LA-based musician Gold Star, real name Marlon Rabenreither, writes from the heart – tales of depth, experience and emotion. This has never been truer than with his latest track, Fentanyl; a hauntingly personal portrait of the opioid crisis, and of the thousand deaths caused by Fentanyl overdoses every year. Rabenreither has first-hand experience of this, through his own experiences and those close to him. Stripped back and raw, Rabenreither’s poignant words are elevated by hypnotic fingerpicking guitar, the track marks the first single from the musician’s latest LP, How To Shoot The Moon, set for release mid-November.

We premiere Fentanyl‘s accompanying music video here, a hauntingly beautiful film directed by Cameron McCool and starring Maddison Rothery.

“The song isn’t about any one person or narrative really,” Rabenreither says. “I have personally overdosed on Fentanyl and know just how terrifying that can be, but I also know many more who weren’t as lucky as I was. I don’t want to make this song purely about my experiences, as this about something much vaster than me. I simply wanted to illustrate the helplessness I felt, the wider scope of this issue, and how personal and devastating it is. They say something like 40 percent of people know someone who has died from an overdose. So this one is for Chuck, a great man, whose daughter misses him very much and who inspired a lot of the lyrics on this one.”

Gold Star’s How To Shoot The Moon LP is out on 15th November, he will play a Los Angeles release show on 20th Nov at El Cid.
Follow Gold Star on Instagram.