We’ve mentioned it during a radio interview and noted it in year-in-review posts on social media, but perhaps blogging about it makes it more of an “official” announcement.

At the end of October, bassist Alex Reed told us that he would be leaving the Starling Effect. So, we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his outstanding contributions to the band. Alex joined us in the summer of 2018 and was soon plunged into the deep end; within a few months he was in the studio with us, laying down the bottom end for our self-titled debut EP, which we released the following March.

“At first I struggled to find my niche within the band as I had a very different playing style than my predecessor,” Alex said, as quoted in our 2024 bio. “Recording an EP within the first few months of joining the band gave me the motivation to fully step into the role, and I found that I could weave some nice melodic bass lines underneath the pre-existing song structures.”

In his tenure with the Starling Effect, Alex played a key role, not just with his stellar playing and backing vocals, but also through his creative input into the songwriting process. In fact, the A-side of our most recent single, “Pile of Ash”, was built around one of Alex’s bass parts.

“I was noodling around high up on the fretboard of the bass when I came up with the main chorus progression,” he recalled in a band bio. “I didn’t think it was anything special at first, but it caught someone’s ear—possibly Michael’s—and we started jamming on it.”

Drummer Michael Nathanson concurred. “From the moment I first heard what Alex was playing, I absolutely loved it,” he reflected. “Not wanting to clutter up the feel, I started tapping out a solid floor tom/snare pulse which ultimately became the foundation for ‘Pile of Ash’.”

“Once Alex came up with the inspired, chordal, descending bass line, the rest of the music wrote itself,” said keyboardist-guitarist Greg Williams. “I remember it all coming together effortlessly around that part.”

The Starling Effect would like to thank Alex for his excellent contributions to the development of our ongoing project, and wish him luck with his future endeavours.