Living with your head in the clouds may sound like a pipe dream out of some Hollywood flick to some, but for Marcus Alvarado and his Lana Del Rey scarf, the sky is never the limit. While on his way up to stardom, Alvarado has managed to collect L.A. stereotypes for himself like stars on the Walk of Fame in the humblest of ways.
Need a singer? He’s performed at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. Need an actor? He’s credited on IMDb. Need a spell? He’s studied witchcraft. Need a writer? He’s working on a novel. Needless to say, Alvarado is hyperfocused on the spotlight that has been with him since he was a child.
“For a huge chunk of my life, I always wanted to be an actor,” said Alvarado. “I started doing plays at my church in third grade and that’s what kind of gave me the bug. Ever since I just came out the womb I was like, ‘Hello world, I’m ready for ya!’”
Alvarado recalled that through a majority of his performances, church members would come up to compliment his acting, but he never took it seriously.
“They were not going to tell us we were bad,” he chuckled. “But, then I had a lady come up to me [after a show].”
This woman recounted her terrible day to Alvarado and told him he should pursue this as a career. As an insecure, bullied nine-year-old, hearing this was a lot to take in for him.
Fourteen years later, the now 23-year-old actor, singer and performer has rebranded himself into the 70’s pop persona Starchild, the woke witch of L.A. County—and he’s waiting to be heard.
“We’re vibrational creatures,” said Alvarado on his outlook on life. “I really believe that you need to keep your vibes high and match the frequency of the energy you want to receive.”
A couple of years ago, Alvarado went on a journey of self-discovery where he fell in love with music and found his style through singing lessons. He also built a wealth of knowledge on the occult, spiritual metaphysics (yes, that’s a thing) and Plato’s teachings.
“That’s where Starchild really came into the picture,” said Alvarado. “I started thinking that if I started singing, then I needed a stage name. Marcus is the businessman and entrepreneur. Starchild is the comic book character; he’s the new age, sun witch of Los Angeles.”
Although his alter-ego was created to use on the stage, the lines that delineate Alvarado from Starchild seem to blur. Wearing a Wicca necklace, thick rings and a scarf on a 67 degree day in Los Angeles, his dress mirrors that of Starchild.
At Alvarado’s past shows at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, he’s donned a number of eclectic outfits, such as glitter button-ups, tribal dashikis and flower crowns.
Alvarado first landed on this gig through the venue’s pay-for-play system, where performers purchase tickets in advance to sell to fans. He has since played multiple shows there opening for friend and fellow performer, Jay Diamondz.
“A lot of my songs revolve around that and how we need to open our senses,” said Alvarado. “We need to open our perception of reality and understand that we create and attract our reality as we go. We are the writers of our own script.”
Despite not being signed to a label yet, Alvarado is mulling away at his next EP’s tracks and has finished a music video. His sound aims to emulate the works of Lana Del Rey and Lorde.
“All these will be released once I have a team behind me,” said Alvarado. “A good publicist, a good manager and a good label to just really, boom, bring Starchild some press and bring him out. You know, paint the picture of just an L.A. local boy with a heart of gold.”
While Alvarado waits for his “Avengers team” to assemble, he will continue singing cover songs on Instagram with his gold microphone to grow his fanbase.
On the socials with @caitlinherdez.
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