Catching up with Sarah Kinsley at Governor’s Ball

Queens, NY - June 10, 2023

Photography by Tara Demers

Congratulations on the release of your new EP Ascension! How do you feel this new collection of songs represents who you are as an artist now, as opposed to your past EPs?

Yeah, I think it's for one, the genre is very very different. It’s a lot more indie and I think it’s a lot more pop and that has been a really fun part of myself to explore and figure out. I think lyrically it's about a lot of the same things, a lot of my music is about time and growing up and getting older. This one, specifically, is more about this sort of melancholy of it, and it's like very devastatingly tragic in a way that’s more dramatic than it is actually painful and I think that has been a fun thing to explore because it is just a lot more playful in the way that it’s discovering all of these illusions that I have about getting older through the EP. But yeah, it’s been nice to revisit things.

Do you think you relate more to this EP now that you are older?

Oh yeah, totally. I think it's a weird sort of like self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that it’s like I write the music, kind of subconsciously understanding what it is I’m trying to say about myself and then it actually ends up explaining a lot of things.

You've grown so much as an artist since your release of The King EP to now and it's been a beautiful journey to witness. If you could go back in time and talk to yourself first starting out as an artist, what would you say to younger Sarah?

I would probably say to trust my gut more. I think there are a lot of things that I didn’t maybe count as intuition as much as I should’ve, as a very meaningful part of experiences. Yeah, I think I would tell myself to trust my gut more, and not listen to I don't know, men haha, and I probably would’ve made thise changes but, or boys rather. Yeah, I would trust my gut a little bit more.

You're touring with Weyes Blood and Gus Dapperton this year! What is one thing you're looking forward to most about being on the road? Are there any special pieces of advice or knowledge you learned on your past tour runs that you'll take with you this year?

Yeah, I definitely have to put my health first on tour, I wouldn’t do that all the time, it’s a pretty nasty thing to learn, learning the hard way for sure. But I am just excited, like I'm a fan of both of those artists, so it’s really bizarre that I’m like oh they’ve both heard my music and they want me to open for them, like when I hear the news that both of them I fully thought I was going to pee my pants, I was just really freaked out. Honestly, I’m just very excited to be fans of them for a few nights.

The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only about 2% of popular songs are produced by women.  As a producer yourself, do you hope to inspire more women to enter the music production landscape? What's one piece of advice you would give to aspiring women producers?

As much as I wish I had also trusted my own gut more, I wish I had been more open to other people's advice… so it’s a complex thing. As much as I would say keep your ears open and genuinely learn from other people, men, women, or anyone truly, I think people have such knowledge to give, and really the one true way to pass it is by listening to people. But even then coupled with that I would also say, you know who you are. And you know how good your vision is,  so also screw that if that is making you feel you know lesser than what you are and what you create. I think it’s almost like I wish you could say both of those things because I think they are both equally true, simultaneous, as much as they are kind of against each other in a lot of ways… I am very glad that we have women producing music, I think that number is going to go up the next time they do those reports. I would love to hope that it’s like double digits, like 10%. I doubt it but it will be a while until I fully give my music to someone else to produce so I hope a lot of young people in general and young women are starting to do it and it’s really freeing, very liberated experience.