Sarah Rose Project

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A couple of weeks ago, I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Sarah Rose of Sarah Rose Project to discuss everything that went into her debut self-titled solo record that is being released via Say10 Records. In this interview, I asked Sarah about the differences in writing solo versus with Sarah and the Safe Word, the stylistic choices made on key songs on the new album, and her ideas for the solo tour this summer. Sarah Rose Project is available on vinyl here.

Thank you so much for your time today, Sarah. What was the inspiration behind even wanting to do a solo record at this point?

Yeah, I think part of it was that I had never made a solo record. I’ve always been in bands. I’ve never had the virtue of releasing anything on my own. So I thought it would be a fun experiment to try it and see what came out of the process. And I really went into it not knowing what it was going to be. And that was fun for me, to have a beginning point and not necessarily know where the end of this process was gonna land.

Yeah, the album sounds great to my ears. I’ve listened to <the advance> a couple times now. What were some of your goals going into this project for this?

Yeah, I mean, it’s gonna sound a little crazy, but it was really just to see if I could do it. I had never been in the studio setting before with a bunch of rough songs and really only myself to guide the process, and I wanted to see, one, if I would like making music on my own, because I’ve always been a “in-a-band” person. And two, I wanted to see if I could tap into something different than what I do with Sarah and The Safe Word and try to make music outside of the bounds of what a rock band is. I feel like there’s a certain obligation a lot of the time, especially when you’re in a band, to stick with the formula of what your band’s about. And this record let me experiment – there’s some songs on it that don’t have a guitar at all on them, which is huge for me. For some it’s all horns and keys, all sort of old school, dirty jazz stuff. And I don’t get to do that as often. So it was kind of fun to explore that space.

Yeah, and I think there was a song on there that even has a surfer-wave kind of vibe on there? I’m trying to remember the name of the title at the moment…

Yeah, that one’s “Five People In a Two Person Room.” I was guided by the idea that if there’s no rules with this project, then I can really do anything I want. And the idea was to try to stretch myself in a lot of directions and see what came out of it.

That’s awesome. Did you have a producer that you worked on this project for?

I self-produced it all, except two songs that I co-produced with Mike Abiuso.

It sounds incredible!

Thank you!

Really great job on that. What other musicians did you bring in for the project?

Yeah, so my big collaborator for this was a guy named Ben Harris, who is also the former music director for Second City out in Chicago. We had a very chance encounter with meeting each other…I initially came to Gravity Studios in Chicago to record with the first people that I approached for this record were Ladd Mitchell and Miles Parkhill from the band Park. They’re one of my favorite bands and I knew that if I ever made a solo record, I really wanted to collaborate with Park. That was my sort of bucket list collaboration for my life. And so I worked with them on some songs, but then I found myself falling in love with the crew at Gravity Studios. Ben has this extensive background with keys/instrumentation/arranging and the more I worked with him, the more I realized I wanted to do the entire album with there with them.

That’s awesome. And I understand you have a couple guest spots on the record too, right?

Yeah, so there’s Park, Park does a song in there. It’s actually Park’s first song they’ve done in a couple of years, since they initially disbanded. And then Ratwyfe, Taffeite, Shayfer James, and Jamee Cornelia.

So here’s a fun question for you. The album art has you at a bar, so what’s your go-to drink?

Oh, good question. It’s usually a boulevardier, which is a variation of a negroni with bourbon instead of gin.

Okay, who makes the best drink in Georgia?

I don’t know about the best drink in Georgia, but I can tell you who makes the best drink in America. My buddy Garrett Richard, who just put out an incredible book called Tropical Standard, which is the go to guide on tiki drinks. I’m plugging my dude Garrett’s book! You’re welcome, Garrett.

Awesome, there you go…Who did the art direction and photography for the album?

That was a guy named Brandon Cortez who did the photography for it. It was my idea to do it in a bar because I felt like it was a record has the feel of a really reflective, vintage night out. The bar that we shot at actually used to be a former brothel in Brooklyn, and the brothel area of the bar is still preserved in the back. The back cover is me in the actual brothel area on the bed. It just felt like that was like the perfect location for the record. A bar and a brothel fits the album completely.

And what are some of the differences of writing for the solo project versus with a band?

I mean, for one, there is no second opinion out there. What I say goes, which can be really cool and also really terrifying. You really have to trust your own gut and your own instinct a lot, especially when you’re taking the reins and producing a lot of it yourself. So, the only person in the echo chamber is myself. You can kind of throw anything you want at the wall and see if it sticks. If I wanted to put a horn section on the song, I could do it. If I wanted to put a Bluegrass part on it, I could. In Sarah and the Safe Word, everyone in that band sings, so I’ve never had a deficit for vocalists if I wanted to add to a part. But with this, there were spaces to bring some friends and people I admired in and work with them. So it gave me the space to do that as well.

Did you test the material with anybody, like a trusted friend or someone to get feedback on the record?

I kept a lot of it really close to the chest until recently. And it was a three-year process, so that was actually really hard to do. My band, of course, heard it. Engineers heard it, and producers heard it, and I would occasionally get some back and forth from people that I knew had an ear for making recordings sound good. But beyond that, I really kind of kept it in the envelope.

And what’s your favorite song on the solo record so far?

Oh gosh, it changes a lot. I think “Sparrow County Line”, that’s a really special song to me. And “Devil.” “Devil” actually is an old song that used to be a song of my old band – a band that I was in even before I was in Sarah and the Safe Word. I liked the song so much back then, I wrote it probably when I was like 18 years old… I really wanted to bring it back and give it better production. So that one’s very near and dear to my heart as well.

What was the easiest song to write versus the hardest song to write on the solo record?

Well, “Send Flowers,” the opening track, I wrote the lyrics and the melodies of that track within an hour after we started working on it. I kind of knew what that song was. The hardest song to write was probably “Wicker Park.” We probably rewrote the vocals for that like two or three times. I don’t know why, I think it was just kind of intimidating. It’s a very, like, “jazz standard” kind of song, and I had to do a last second guessing to make sure I was doing something like that the right way.

And so one of the only comparisons I came to with your solo record is…have you heard the Luke Spiller solo record by any chance from the band The Struts?

I’m familiar with it. I need to listen to it, though.

Yeah, you should just check it out. It’s got a lot of the same type of jazz club vibes with almost a James Bond soundtrack type of feel to it. Really, really cool production. I’d be curious to see your feedback on that at a later date. Do you have a favorite lyric from your own record?

There’s a few…I really like the line in “Sparrow County,” “Every dime I spend on my salvation can’t match the spirit of a free temptation.” I’m proud of that one. Bars.

Eventually you’ll see those <the lyrics> on a fan’s arm, maybe?

That would be cool!

What are you most proud of for the solo record that comes out in early-June?

It’s really surreal that it’s finally coming out soon. It really was the first thing that I set out to do completely on my own, and that’s not my first instinct. I’m very much a “playing in a band full of people” kind of person. So this really was like me going out on a limb. Everything from asking Adam from Say-10 Records if he was interested in me doing a record for his label, going to a city that I wasn’t very familiar with at the time to make it, making music with people that I didn’t know, making a bunch of gut calls on how things should be mixed and what we should put on songs. I’m really proud of that. I can stand at the other end of it now and feel like I made something on my own that I can call my own, and I can put my name on.

That’s awesome. So what’s going to go into the solo tour? Have you thought any more about the production or even the set list at this point?

Yeah, so it’s going to be with a full band. If you’ve come to a Sarah and the Safe Word show, you know that there’s always a certain aesthetic that goes on. The same vibe for this, but I think that it’s going to be more of an expression of not only personality, but my own sexuality and the last three years of my life. And I think the message of the record is going to be really clear in it. I’m going to play some Sarah in the Safe Word songs as well. But this is really, this is all about giving love to the <solo> record that we made and showing it off.

Have you made any partnerships with some of the venues, as far as coming up with a favorite cocktail, maybe the drink that you described to me before?

Maybe we’ll have something at the bars ready for people to drink. We’ll see!

Awesome. So the last question I have for you is that Say-10 is going to be putting out the vinyl on a release day. Do you have a personal album collection, either vinyl or CDs or anything like that?

Yeah, I have a rule with vinyl that I will buy an album on vinyl if it’s a record that I can listen to from front to back. I’m not big on buying every record I see. I really want to curate my vinyl collection so it’s just the records that I love to listen to with no stops in between. That’s a very it’s a small number of records.

What would be the top three in your collection right now that you can’t live without?

I love Park’s Building a Better. The new Linkin Park record with Emily fucks. You know I’m a diehard Linkin Park fan. And, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.

Nice! Yeah, the unstoppable beast that is Rumours and is always on the vinyl charts.

The best pop record ever made!

Also, what would be something some fans would be surprised that you have in your record collection?

Well, I think that one of the most underrated rock albums of the last 30 years is Dizzy Up the Girl by The Goo Goo Dolls. I love that record, it’s perfect. I had to have like two copies of that vinyl because I wore one out. I love listening to that record.

Do you have a favorite song from it, other than the big singles…the deep cuts?

Well, the problem with that record is there are so many singles that they put out…like seven songs on the record were singles! <Laughter> I mean, “Black Balloon” and “Dizzy” are really great. And then “All Eyes on Me” is a really great sort of deep cut of that record, too. I love the Robby-fronted songs, too.

Yeah. I think when I first got it on, probably on cassette or CD way back in the day, I think “Acoustic #3” was the one that really registered with me.

It’s perfect. That whole record is. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with that one at all.

Yep, cool. So, any last words for your fans? How can they stay connected with you during this promotion process for the new solo record?

I have the Sarah and the Safe Word socials that you can find, but if you want to follow my solo stuff, I’m on Instagram @SarahRoseProject. I’m on Bluesky at @Sarahrose.lol I also have a TikTok that will be up by the time this interview runs. And then Facebook, you can find me under “Sarah Rose Project.” All the streaming services, you can look me up at Sarah Rose Project, and you can also go to SarahRoseProject.com.

And pre-order the vinyl over at Say-10 Records, right?

The vinyl, yes, of course!

Yeah, cool. Thanks so much. It was great to connect with you again. And I hope to see you this summer on the solo tour. <The DC show> is on a Saturday too, which works great for my schedule.

Hell yeah!

Take care, Sarah.

You too!

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