Q&A: She Stunned Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Now Caroline Sky Paves Her Own Path
IT CAN FEEL LIKE CATCHING A FIREFLY — when you witness an artist begin to find success and accomplish their dreams. This type of phenomenon has become a cultural marvel with TV shows such as “American Idol” and “The Voice” giving prospective singers the chance to make it big, but with one big caveat: You’re doing it in a stadium of thousands, in front of a digital audience of millions. The natural anxieties that come with this are not only unavoidable but key to the reality show’s success in making real drama out of these potential make-or-break auditions.
Granting the public an inherently judgemental orifice to view your work through, it also happens to be highly edited and produced for entertainment value — it has to be draining. But it’s the true auteurs on the show who pave their own lane, moving forward musically to their own tune, at their own pace.
Such is the case for West Coast–native Caroline Sky. Having a prestigious musical career before ever gracing a televised stage, Sky has turned heads — and chairs — with her memorable performances on “The Voice” in 2017 “American Idol” in 2021, garnering acclaim from Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, just to name a few.
Premiering her single “Giving Tree” late last month, Sky can be seen as clearly as she is heard, finding a new home with an evocative, R&B-pop fusion.
Read below to learn more about the journey that Sky has been through.
LUNA: For artists in 2022, having a gimmick, such as having a niche subgenre on TikTok or a viral song, seems to be a necessity. There's usually something to an artist that they need or think they need to break out or gain popularity. But for you, it seems like that gimmick is talent and making the music that you want to make. In this hyperactive age of engagement and numbers, how do you manage to make music that you want to make without letting these outward pressures take over or get in the way?
SKY: That's a really good question. It honestly is something that I definitely struggle with — the balance between being an authentic artist and knowing that you have to be marketable. So [I] kind of try to balance the creative versus the business side. For me, something that has always anchored me in the musical process has been the live music aspect. I've made that a really central part of my career plan. I'm constantly playing live. I think that connecting with people at shows is a way more valuable way to gain hardcore fans who will come back and who will ride or die for you, rather than posting something on TikTok and having, you know, someone comment and then not see your stuff again. So for me, I think my musical philosophy is more so centered around making actual genuine human connections with people to make them feel like they're a part of something. Yeah, it definitely is a challenge. But I tend to stay true to what I want to write, and the people that resonate with it will stick around.
LUNA: You've given fans a chance to experience your work in the past with a plethora of singles: “Dancing in July,” “My Eyes,” “Lights On,” and “Better Than This,” just to name a few. Having so many different singles to choose from, do you have a personal favorite from the bunch?
SKY: For me personally, it’s being able to sing “Company,” since a lot of people love that song. It's not the most streamed but that's the song that’s had the most people come up to me and they're like, “Wow, this really hit!” So, I think being able to write that song, which is basically centered around, you know, if you're not in my life to serve a positive purpose then you're ultimately detracting from my own happiness. So yeah, I think being able to perform that song and record that in a really powerful way was definitely my favorite out of all of them.
LUNA: You've gotten accolades of appreciation from Gwen Steffani, Blake Shelton, and Tim McGraw, but you also have mentorship from Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, and as an artist, these experiences exponentially snowball you into becoming a more defined artist. I'm curious if that sort of feedback and continued support from very experienced musicians has transpired itself when making “Giving Tree”?
SKY: One of the things that I learned from Bob Weir and working in songwriting with him is the central storytelling aspect of the song being the anchor. So, for “Giving Tree,” it has a really strong metaphor and that's hammered in throughout the song. But to find a way to take that advice of, “You do need a hook and you do need something that people will remember,” and try to draw that back in within the verses and what creative imagery I can use… It's definitely a confidence booster to hear positive feedback from these really successful music legends. And at the same time, they have so much wisdom of like, little tidbits of advice that have really impacted my songwriting. So yeah, definitely very, very, very lucky.
LUNA: Having much of your public exposure be on such a grand scale is something that I think is naturally frightening to many people, where all of that hard work builds up to one moment that gets edited and put on TV, and you don't have control over parts of that. I'm curious about how you managed to calm or deal with the anxieties that come with not only being put on national television and thrown into a competition for your talent, but that talent also being something that people can't take away from you but can chip away at your confidence.
SKY: Being on their shows was horrifying, like on an anxiety level. I'm someone who's never gotten stage fright in their life. I've always been very, very confident on stage, partially because I just grew up performing. But waiting behind the curtain to step on stage, you can hear the crowd and you can hear the producers yelling directions at cameramen. There's someone micing you up, frantically putting powder on your face — it's a very hectic environment. Also the knowledge of, if you mess up, it is recorded forever, and it will be published for millions of people to see, and it doesn't just get taken down from YouTube.
So, it was really stressful. I ended up doing meditation tapes and just putting my headphones in. Honestly, it was just kind of reflexive, like I was backstage and then they were like, “Go!” and I didn't even think about it. All of a sudden my legs were moving forward and I'm on stage and what are you going to do? For “The Voice,” I had pneumonia for my blind audition, and my mom had gotten me tea but she'd used boiling water so I literally couldn't feel my tongue because it had been burned so badly. So I was 100% sure that I was not going to make it through. So, I think just focusing on the music and focusing on what I knew I could do was the key.
LUNA: Do you think that your experience on that show lended itself to your current appreciation for the live show setting?
SKY: I think the live show aspect of it is a very important part of what I want to continue doing. That's what works for me: operating in a live setting. Obviously, the crowds on “The Voice” and “American Idol” are very edited and they're told to cheer and all these things so it feels very unrealistic. It feels pretty, you know, performative, for lack of a better word. I think that really just solidified my experience on those shows — just solidified the fact that I want to be doing this for real. I want to sell out those shows on my own and not have the allure of Gwen Steffani and Alicia Keys sitting right there.
LUNA: I think “performative” was actually the perfect word. Looking forward now with “Giving Tree,” the main thing I noticed is that it does have a poppier and radio-friendly sound to it, but it doesn't sacrifice any of that greatness and individuality that came with your singles leading up to it. I love the part leading up to the chorus where you exclaim, “You can confuse this shit with love.” That felt like a really cataclysmic moment for your career, as I haven't heard you approach your subject matter with this much maturity and musical aggressiveness. You’re saying it and it’s really electric. With that being said, is this a new direction for your music?
SKY: I think that my songwriting is best when it kind of gets to the point. The best songs stemmed from really raw emotions; experiences that happen. When I’m in a situation where I'm feeling really strongly about something, that's the time to write a song. It's not like once you've processed the emotion, you're looking back at it and you're thinking, “Oh, what could I have done differently?” Or, “How did that go?” Just kind of being in the moment with songs. I think that's something that I definitely want to continue doing moving forward. Because, again, I think it all just comes down to authenticity — whether it's in a live setting or a songwriting setting, you want what’s produced to be stemming from something very real. So that definitely is going to be something that I take moving forward.
LUNA: Speaking of moving forward, what can your fans in New York City and elsewhere expect from you in 2022?
SKY: Lots of live shows, for sure. Also, some new music! I have pretty incredible bandmates who are all majoring in different music-related things at Columbia, and they're incredible people. My saxophonist actually mixed the vocals on “Giving Tree.” Then my pianist actually made me a backing track for a new song that I have coming out hopefully soon. I look forward to collaborating more with this really, really talented youth music scene that I'm super lucky to have access to — it's right in my lap. Yeah, so that definitely will be a part of it going forward.
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