POORSTACY
“Death is the one thing everyone’s super afraid of, but it’s the only thing we are promised. I’m
choosing to celebrate it instead of being sad,” POORSTACY explains. For the South Florida
native, the last few years have been some of his hardest, but they also have given him
purpose and conviction like never before.
With his upcoming album Party At The Cemetery, the rock artist pays his respects to his
friends who passed away. Self-admittedly, he’s lost really “all [his] original friends,” in one
tragedy or another, and the music reflects that. Forged in equal parts pain, apathy and
celebration, POORSTACY tells a nuanced story of life and loss with a level of understanding
that can only come from someone who has seen it all.
For Stacy, born Carlito Milfort Jr., making a rock album like Party At The Cemetery is not a
trend, designed for clout. In fact, he “doesn’t give a fuck” about that kind of thing at all. This
is the music that soundtracked his life. Growing up in West Palm Beach, Florida, Stacy fell in
love with music by hanging out in the crowds of local shows. “I’ve been going to shows since
I was 12 or 13. Slam punk, metalcore, death metal. Lots of satanic shit. I also went to a lot of
raves where there was a ton of drum and bass growing up too,” he says.
Though the rock and electronic music that he gravitated towards as a kid once seemed like
two very different scenes, they both thrived on a true DIY sensibility which Stacy loved. By
his late teens, he began releasing his own songs to SoundCloud, in hopes that he could
capture that same DIY spirit native to South Florida. Part of the early wave of emo-rap
talents on the platform, Stacy penned underground hits like “make up” which gained millions
of streams and ushered the subgenre into the mainstream consciousness.
His influence on the streaming platform led him to a deal with Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects
where he began releasing songs with labelmates like producer Nick Mira of Internet Money
and iann dior and other talents like Travis Barker and Whethan. With his acclaimed
crossover project The Breakfast Club and single “Choose Life” (a nod to the film
Trainspotting), Stacy showed his penchant for storytelling and allusion, something which he
cements as one of his artistic signatures on Party At The Cemetery.
Even his name is an homage to one of his favorites (skateboarder Stacy Peralta) who
inspired POORSTACY with his craftsmanship and his ability to play the long game. “Stacy
Peralta himself was not shown a lot of attention at the start, but he ended up being one of
the biggest legends in skateboarding in the end. I always loved the idea of that, of doing your
own thing and having it pay off.” Just like Peralta, POORSTACY isn’t making music for short
term accolades and fame, he’s doing this for the art and legacy of it.
With this boundless interest in pop culture and art, POORSTACY’s first fully fledged rock
record Party At The Cemetery is an eclectic collage of the stories, films, friends, and
subgenres that have captured his attention and inspired him throughout his life. “I want to
incorporate it all into my art. I love ballet. I love Stanley Kubrick. I love Tim Burton. I love
Victorian architecture. There’s so much I draw on,” he says.
What’s next for Stacy? Directing, screenwriting, and maybe even a little modeling. “I’m
interested in writing films right now, and I’m directing my own music videos for the new
album,” he says. For Stacy, Party At The Cemetery is a moment to stop and pay respect to
his life so far and to edify it through art, but he assures that he has a lot of plans for the
future. “There’s a lot more coming,” he promises.
