Sarah Kinsley: "Escape is necessary, not just for survival, but as a way to process and engage with the world."

New York-based artist Sarah Kinsley invites listeners to embark on a mesmerizing journey through her debut album, Escaper, out September 6th via Universal. This album serves as a unique fusion of classical training and modern pop, wrapped in themes of love, loss, and the intricacies of relationships. Kinsley is now stepping into the spotlight with a body of work that’s both grand and intimate, and we can already appreciate it through her latest singles Starling", "Realms" and "Last Time We Never Met."

Her journey has been marked by a drive to challenge misconceptions about women in music production, and her self-taught production skills have allowed her to develop a sound that is very much her own. On Escaper, Kinsley collaborates with renowned producer John Congleton, known for his work on Angel Olsen’s All Mirrors, to bring her expansive vision to life. The result is a collection of songs that blend vibrant melodies with deep emotional resonance and vibrant, heart-wrecking themes.

“I think a huge part of this album is about the process of escape and what that looks like,” Kinsley shares. “I wrote most of the songs while dealing with different forms of grief and loss—friendships, love, family, all of it. The album explores who you become when you need to escape and where you go when you don’t want to exist in the real world anymore.”

The album's first half delves into this imagined world, a refuge for survival and healing. Kinsley’s music became her way of navigating grief and understanding herself, allowing her to emerge from the darkness with renewed clarity. “I learned a lot about the more vulnerable and darker sides of that process, but it was necessary and refreshing to come out on the other side,” she reflects.

Kinsley’s emphasis on personal interpretation shines through her music, allowing listeners to find their own meanings in her songs. “Music is a personal experience, and I love that different people can find different meanings in the same song,” she says. “But I think the biggest revelation I had while making this album is that escape is necessary, not just for survival, but as a way to process and engage with the world.”

While Escaper explores the idea of fleeing reality, it also underscores the beauty of choosing to live in the world, despite its imperfections. The album’s ultimate message is finding hope: that love and humanity are still worthy of our attention. Kinsley captures this dual realization in her music—"You are worthy of love, and love is worthy of you."

Reflecting on her earlier work, Kinsley notes how her perspective on love has evolved. “I was obsessed with romantic love. Early on, my music focused almost entirely on that, but this record is different. It’s about accepting and understanding love in all its forms, including platonic love. I realized how sustaining friendships are—sometimes it feels even luckier than romantic love.”

This shift in perspective is evident in tracks like "Last Time We Never Meet Again" and "Starling," which explore the complexities of friendships and the beauty of connection. “‘Last Time’ is about an ending being a beginning,” Kinsley says. “A big part of my grief was about ending a friendship by choice, which is so tough to navigate. There’s no clear roadmap for dealing with that. Then you have ‘Starling,’ which is all about being present and cherishing the moments with people you love. I think it shows my mental growth, moving from the pain of an ending to appreciating the beauty of the connections I still have.”

Kinsley’s evolution as an artist is not just limited to her songwriting but extends to her production work as well. Initially aiming to be a producer, Kinsley’s classical background provided a foundation for her exploration of pop music. “Growing up, I always felt that classical and pop music weren’t that different in terms of structure. Pop songs, especially the ultra-mainstream ones, have a similar structure to classical pieces,” she explains. “I’ve also loved seeing how classical elements have been integrated into nearly every genre over the past few years. In my own music, I find a lot of joy in creating string arrangements. There’s something about layering strings over drums that evokes a unique sense of nostalgia that other instruments or sounds can’t quite capture.”

Working with Congleton was a significant shift for Kinsley, who was accustomed to working alone. “Collaborating with him pushed me out of my comfort zone,” she recalls. “It was all about experimenting and understanding that things don’t have to be perfect from the start. It was challenging, but I learned a lot about letting go and embracing the creative process.”

She recalls as well a particularly influential moment from an audio engineering class, one of those moments that, without you noticing, marks you forever. “One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned came from a professor,” Kinsley says. “He emphasized that great production isn’t just about layering more and more sounds but about carving out space and subtracting elements to let each sound breathe.”

And the essence of this production style is clear in her most recent singles. Instead of overwhelming her tracks with dense layers, Kinsley focuses on creating clarity and allowing each element its own space. “This approach of creating room for each sound has been instrumental in my own production work and has stuck with me over the years,” she explains.

The album’s title, Escaper, encapsulates the essence of Kinsley’s creative journey. “The word clicked immediately for me, and I love what it represents—someone who is destined to leave but also to return,” she says. The title, influenced by the quote, "You are someone who leaves, and I love you because you are someone who leaves," became a central theme of the album.

As Kinsley prepares to bring Escaper to audiences around the world, she reflects on the significance of live performances. “There’s something so special about the connection with fans during live performances, and I’ve missed it. I’m just excited to perform the album everywhere.”

With Escaper, Sarah Kinsley has crafted a sonic landscape that invites listeners to explore the complexities of love, loss, and the necessity of escape. You can now preorder Escaper here.

Listen to her latest single:

“I was obsessed with romantic love. Early on, my music focused almost entirely on that, but this record is different. It’s about accepting and understanding love in all its forms, including platonic love.”

“One of the best pieces of advice I received was... the key to great production isn’t just adding layers upon layers of sound, but rather carving out space and subtracting elements to create room for each sound to breathe.”

Image: Dillon Matthew

Press Conference organised by °1824

Words: Reya Casajus

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