Sabrina Trueheart – An Xperience Interview

Sabrina Trueheart – An Xperience Interview – by Liam Sweeny.

The beauty of being a musician is that your sound is the product of everything you’ve ever loved. It is not unique; all art is a composite of the things we’ve loved, and maybe hated, in life. All artists and musicians have the power not only to create something new but also to redefine everything that came before it.

Sabrina Trueheart is a musician who has circled through genres and landed on something in between.

RRX: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your playing. How did you start, and what are you doing now?

ST: I started playing guitar when I was like 10, I think. I was in 5th grade. I think that’s about 10. I was really into country music at the time, like the 2000s country-pop stuff that was on VH1 Country, stuff like that. As I got into middle school, I got more into classic rock, and the same throughout high school, and then I kind of transitioned into really liking folk music and country again. I feel like now, I’m sort of  – not reverting; it’s not the right word – but coming back to the roots of that classic rock, folk rock type of combination; that ‘70s-ish type of sound.

RRX: Do you have anything going on right now, any albums or anything like that, or shows coming up?

ST: I have a mini EP; it’s only gonna be like three songs, but I’ve recorded the songs. One of them is already out, and it’s called “Soft.” The other two, I’m just working on mixing and mastering with my engineer.

RRX: You’re talking about folk and Americana and stuff like that. One thing that I always felt about those genres is that they’re so free form. You can make up anything. Like, what is Americana? You can’t describe it in terms of musical notations like that. But how would you describe Americana?

ST: This is kind of just my own joke, but I always call Americana “country music for hippies.” It’s just like a more wide-open sprawl. Kind of what you just said, like there’s just more opportunity to explore the country folk sounds within Americana. And for me, it’s like Americana is all harmonies, and it could range from a simple, like, one-person-and-guitar with, like, a bunch of harmony behind them to almost like a folk rock type of thing to bluegrass. So it can be experimental in a way.

RRX: You started out in a groove of 2000s country, that pop country. And there is that controversy of people who are in the country fandom that look at that and they’re like, well, that’s not real country. Real country is Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, and they draw that distinction between those two types of country. And I’m sure you had your own personal fandom types, spanning those two. What would you say about the people who have a tear about what constitutes real country?

ST: It’s funny you say that, ‘cause even like in any genre, I feel like this happens. It’s not just country. There’s so many people who are like, well, that’s not real folk, that’s not real rock, that’s not real anything. It spans so many different things. But there’s so many ways to evolve, and music stays boring and stagnant if it’s not constantly evolving, and the sounds aren’t changing, and people aren’t introducing new ideas.

RRX: When you’re putting together music, there’s a whole bunch of processes. There are physical processes to music. There are ideological processes in terms of how music begins. What is your favorite part of putting a song together?

ST: Before it even gets, like, to the demo process, I think my favorite part is just experimenting with the guitar itself. ‘Cause now I’m, like, kind of transitioning into this, like, fewer songs and more compositions, almost, like what I can do with the guitar? I think what I’m enjoying so much about that is that guitar is my main instrument. I always tell people that it’s what I started with, it’s the main thing. It’s always come easier to me than anything else, especially voice or songwriting. I think like my favorite part at this point is just the melody writing. If it gets stuck in my head, I’m hoping it’ll get stuck in other people’s heads.

More from Liam Sweeny…