Through her mysterious confessions of feminism, sex and self-discovery, California singer-songwriter Sedona is keeping the enigmatic curiosity of music alive. With the release of her debut full-length album Getting Into Heaven on May 23, the Chatsworth native conveys her journey into womanhood, using deeply personal song-writing to capture something calmingly cathartic and divinely feminine.
Pulling influence from popular female artists ranging from Stevie Nicks to Madonna to Bonnie Raitt, Sedona maintains an artistry that is ethereal and nostalgic, yet decorated with an undeniably modern glimmer. Both sonically and visually, the album is inspired by nature and places that Sedona resonated with in her childhood, and the end result became what is now the musician’s most personal body of work to date. Across 11 tracks, tales of love, identity and growth are interwoven across intricate sonic landscapes, making up a diverse body of work that is as carefree as it is vulnerable.
Throughout her musical career, Sedona has released numerous retro pop anthems, but Getting Into Heaven shows the singer-songwriter taking on a stripped down approach. Within many of the album’s tracks, such as “When An Old Flame Flickers” or “The Culprit,” Sedona is joined primarily by steady acoustic guitars, displaying a newfound confidence in her signature wild-at-heart artistry. Following the release of her inaugural full-length release, Sedona sat down with Melodic Magazine to share what she learned about her own feminine identity from making the album, her love for older music and how she chooses to define as heaven.
Your debut album Getting Into Heaven came out on May 23, congrats by the way! It’s been out for a couple of weeks now, but what’s the reception been like for the album so far?
Oh, it’s been amazing.
On album release day what were the emotions like?
I feel like in general the biggest part about the record was making it and the lead up. But once it was out and in the coming days before it was out, I was like, “Wow, this is nothing. This is no big thing.” I’m going to be releasing dozens of records throughout my life, so I’m glad I got to break the seal. I definitely felt a sense of relief.
Is there a favorite song off the album that resonates with you now that the album has been out for a minute?
They’re all my favorites on different days. Because the songs are so old to me. Some of them are five years old, six years old. I think maybe what song I am feeling the most changes based on my week, because it is a very diverse record. So I think, in almost a horoscope sense (laughs), I feel like this week the song that I’m connecting to the most would be “Underneath.”
I wanted to ask about “Best Kept Secret.” It was the first single that came ahead of the album, and it talks about living in this digital era where everything is so fast-paced. I was wondering, considering the digital world, how does that impact your songwriting? What does your music bring forward that this era is lacking?
I write songs from a very personal place, and I think that in pop a lot of songs are written from an impersonal place of wanting to seek out a universal truth in making something really vague or into a big concept that’s not really dove into. I think in general with the way that the Internet functions, I don’t really enjoy over sharing and I think that it’s such a bummer to me that now in order to have your music receive a ton of views you have to sort of pick your work apart on TikTok. Why can’t I just leave it up to the listener? There’s no mystery anymore. So I would say, in response to the question, I wish there was more mystery allowed for artists to have with their lives and their work, but now people need everything spelled out for them and they want to have everything fed to them on a silver spoon. I miss the mystery that pop once had the luxury of having. Now that the Internet’s here, it’s ruined the mystery for sure.
With the Internet, it’s almost a blessing in the sense that fans can really see what their favorite artists are up to in real time. But also I do wonder about and covet that time where there wasn’t the Internet, and if an artist put something out, it’s not like you could comment on their page and ask what it means.
Yeah. And I just think with the thing I’m trying to do, and I’m sure there’s other artists doing it too, but I’m definitely trying to keep that mystery alive in in my songwriting and in what I’m going to do next. I really try to keep things fresh and keep people on their toes and just build these different worlds and get to jump through them.
Another thing through your music too is you have this message of being an empowering figure for women, which I also just really love. Through songwriting, how do you find confidence or feminine empowerment through your music?
That’s an amazing question. I feel like for me, songwriting is a very spiritual practice where I get to discover things about myself. And as a woman, it’s really hard to feel safe to share your feelings. I don’t need to say why, but I think music has given me a safe place to share my thoughts with myself. Music has just been a really important part of my haven. It’s like my lighthouse. So I think that because I have found a way to feel safe in writing, I’m able to then hopefully connect with other women in those feelings.
Getting Into Heaven also talks about your journey through womanhood. What did you learn about your own womanhood or feminine identity while making this record?
I think I learned that it’s important not to give your power away. Listening to your heart is one thing, but acting accordingly is another. What I’ve learned about myself in making music is that I have a really high threshold for pain and exploration. I really am such a curious truth-seeker and I think that gets me into all sorts of trouble (laughs), so thank God I have music to investigate and sort of put the pieces together in what I experienced in my life.
The album pulls themes from, not just womanhood, but also this sense of nostalgia and nature as well. How did you pull those visuals or themes or aesthetics and incorporate those into the album as well?
I am from Chatsworth, which is a small town in the [San Fernando] Valley that’s in the mountains. So nature has always been just such a huge part of my life. And I think when I made the record, I was always going back to these similar landmarks in my life. One of them was that firewood place where I shot the “The Culprit” video and the other was this park by my house that I used to go to as a kid. So all the places that I’ve filmed at and visited were places that I have been going my whole life. And I think it was important for me in making my first record and in making visuals tied to my songs that they were places where I felt at home, and I felt like these are places where I formed huge parts of myself.
I also wanted to ask about the sound of the album and musical influences. You pull inspiration from a variety of different female artists in music, everybody from Madonna to Stevie Nicks. I was wondering what you pull from these artists who influence you, especially considering they’re all very different musically.
I feel like for me, I’m not much of a new music listener. I’m sort of stuck in the past, sonically. And I just think that there’s so much old music that is still so relevant, like Fleetwood Mac, Bonnie Raitt, Laura Nyro and Gwen Stefani. She’s like one of the most contemporary artists that I’m obsessed with. There’s something about that music that has this thing in it that I don’t think I feel in a lot of new music. It just drives me there. I cannot stop listening to Lindsey Buckingham’s Go Insane record. I’ve listened to it every day, all day, for like two weeks. I get really obsessed and I just listen to the same thing. The same goes for Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville. I don’t know why. There’s something in it.
You’ve also had this evolution in your sound. A lot of your older singles, like “7 Minutes In Heaven” or “Touch & Go,” they have this pop-leaning sound. But then this new album is very acoustic and folk-inspired. I was wondering if that change in sound was planned, or if it was kind of unexpected.
I think that for me, I really let the song do the talking and I try to just see where it goes depending on what I’m listening to that week, depending on what I think the song needs rather than, “I want to fit into this specific sound world.” Prince has so many different sounding records, and so does David Bowie. Rather than a lot of contemporary artists, where they’re like, “Let’s build this sound that, as soon as people hear it, they know it’s you.” I think that there’s ways to do that while also exploring subgenres. And I think with me, the thing that says it’s Sedona is that my voice is there. I really think that with my music and the evolution of the sound, I ultimately just felt like when I started releasing music I was almost wanting to hide behind it. Now I’m confident in what I have to say. So I’m almost like, let’s strip it back. Let’s just have it be some guitars, bass and drums, and I’m really like at the forefront now of the sound. It’s almost like a coming-of-age sound evolution, where before I kind of wanted to hide in it and now I want to be on top of it.
I really love that. With future projects, is there anything musically that you’d want to experiment with or different genres that you’d want to incorporate that maybe you haven’t yet?
Yeah, I’m already diving into record two. I’ve had so many songs building up ready to be visited and spent time with, and now that this record’s out I feel like I have all the time in the world to just dive into record two. Even today I’m working on my next release that I’m going to hopefully release this summer. Just another single. I just have things that I feel kind of opened the floodgates, so I’m like, let’s just release music as it gets finished. It doesn’t have to be this grandiose plan, or I don’t have to wait three years for my next record. I’m just going to start popping them out.
Regarding the debut album’s title, Getting Into Heaven, what does heaven mean to you?
Getting Into Heaven as a concept was something that I came up with because my first EP was called Rearview Angel, and I’m really into spiritual and biblical rhetoric in my vocabulary when I’m songwriting. Even “Knock On Wood” is a religious term. There’s something about that spiritual wording that’s so all-encompassing. And I just really think that, for me, getting into heaven as a concept was this thing that I created in order to get in my body. Everyone sort of sees heaven as this place you get to when you’ve done a certain amount of good or you’ve crashed out all your hang-ups between you and yourself. It’s sort of this ending scene where you’re like, “I made it to heaven, I got the house, I got the family, I got the money,” whatever it is that you’re working towards in life, and I think that ultimately if you have the chance to be in heaven right now, it’s all about perspective. It’s all about learning to just be in your body and feel heaven today. There’s sort of this promise at the end of the rainbow there’s a pot of gold, but that’s just a way to keep us working. And I think that heaven is right now.
Going off of that concept of what heaven means to you, what do you want listeners to get most from listening to this album?
I want people who listen to find some sort of healing in it all. Because we’re just living through a time where I feel like everything is so uncertain and painful, that I just wanted to give people something to listen to that I think will hopefully provide some sort of solace. Also to get in touch with the divine feminine and feminine parts of yourself. If I were to say what my aim was with this record, it’s to get in touch with the softer parts of yourself.
Keep up with Sedona: Instagram // Facebook // Spotify // YouTube // Bandcamp // Website
