Suicide Star Unleashes “Auntie Anxiety”—A Hard-Hitting Anthem for a Fractured Generation
Niagara Falls, ON’s Suicide Star doesn’t just play rock and roll—they live it, breathe it, and blast it through the speakers with a thunderous, unapologetic force. Their latest single, “Auntie Anxiety,” is a hard-hitting anthem and a battle cry for a world that never stops spinning, for a generation drowning in chaos, and for anyone who’s ever felt like they’re “falling off the edge of the world.”
Formed in 2020 and made up of veteran rockers Rob Barton (vocals), Dakota Prince (guitar), Aki Maris (bass), and Brian Hamilton (drums), Suicide Star is the definition of modern hard rock with old-school fire. They’ve paid their dues on stages across Canada and the U.S., and now they’re kicking down the doors with “Auntie Anxiety,” a track that captures the spiraling grip of fear, the frustration of control, and the desperate need to break free.
“You tell me there’s no doubt about it / These are the end times looking for some face time.”
With jagged riffs, pounding drums, and a chorus that could shake the walls of a stadium, “Auntie Anxiety” is raw, relentless, and refuses to back down. It’s a song born out of personal battles, inspired by frontman Rob Barton’s own struggles with anxiety. “Anxiety isn’t about thinking about the future, but rather, trying to control it,” Barton explains. The song became the catalyst for their upcoming album, Generation Doom, a record that rips open the struggles of modern existence while offering a hand to those who feel like they’re drowning.
Generation Doom is a mission. “We are constantly inundated with messages dictating how to live, look, or think every time we glance at a phone, tablet, or TV screen,” Barton says. “This constant barrage can be overwhelming to a young mind. Sometimes, this struggle becomes so intense that it leads to severe outcomes, too often ending in tragedy.” Suicide Star is here to remind us that no one fights alone.
From the menacing groove of Aki Maris’ basslines to Dakota Prince’s razor-sharp guitar licks and Brian Hamilton’s thunderous drumming, “Auntie Anxiety” doesn’t just echo the chaos of the world—it demands to be heard above the noise. The single is a perfect representation of Suicide Star’s signature sound: a mix of blistering aggression and haunting melody, delivering “a heavy bite with catchy, ear-splitting melodies.”
Since the release of their debut album Isolation, Suicide Star has seen their music land on FM and AM stations across North America and beyond, amassing close to 200,000 streams on Spotify alone. They’ve lit up festival stages and opened for major acts like Collective Soul and I Mother Earth, proving that they’re here to leave a crater where the stage used to be.
With “Auntie Anxiety,” Suicide Star has made one thing clear: They play rock and roll, it is alive, and they have something to say. And you’re going to listen.
Hi Suicide Starrers! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourselves to the readers?
Hey there! Thanks for having us! We’re Suicide Star, a four-piece hard rock band from Niagara Falls, Canada. We’re currently recording our second album called Generation Doom and our first single, “Auntie Anxiety” is out now!
“Auntie Anxiety” is such a visceral, hard-hitting anthem. Can you talk about how the song came together creatively, both lyrically and musically?
The music for this one was an idea that our guitar player had sitting in his back pocket. He had some ideas on how the finished song needed to sound but something always seemed to be missing. At the time my lyric writing was becoming a bit more introspective. As someone who has suffered from anxiety off and on for years, I wanted to give voice to what I was feeling. The way our writing process works is our guitar player will usually come up with an interesting riff or progression that gets put together into a rough form of a song, then I will take it and add melody and lyrics. When I heard the music for this one for the first time, the words and melody just kind of poured out, and it really seemed to click with the music. As I was writing I realized that I wasn’t only writing about myself, but about a whole group of people that suffer daily from anxiety in its many forms. The largest of that group seems to be the younger generation.
There’s a powerful line in “Auntie Anxiety”: “These are the end times looking for some face time.” How do you see social media and modern tech impacting mental health, especially among younger generations?
I can’t help but empathize with today’s younger people. I’m sure a lot of people can relate to this, but I remember when I was a teenager/young twenty-something and what a mess I was then. That’s just what it means to be young. You have to somehow figure out who you are, stumble through, and eventually find your own way. Now, throw in social media where you’re constantly bombarded by messages telling you how to think, how to feel, and what to wear. Not to mention that social media is a platform that almost feels designed to make you feel insecure, so you’ll adopt the latest TikTok trend or follow that Instagram influencer. We’re forgetting how to trust our own instincts over the opinions of millions of strangers at the other end of a screen and that can only lead to disaster. But hopefully, the message we’re sending with this record is that no one is alone and there’s always hope.
You’ve opened for major acts like Collective Soul and I Mother Earth. What did you learn from sharing the stage with those rock veterans, and how did it push you to level up?
Those shows are always exciting! From the minute you get to the venue to set up the level of professionalism is much higher than it is at, say, at club or bar gig. The headliner’s crew will usually be there setting up, doing their soundcheck, or what have you and we don’t want to bother them. But they’ll often try to make you feel comfortable by lending a hand and getting you where you need to be. You need to know how to be humble and remember that you’re the guest and act accordingly. You have to learn to leave your attitude on the stage. Another thing about smaller club shows is that the people are more often there to drink and socialize, and the band is just basically the background music, but at a bigger concert-style show the people have paid good money to see the band which means all eyes are looking at you, so it definitely means you need to bring your A-game and do your best not to screw up!
What keeps Suicide Star fired up to keep writing, recording, and throwing down on stage in a world that often feels upside down?
As cliche as it might sound, it’s really just about the love of the music. No matter what happens this is absolutely what we love to do. Whether it’s jamming together in the basement or going crazy on a festival stage it all comes down to the music. Creating it, performing it. It just hits something inside of you that can’t be touched, no matter what’s happening around you.