In the heart of Brooklyn, a rising indie-pop artist is making a name for herself. Singer-songwriter Sabrina Song came to prominence for her single “Strawberry,” released in August 2022, gaining more than 2 million Spotify streams. Song has just released her newest single “Okay, Okay” alongside the announcement of her debut album, You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same, set for release on June 7. The singer received a grant from The Women’s Fund, an initiative for New York-based artists presented by the Mayor’s Office for Media and Entertainment and the New York Foundation for the Arts, which played a pivotal role in bringing the album to life. Through these tracks, the singer explores her experiences as a twenty-something in New York City, diving into themes like existentialism, navigating young adulthood, gratitude and the complexities of love. Melodic Mag spoke to Song about “Okay, Okay” and what fans can expect from You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same.
Thanks so much for taking the time to talk, Sabrina! So, what inspired you to start releasing music in the first place?
Music has always been like the main focus in my life. I grew up in choir and performing and doing plays and playing piano and everything. And then as I was getting to the end of high school I was encouraged and motivated to try songwriting. I’ve never really done it before in a real way. And then once I got to college, for music, that was when I just was intensively writing all the time and really figuring out what I wanted things to sound like, and the last few years have kind of been a product of like that period of learning how to do it honestly and working on it as a craft.
To kick things off, let’s talk about your upcoming debut album, You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same. What inspired the title, and how does it encapsulate the essence of the album?
The title You Could Stay In One Spot, and I’d Love You The Same is one of the lyrics on one of the tracks on the album, and I think it was this coming together during a period of my life when lots of people were moving around and friends who I’ve known forever, we’re re now not in the same city, like just kind of big, transformational period for me and all of my friends out of college. I think a lot of the time I feel a need to prove something to myself. I think that that can be a common feeling when I talk to my friends and other artists, friends, and I feel like the title kind of summarizes that gratitude that I have for being able to do these things.
What kind of sound can fans expect from the album?
Yeah, I’m excited for people to hear the full album in June, and I think that the songs I’ve released before them and the one that’s out, “Okay, Okay,” like I’ve always gravitated towards guitar-driven music and organic arrangements. I think my taste has continued to evolve, and I feel like this is the closest to how I wanted my music to sound the whole time I’ve been making it and I love the older stuff I’ve made too. I think the new stuff really represents the range of my tastes and trying to let the songs lead me in the direction that they want to sound. I definitely think it’s leaving me to experiment in more genres and spaces and yeah, outside of what I’ve done previously, but it feels kind of representative of where I want things to go for sure.
Can you talk about the songwriting process of “Okay, Okay”?
I tend to write out loud to myself a lot when I’m home alone and have a second to daydream a little bit. “Okay, Okay” was one of the songs where I was just doing something in my house and had my voice memo recording what I was humming and kind of had this idea to write a song about how stressful it can be having something like falling in love comes into your life. I feel like it’s kind of like racing thoughts and the fear of letting yourself be seen. It was one of the first ones I wrote for the album. So it was indicative of what I wanted the rest of the project to feel and sound like.
How did the whole vibe and production magic come about for “Okay, Okay”?
I felt like I really had a full picture but I had recorded things kind of piecemeal with different people. and some of it was just using MIDI instruments because I really wanted to have everything recorded in the studio. I got introduced to this producer, his name is Ronnie and I decided to co-produce those demos with him for the album. So we ended up re-recording a lot of the stuff I put into the demo with my friend, my friend, Jacob, who’s a drummer, and my friend, Garrett, who played some bass and some guitars on it, and I played violin on the outro. It helped give it a polish that I wasn’t able to do just at home in my room, which is what I do with most or all the stuff that’s been released so far. So it was as I was writing it, I knew it. I’d always imagined it sounding exactly the way it did now, it was just kind of like a long road to finalizing it.
Any songs, artists or bands that you were listening to when you were writing “Okay, Okay” that fans can expect to hear some influence?
I was listening to a lot of 90s dreamy, raw stuff, like The Sundays throughout the last year. I honestly love listening to things across decades, but I was really taken towards that. Definitely some of my favorite artists currently like Lucy Dacus, and really cool indie rock artists. I try not to think like, “I want this to sound like X, Y, Z artist or genre” while I’m writing.
Can you tell us what fans can expect from your show at Brooklyn Made tonight, with the song coming out the same day?
Yeah, I’m super excited. I’m playing some of the new songs from the album for the first time and this venue is so beautiful. The other artists on the bill, Shallow Alcove and Grace Gardner are really amazing and have been such sweet people to work with so far. It’s not often I get to play a show right after a song has come out on the same day. So, it’ll be super exciting to feel like celebrating the release and obviously going to play the song.
So, talking about the journey from “Okay, Okay” — how would you describe the evolution or changes you’ve experienced since then?
I think I just used to be really self-deprecating as a person and then that bled into the music, and it was such a period of just learning even how to produce and give feedback and give mixed notes and just everything that I have to do, and anyone has to do for their project. As I’ve learned more and honed the craft of making music and then also matured as a person, I hope and would like to think that my songwriting has matured and my ability to advocate for my writing and feel proud of what I’ve made has grown to, and then I think that in turn makes the music stronger. This was such a rapid period of growth, like when you’re in college and post-grad and everything. But, yeah also musically, I think it just feels so early in my career relatively that I just, like, still been wanting to experiment with everything that I could possibly do and not feel like there are any rules to anything.
To wrap up, do you have any closing thoughts or messages you want to say to the fans?
I just hope that if people want to experience it now, the way I intended, I think listening to it front to back, like top to bottom is the best way to listen to an album and I’m just excited to keep sharing the music as well. And super excited that “Okay, Okay” is out, because I think it’ll just be one of the earliest ones when this project was even just an idea. So, I think it’s exciting to give a taste of what’s to come with that.
Keep up with Sabrina Song: Instagram // Spotify // Facebook // YouTube
