YOUR ANGEL Manifests Dreamy Pop Stardom in ‘A Star in the Headlights’
After years of sonic experimentation and successful manifesting after maturing her voice as an artist, YOUR ANGEL – the project of LA-based singer, songwriter and producer Maddy Boyd – steps into her most flourishing pop stardom self with her highly-anticipated sophomore album A Star in the Headlights. YOUR ANGEL’s world of eccentric femininity, playfulness and romance is inspired by her dazzling relationship and finding power and force in her voice.
Following her 2019 debut Pipe Dream, her sophomore record, A Star in the Headlights, sees YOUR ANGEL fearlessly coming into her own as an artist. The 11-track LP is the product of years of experimentation and introspection — both in her work and in her personal life. Over cinematic indie-pop soundscapes, she delivers razor-sharp lyricism that captures her journey of self-discovery.
“A Star In The Headlights is about longing for something more and the journey to find it. The album explores the feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, jealousy and weakness that I felt while on this transformative path,” YOUR ANGEL says. “I drew inspiration from my childhood musical role models like Britney Spears, Dido, Portishead and Timbaland. I wanted to write songs that hit so close to home that they make you feel nostalgic, even though you’ve never heard them before.”
To compliment the album, YOUR ANGEL has also created a stunning visual for the album's opening single, “STAR.” Directed by Madeleine Leary with cinematography from Frank Rios, the video tells a story about the beauty and horror of trying to make it in Los Angeles.
“This video was meant to feel like the painfully familiar form of heartbreak all artists in this city experience daily," YOUR ANGEL says. "Leaning into the best and the worst of this city’s tropes, it acknowledges the bravery and cruelty of this pursuit. Visually, we wanted to humbly reference some of the classic films that toe the line between beauty and heartbreak in a pursuit of something bigger, so we looked at films like Showgirls, Paris, Texas and Casino to try to nail the right balance of gorgeous and grotesque.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for talking to Unpublished Magazine again. It's great to have you back to talk about your debut album release. Since we last talked, you released “Misbehave” and that was just like a sneak peek into the bigger world of A Star in the Headlights. What is the inspiration behind the album?
[YOUR ANGEL]: When I was making this album, I was going through it and the underlying throughline of this record is me forcing myself to be open. I'm an emotionally prideful person, and I'm always taking the high road and being mature but it's all a guise. This album was me allowing myself to speak about emotions that I felt embarrassed for feeling, like things that were ugly and immature, and just like feelings that I was feeling. Maybe I wasn't acting on them in my real life, but my gut reactions to certain things going on in my life, so that was the throughline of this.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What inspired the name A Star in the Headlights? It's such a beautiful title.
[YOUR ANGEL]: Thank you. By the end of this record, I'd met my boyfriend of like three years and we all call him K-Star. It felt like I had dealt with some gnarly romantic situations and years leading up to that. “Star in the Headlights” was a good thing – that light ahead. I had allowed myself to start living in the delusion that I was going to be successful and you have to live in a state of delusion to pursue music and I had fully let myself. My background is in indie-rock and touring with indie-rock bands, so there’s this mentality of being nonchalant and chill. I had conditioned myself to be that way, but that’s never something I ever wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to do pop shit and I love theatrics, the outfits and the ridiculous shit that is associated with pop music. I think it was the first time I let myself lean into the theatrics, and just fully let myself make a pop record even though it's like an indie-pop record. It was kind of just like my success lies ahead, even though there's nothing happening. It was during the quarantine days and nothing was going on and it led me to believe that other than this sheer delusion and blind confidence in myself that I am making this happen for myself.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You seriously manifested this project for yourself and being able to fully immerse yourself in this desired pop era of yours. How's it feel to have your full length project out into the world? You mentioned quarantine so that creative energy has been really building up.
[YOUR ANGEL]: It's crazy. It's been mastered for two years, like I've really been sitting on it for a while. I'm like seven songs into the next record already. I think sitting on it was circumstantial, but they’re old songs. It’s been nice to put it out and breathe new life into it, and I think that holding on to that project for so long, it’s mentally helped me be in a weird place and it’s been so fun to create the visuals for it. It's nice to hand it out into the world and not have to feel the weight of it and performing it live, it just takes on a new life and it’s very fulfilling. I'm very proud of it, but now I have this newfound love for it again, so it's been really nice to have it out.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song to perform live off the album and why?
[YOUR ANGEL]: “STAR” is my favorite song on the album period. “Good Girl” is also really fun to perform live. When I first made “STAR” I was like, this is it. This is what I want. This is the kind of music that I want to make and it was the last one I made for the record and I finally feel like everything clicked. This was fucking it. The intro is so melodramatic and epic, and performing it live is so fun because it feels so popstar and larger than life.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How has the support been from fans, friends and family?
[YOUR ANGEL]: It's really great and super rewarding. When you sit on something for so long, you lose track of time and have no perception of it anymore. It’s impossible to perceive it in any way. It’s been so beautiful to be able to do that through the eyes of other people and it’s been such a great response.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Have you experimented more either lyrically or sonically or have taken any new creative risks in A Star in the Headlights since your 2019 debut release Pipe Dream?
[YOUR ANGEL]: Definitely. When I made Pipe Dream, I was teaching myself how to produce by making that record super lo-fi and very Kate Bush, Beach House and very synth-pop inspired. This one, my production chops were better and I allowed myself to lean into pop even more than I had with Pipe Dream. I think the production value is overall higher and I just have the chops to do things that I wanted to do that I didn't necessarily have the skill set to do with Pipe Dream. I think it took a while for me because I was so ingrained in the indie-rock scene, like everyone I was friends with and knew was in that scene as well, that it was hard for me to transition out of it to fully let myself just be like ‘no bitch like you want to make pop.’ This record was me solidifying that I am a popstar.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Would you say A Star in the Headlights is like a sister or counterpart to Pipe Dream or is it a completely different version of yourself as an artist?
[YOUR ANGEL]: In my head it's a counterpart, but there’s throughlines. I think my songwriting has always been what it is. The songwriting on A Star in the Headlights has more pop sensibilities, but in my eyes, I think they’re sisters and A Star in the Headlights is an older, more mature sister.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song from A Star in the Headlights and why do you love the song? Is there like a specific lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
[YOUR ANGEL]: “STAR” because that is exactly what I wanted to make and I made it when I met my boyfriend. It was the last song for the record. Everything clicked and it felt like I closed the chapter. It was the most proud I'd ever been of a production that I'd done. I started with the intro to that big, orchestral intro and I played it on the keyboard. I was so proud of it and it felt like it aligned with what I wanted to be making in the future. It felt like I leveled up when I made it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there a story or experience amongst the 11 tracks that you gravitate towards the most in terms of your creative growth and maturity?
[YOUR ANGEL]: Probably “STAR” because she’s such a standout. She’s just my favorite and it switches, but that’ll always be the song I’m most proud of on that record.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What was the hardest song for you to write, either lyrically or emotionally?
[YOUR ANGEL]: It’s tough because I made that record so long ago. “Good Girl” gave me the most trouble because I was producing it by myself. “Misbehave” was the most difficult to figure out. After I finished writing and producing the record, I brought it to two of my friends who did production on it and we couldn’t figure out the drums to it and we were overcomplicating it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Did you have any breakthroughs or lessons while creating A Star in the Headlights?
[YOUR ANGEL]: I think personally it was the biggest emotional breakthrough. I was a person that really stuffed my shit and I wasn’t ready to face a lot of my traumas and bullshit for a really long time. This record was me coming to terms with the fact that none of that was going to go away and that it wasn’t a weakness to face it and talk about it. Being emotionally stoic is not strength. This record really helped me face myself in a way that I had not been willing to beforehand.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You mentioned you're already seven songs deep into your next project. I would love to hear anything you’re willing to share with Unpublished about this new project.
[YOUR ANGEL]: She's really early on. It’s definitely pop. It’s like Future Sex/Love Sounds [Justin Timberlake], Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey combined. I’m super stoked about it and it’s in the early phases.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What do you hope listeners can take away from A Star in the Headlights?
[YOUR ANGEL]: Being emotionally vulnerable is not a sign of weakness and that we're not unique in our ugliest emotions, and sometimes feeling things towards people that you don't even align with, you're not unique in that and it's very human and nothing to be ashamed of.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you'd like to share with Unpublished?
[YOUR ANGEL]: I'm feeling super excited. Super optimistic. I want to play as much as I can, and my hope is to go on tour at some point this year. I'll definitely be playing around Los Angeles a lot and doing small tours and if I can get an opening slot on a tour that would be sick. Might even put more music out this year. Who's to say I just bust that shit.
