Q&A: Sarah Katherine Lawless x Luna
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KAYLIE MINOGUE ☆
Credit: Anna Rhody
RADIANT AND SELF-ASSURED, Sarah Katherine Lawless is an overwhelmingly positive force. In struggling to figure out her life path and learning from experience along the way, the New York-based indie singer-songwriter is writing anthems for the confused twenty-something in all of us. Her energy instantly broke through the crowded Ridgewood, Queens coffee shop we met up at on an abnormally sunny February morning. Sitting down with Sarah Katherine, it’s obvious that music and creativity are overwhelming powers in her life. She lights up when asked about specific design choices on her website or the production styles on her tracks. It’s unfortunately easy for those passions to get snuffed out when you’re trying to survive in the city, leading to a lot of trial and error. Over the past few months, Sarah Katherine has been put to the test and found the answer in completely throwing herself into her music—finally deciding to put in 100% effort and pursue the only thing that truly makes her happy.
Her debut EP Look What I’m Learning! is an earnest ode to herself. The tracks are heartfelt and focus on all of the tangled webs we thoughtlessly spin when trying to figure out the next step forward. The EP is filled with lush vocals, dramatic swells, and an overall tight indie rock feel. In Look What I’m Learning!, Sarah Katherine is quickly solidifying her place among the indie singer-songwriter queens that flood our sad-girl playlists. The closing track “god you get me” is a multi-faceted love song. On first listen, you pick up on the joy of experiencing a loving, thoughtful relationship, while deeper playbacks reveal that it’s also about finding love for yourself. It also touches on the importance of loving your body and working on being healthy to be able to show up for the people around you—and, most importantly, for yourself.
This Valentine’s Day, Sarah Katherine is breathing new life into “god you get me” with a cozy, camcorder-style music video. Directed by one of her best friends, Nora Hurley, they wanted to create something completely authentic. The video is a raw look at her everyday haunts and the beauty you find in those comfortable spaces.
In our coffee shop chat, we talked through her journey: hailing from an encouraging musical family, how a stint in London led to a life in NYC, and finally finding the confidence to get out of her own way and dive into music full-time. Read on below and check out the latest music video for “god you get me.”
LUNA: Sarah Katherine Lawless! You’re an NYC-based indie singer-songwriter that we think everyone should get to know. Tell us more about when you started your project and how it’s going so far.
LAWLESS: So I feel like the story of it all is, I had always been a singer and a songwriter. My family says as soon as I opened my mouth, I was singing. I was lucky to be surrounded by instruments and music. I was also doing a lot of theater stuff, which was another big part of my childhood. However, I’ve always been a songwriter. I was always writing, but at the time it overwhelmed me to see people release music. I was like, How do they do that? How does that happen? It’s crazy. I felt like a lost puppy.
I remember going to Best Buy in middle school, and there was a crazy deal happening, so for $50, I could get Pro Tools and a mic. I ended up really just using this mic to record my own stuff, and I would put it on SoundCloud.
Once college came around, I ultimately decided to go to school for theater. I think this was a big moment in my life because I ended up going to Boston Conservatory, which actually has an incredible songwriting program led by Kevin Seigfried. Also while I was there, it merged with Berklee College of Music, so I was excited because I would get to have even more songwriting opportunities and do theater. To top it off, that’s also when I started getting into photography and design.
While I was studying, though, I realized, F*ck, I definitely want to move to New York. How the f*ck am I going to make money? Like, how? What’s going to go on?
So fast forward, I ended up going to more school after theater school and briefly studied design in London. Eventually, I made the big move to New York. But then, with all that, I kind of lost myself. This is honestly a lot of what the EP is kind of about. It got to the point where I knew, I have to release my own music again. I have to. I am just so sad. My mom was such a big proponent of that. She pushed me to take my savings and just f*cking make an EP. You know, just do it. That’s also when I met my producer, Ben Coleman, and it was this perfect accident where I was like, Let’s f*cking go, I can do this.
LUNA: Your latest release, Look What I’m Learning!, is a gorgeous four-song collection of tracks that any Lucy Dacus fan would fawn over. It looks like you’ve been releasing music since 2020. After four years, what was the motivation behind this EP?
LAWLESS: So with Look What I’m Learning Now!, I was, you know, as one does when they hit rock bottom, kind of falling apart in all facets of myself. I think I stopped taking care of myself. And I talk about it in the EP, but I struggle with eating disorder sh*t, so that was a large part of “good lord! I'm trying!” and what that song is about. But it’s really about wanting to be enough for yourself, but also not enough—wanting to be healthy and good for yourself, your partner and your friends—and the idea that you’re going, going, going, and if you keep going, you will eventually hit a wall, and it will not be good. So, that's a lot of what it’s about, too. I titled it Look What I’m Learning! because I genuinely feel like a lot of stuff in the EP is what I learned along the way recording it and just becoming an adult.
My family is amazing too. They've always had so much faith in me. And I think when I did it, it was nice that they were just like, we do believe that you can do this. I think there was a big conversation with my mom where she just laid it out and said, “You can never give everything 100%. Choose one thing, just for now, give it your all, and see what happens when you do.”
Credit: Anna Rhody
LUNA: Let’s talk about the music video you shot this week for “god you get me.” What was the inspiration behind doing it camcorder-style, and how was the shoot?
LAWLESS: I wanted to promote a song, and this is the one that a lot of people have really latched onto, which I'm so grateful for. I mean, it's a five-minute song, so I didn’t know how that was gonna happen. I had never done a music video for it because music videos are so much to put together. I have a music video for “good lord! I’m trying!” coming out in March, but that was the only thing I really did for the EP. I knew that I wanted this to be more real and more vulnerable, and kind of show you a little bit more of myself. Because, while it's a love song, it’s actually a lot about me. I actually got one of my best friends, Nora, to direct it, and we walked around Ridgewood and shot in my apartment. It’s just very much trying to capture that small feeling.
LUNA: The harmonies and writing on “god you get me” are so lush and intoxicating. When you go to work on a song, do you have this sound already in your head ready to go, or do you have a different strategy for your writing?
LAWLESS: This past week, I’ve been recording vocals for my next EP with a new producer. His name’s Jake Aron. He’s amazing. He’s worked with Orion Sun, Snailmail, Sarah Kinsley, Chloe Moriondo, so many more—he’s so talented. And so I’ve been working on that right now, and that is so different from when I worked with Ben on the last EP. We worked on pretty much everything on that one together. When we sat down and recorded vocals for “god you get me,” it was so spontaneous. It was me just being like, Wait, do another track. Do another track. Oh, I have this idea...my ADHD is a little part of that, where my brain can't stop. So I have some sense of how I want my songs to sound going in, but I don't know exactly what it is until I hear it. That’s a huge thing for me.
But with Jake, we’re being so much more specific, and it’s a lot more planned out. And we’re really taking our time with how we want, like, a mouth shape to be. As always, I guess we’re learning, and I’m learning so much. It is overwhelming. So, it does come together kind of in the moment, at least with “god you get me.”
LUNA: Your artist name is quite striking. Is there a story there, or were you just blessed with a cool name?
LAWLESS: This made me laugh. Honestly, I really got to give it to my parents. I was born in Atlanta, and double names are a big thing there, but a lot of people don't stick with them. I was a very stubborn child, and I did like it. So I just go by Sarah Katherine. And I also don't put the dash in because I feel like it looks weird.
LUNA: You just played a show in Nashville. Can we expect a lot more shows from you in the future? What’s your relationship like with playing live?
LAWLESS: Oh my god, I'm so excited! For the next EP, my manager and I sat down and kind of curated who we wanted to do each song, and so on. So I'm working on two songs with Jack Harrington from Shallow Alcove (he also produced some of Shallow’s songs plus buffchick, Chloe Southern, Peter Groppe, and a few other awesome local acts), two with Jake Aron, and then two with Isaiah Beard. Isaiah lives in Nashville, so when we were deciding that we were going to go down there, I wanted to kind of kill two birds with one stone. So, I played New Faces Night at The Basement between recording sessions with him in East Nashville. Also, side note, his own music is just so amazing too.
I have so much fun doing live shows, and even doing different arrangements. I love collaboration. So, I love it when I get to work with different musicians. If they're ever like, Oh, I kind of have this idea, I’m like, Yeah! I just think it's fun.
LUNA: If you could wake up one day and be an expert at anything that isn’t music, what would it be?
LAWLESS: I feel recently, especially with the state of the world, it would be knowing every language. I want to be able to communicate with that person's first language. I think community is so important. And they say music is the universal language, but I don't know. If I knew every language, I think that would be really special. And also, I mean, from a creative perspective too, French is so sexy to sing. If I could do that, that would be so cool.
