Starboro emerges as a new cosmic country project from longtime friends, Daniel “Womz” Womack of Futurebirds and Johnny Delaware of SUSTO They will play their first-ever show this Friday, March 6th at the Charleston Pour House, with a full band that also includes Wolfgang Zimmerman, Cannon Rogers, and Kevin Early. Their debut single, “Mr. DJ,” was released on February 12th at 4:20am.
Chris Gardner of Extra Chill interviewed the band at The Space in Charleston. Stream “Mr. DJ” below and keep reading to learn more.
Starboro – “Mr. DJ” (2026)
Starboro Origin Story
Futurebirds and SUSTO were fast friends when they first hit the road together in 2015. Womz, Johnny, and Wolfgang had talked about doing a band together, but it took ten years to materialize.
“Me and Wolfie and Johnny were hanging out backstage and talking about how we should record together,” Womz recalls. “I was flabbergasted because I’d never been approached outside of Futurebirds. In 2016 we recorded a couple of songs that I had laying around, and we had a great time. We started talking about making a country band. But we all had our own main thing going on and it never happened.”
Near the end of 2025, they finally found the time to get back into the studio together. Womz and Johnny played a show together in August, and booked studio time for October.
“It was always best when it was me, Johnny, and Wolfie in the same room,” Womz continues. “Creating is supposed to be fluid and exciting. You’re supposed to be throwing high fives and stuff, which it was that with my other gig as well. But it was something just about the chemistry that existed in Charleston that I loved.”
Naming the Band
The duo sent demos back and forth, and soon they were talking about band names. Womz had some constraints: It had to be one word, it had to exist outside but not be easy to pinpoint, and it should pay homage to small town life, since that’s where both he and Johnny came from. His wife is the one who first came up with the name Starboro.
“My wife, actually, we took my daughter to the park, and we were just walking around. She says Starboro. And I was like, Starboro. Oh, shit, that’s fucking sick. It ballooned in my brain and my heart. I wanted it to be cosmic, but I also wanted it to be grounded. We agreed that was going to be it.”
Womz continued with cosmic abstraction, drawing comparisons between Starboro and how it relates to the natural world.
“We’re going to create our own world. It’s a parallel universe. Starboro, where fucking jackalopes run free and fireflies glow purple. If you ever played Super Mario back in the day, you could put in the cheat code and all the little things turn into pumpkins. Everything’s the same, but different.”
Johnny chimes in with a dose of reality.
“One of my favorite things ever is collaborating and working on music with my friends,” he says. “I’ve always adored his [Womz] voice. I have a cleaner, crispy 70s voice. Old school, but it doesn’t have a lot of character. Since we’ve been talking ten years ago, I was already crafting songs for his voice. I already had songs in a folder that were reserved for Womz. Because I write a lot of songs, but half of them don’t work for my voice.”
The single, “Mr. DJ” is one example of a song Johnny wrote for Womz. “Rodeo Man,” which is still unreleased, is another one.
Looking to the Future
Starboro is actively looking to avoid traditional music industry expectations with this project. With Futurebirds and SUSTO still touring frequently, Starboro is a fun band where they can keep things simple for a change.
“We don’t want to be too strict about certain archaic protocols,” Womz explains. “We just want to write music and release them as simple as possible. We’re all veterans, as far as playing shows goes. So we’re confident in the live show, but we’re not chasing labels or managers. We’ve been there and done that.”
“We’ve learned a lot being in a bunch of bands and doing this a long time,” Johnny continues. “It’s about the camaraderie of it all, and not having an ego about it. Because I’m good at simple shit. I’m not your typical arena rock shredder. But Cannon fucking rocks, and Womz can shred. I’m a more simple player. I’ll come up with a hook or something that’s simple. But it’s a good part of the song. That’s the cool thing about this band. If you need to grab a tool from the toolbox, we have everything.”
“The machine becomes a thing of its own,” Womz explains. “It’s easy to get sucked away from the spirit of why you’re doing things sometimes. And that’s no one’s fault. It’s just the way that it is as you grow. Which is maybe a good problem to have. But we’re going to avoid all that stuff with this band.”
This Friday night marks the first time that the five of them will be on stage together.
“We just want to serve the song,” Johnny says.
“We’re going to serve the songs and serve the movement,” Womz closes. “We’re all in this together. We want to do cool shit, and we want people to be a part of it.”
Get your tickets to Starboro with Hotel Hugo at Charleston Pour House here.