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KGRL Exclusive Sarah Sharp Interview
Sarah Sharp was kind enough to give KGRL an opportunity for an interview while being busy preparing for motherhood. Special thanks goes out to Andy and Sarah for making the audio recording part of the interview possible.
Listen to Sarah Sharp's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:
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KGRL: What inspired you to take up music as a profession?
Sarah Sharp: Let's see... As far as making music a profession, I think it was just luck and a series of events that started with me just knowing that I wanted to be a singer... And then it was time to go to school and I thought - well, I'll study music and I got a scholarship... And then it was like, oh wow, I got this degree and I gotta use it. The more that I pursued it, the more that I realized that I really wanted it... And that it could be a career.
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KGRL: What inspires you to create music?
Sarah Sharp: Inspires me to create music? The end result. The process itself is not always as enjoyable as the fact that once it's done, you got a new song. I always had to force myself to write music. Sometimes it comes out really quickly, but even when it comes quickly it's when I make myself slow down and say OK I'm going to write... But the inspiration is remembering how good it feels when you've got new material and when you've got better material and when your song writing gets stronger the more you do it.
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KGRL: Your background is very interesting. You are professionally trained in song writing and music theory - to name a few. Then you went straight to London right after graduation. Playing blues/jazz with a band took you to a whole new level of musicianship. Which of your experiences do you think had the most impact in your current song writing process?
Sarah Sharp: My current song writing process is really the result of everything up till now. So, if I look back at what I wrote when I was 21 and straight out of school, living in London - an illegal immigrant - I really couldn't see past my next meal... Totally different set of songs and ideas from years later being back in the States - having toured, having played all over the US and Europe, and made albums. It's coming from the same place as that 21 year old plus everything that has happened since then.
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KGRL: You've written songs by yourself, some with your hubby - Andy (Buffalo Speedway), and a host of other collaborators. Has it been easier for you to write songs by yourself or is it comfortable for you writing songs with someone?
Sarah Sharp: I have two main people who I write with: Buffalo Speedway and Sam Arnold. Sometimes songs come out, the whole thing, by myself... But because I don't play an instrument very proficiently, I tend to concentrate my efforts on the lyrics and then I just get to respond to really great musical ideas from people who I admire like Buffalo Speedway and Sam Arnold. They're both in my band, they're both my main guys.
It might start with just a verse or something small that Sam brings me... And I'll say, that's great - what if you did that twice, or what if you made that the chorus or what if you made that last chord a minor. I get to be really opinionated, like a conductor about what they're playing but I can't play it myself. It's a luxury to get to have people who can quickly execute ideas that I hear - and the fact that we can do it without wanting to kill each other, although sometimes we do want to kill each other - but it's worth it.
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KGRL: Do you have any artist/songwriters in mind that you would want to work with someday?
Sarah Sharp: I think my biggest inspiration for why I try to succeed with this is because the more that I accomplish with my own music, the more I get to be genuinely friends with people who I admire who are doing the same thing. There's just no end to the people I want to work with. Just to be in the room while they're recording or writing.
An example is... There's an Austin-based musician named David Garza, who I first discovered when I was 13 years old. Through a series of coincidences, we have the same manager. There was a day where I got to be in his brother's house while he was there practicing piano and playing for over an hour - where his hands just did not stop and he was making it up as he went along going from one end of the piano to the other, morphing from one song into the next... I just got to sit there with my journal and write whatever came into my mind. It was just such a luxury and such an inspiring situation. I'd love to work with him. We've talked about him possibly producing something.
I wanna work with Eminem, I really do... I think he's a genius (laughs).
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KGRL: Do you feel like you've accomplished the musical direction you wanted to take with your year old album, Fourth Person?
Sarah Sharp: Fourth Person was a huge accomplishment at the time. I went from having only recorded a 5-song EP, in a kind-of a rehearsal space that my drummer set up pro-tools in, to getting to make this full-fledged album in this big beautiful historic studio with highly accomplished team players - so it was a big step up.
Since then, I guess the direction would be - what I look forward to I guess is something that sounds a little bit more like me in person because I was younger then, first of all, but also because most of the touring I've done is much more scaled back - maybe just me and a guitar player. So, people say "wow you sound totally different live." I want the next album to be a better reflection of what people are going to experience when they hear it live.
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KGRL: About your EP, Out Of Nowhere (2002)... How do you feel listening to it these days?
Sarah Sharp: I haven't listened to it, probably since it came out. I just can't... I think it probably would sound better to me now than it did right after I made it or a year later. I just haven't listened to it. I think, the more that I do the more that I'll be able to listen to it and see what it meant at that time and appreciate kind of a raw talent. It was definitely before I had any kind of identity, not that I necessarily know what that identity is now but I definitely did not have my own musical identity at that time.
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KGRL: Which of the songs you wrote is your personal favorite musically and lyric-wise?
Sarah Sharp: I think Euphoria is my personal favorite and that is not recorded yet because I'm kinda saving it like my secret weapon for the next album. Although, there is a demo of it in my myspace - http://www.myspace.com/sarahsharp. I got to make a demo of it at Capitol Studios. It was really exciting when I got to do some demos there recently.
I'm not sure what the fate of those songs or those demos will be, but Euphoria is probably my favorite personally and lyric-wise. It's about a very good friend of mine who OD'd on Heroine. He was a family friend. He had been in my life since I was a little girl, he was my sister's boyfriend. He was close to us from all angles - our dads were best friends. So the song wrote itself... It just shook everybody's world when we lost him.
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KGRL: Which one is your favorite to play live?
Sarah Sharp: Favorite song to play live totally depends on the audience. Sometimes I'm in a space like Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles or Cactus Cafe in Austin - where people come to listen... In that scenario, it's going to be one of the more emotional songs - like perhaps Euphoria or there's a new one called Fight Or Flight. When people get it, when I feel really comfortable... I have a couple of songs that are a little more raucous and a little zany like Finally and Mom's High, which are really high-energy. I don't really play those unless I feel comfortable, unless I feel like people get me from different angles and they know where I'm coming from, because they're more of a risk.
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KGRL: You have toured extensively over the last few years and then suddenly took a halt this year to take care of family matters. With this hiatus in your musical career, how do you plan on going back to your career and what plans do you have to keep things running while you take a break from touring?
Sarah Sharp: The hiatus is not planned and the family matter is the fact that I have a baby due any second now. I don't really know how its all going to play out once this baby is here. The truth is that, being kind of forced to take a step back has made me come up with what I think is a plan to be a lot more efficient when I'm back on the road.
My touring situation up until February was literally me and some guitar player, different guys at different times in my 97 GeoMetro, driving to a different city each day sleeping wherever was free - that would sometimes not be determined until we got into the gig. There were only 3 or 4 times over the course of 200 shows in a year, all over the US and Europe, were actually paid for a motel and the rest was very much, living from one day to the next. I can't do that with the baby, especially not in the GeoMetro. It's going to have to be more efficient, but it means that I'm going to have to outdo myself. I'm going to have to make an even better album. It's going to have to have some legs of its own. Perhaps get me some help and support so that I can take the baby, but I think it's an opportunity.
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Photo taken by Todd Wolfson.
KGRL: Do you see a possible change in direction after this hiatus?
Sarah Sharp: The change in direction will be... I can't wait to make a new album I've got the songs written. I'm ready to do it. Also, being back home and being in Austin - hearing a lot of live music because I'm here. I'm still out all the time, because they don't have smoking in the bars here so I haven't had to miss much as far as the live music scene here. Not being such a nomad, I'm reminded how much I want to play live with more than just a guitar player or two guitar players. I really look forward to making the most of the talent pool here and finding people who get what I do and want to be more involved in music.
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KGRL: Live at the Cactus Cafe CD is such an awesome live CD. Too bad there isn't a DVD version. Is there a plan for a Sarah Sharp DVD in the future? Was there any footage taken from your previous tours that can possibly be released as a DVD?
Sarah Sharp: There is not a DVD of the Cactus Cafe, there wasn't any footage that night. I've never actually thought about a DVD, I guess it could be cool. I'm not sure, I just never thought about it. There are some random video footage out there. I remember showing up in Charlotte, North Carolina. The second time I played at The Evening Muse, a girl brought me a tape that she made a year before. I don't remember that anybody had ever recorded us, but she came and brought me the master - and I still haven't watched it because I don't have a way to.
That happened a lot to me in Italy too. The second time I was in Italy, a guy brought me a DVD that he had made at one of our performances. I didn't remember that any footage had been taken. So, who knows what's out there, but I haven't done any on purpose.
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KGRL: Speaking of the Live at Cactus Cafe CD, are you gonna be manufacturing this at some point later on to give it a wider release?
Sarah Sharp: Yeah. When we made the album, the whole idea was to actually manufacture it and release it and have it to sell on the road - but right around the time that we were mastering the album was when I figured out that I was pregnant. It didn't make sense to spend the money to manufacture the CD when my touring plans were grinding to a halt. So, as soon as I get back on the road I will definitely manufacture it.
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KGRL: With the current state of music record industry and the rise of independent releases... Are you planning to go after a major recording label?
Sarah Sharp: I'm not sure that I ever was planning to go after a major recording label, nor would I know how to do that. I've had some kind of brushes with that level of music industry when I got to make these demos at Capitol recently. All that was very exciting but it was also very quickly complicated and not so much about the music. So, I feel lucky that that idea - like the major label route is not necessarily the ultimate goal for me because it gives you a lot more freedom. I don't know many artists who are out looking for a major record deal. These days I would just love to have the support of any good label that would really help me and do some of the hustling with me.
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Photo taken by Jeff Fasano.
KGRL: How much of the new materials have you written?
Sarah Sharp: I do have some new material and I have a ton of unfinished stuff. The next album is definitely written. There's a lot more that I want to finish. This time that I have taken off, while being pregnant, was supposed to be spent writing and writing and writing. I found that my brain capacity is just not as sharp, it's not the same. I was beating myself up about it for quite a while. With the urging of my husband, I just had to admit to myself that my normal brain is not completely here and I'm hoping that I'm gonna get it back when I get my body back.
There's a lot waiting to be finished. I've certainly spent the last few months filling the well, so to speak, with ideas and experiences to draw on.
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KGRL: Any new artists you listen to? Any new artist that might have a late influence on you?
Sarah Sharp: About once a year I have one CD that just totally knocks me out and I love it so much that I can't burn a copy, I have to buy copies for everybody I know. And that CD for me right now is Neko Case - The Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. I don't even know how many copies I bought. I've sent it to my mom, my best friend, to Sam - my guitar player and co-writer, my aunt - a lot of people. I think it's brilliant.
I was really inspired this year by Sia, who I saw during South by Southwest in her live performance - it was just incredible. There's just so much good music going on in Austin. The band Spoon, I idolize them. So many bands have sort of sprung from them. As far as this sound that you wouldn't think was from Austin, it's really exciting... It's a whole new thing.
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KGRL: What do we expect from Sarah Sharp in 2007?
Sarah Sharp: Well, I am definitely going to make an album in 2007. I think as soon as that's done, I'm going to get back on the road I'm just not sure exactly how that's all gonna be with the baby but it will happen - I'm looking forward to it.
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Special thanks goes to Andy and Sarah Sharp.
Sarah Sharp Links:
Official Website: http://www.sarahsharp.com
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/sarahsharp
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