to life at all costs.

So, what is a ‘Starchamber’? Well, it was somewhere real, it was this court of law back in medieval times, and it gained a reputation for being a secretive and cruel place, with arbitrary judgements being handed down without due process. Think where Kafka got his ideas from. So if you were ‘sent to the Star Chamber’ – you were probably never coming back. 

And that got me thinking about the Starchamber that exists inside each and every one of us. About that guilt and shame we carry within us, for some imagined wrong – but we’re not even sure what it is we’ve done wrong? When we feel those things – maybe we’ve been sent to our own private Starchamber.

So the song’s about being tied up, knotted, hampered and bound by these abstract feelings of wrongness – but it’s also about finding freedom within that, by paradoxically surrendering your freedom. Take me to the Starchamber – because there, I’ll become free.