Interview: Sawyer Fredericks
By: Rob Smittix
Sawyer came to RadioRadioX studios for this radio interview, and he blew my mind when he performed for us.
RRX: We got a great show here for you today and a very special guest in the house. Welcome, welcome, Sawyer Fredericks. How ya doing?
SF: I’m doing good, thank you for having me.
RRX: Absolutely, this is a pleasure. I know you’ve done a lot of things in your career, but a lot of people became fans from The Voice.
SF: Oh, yeah!
RRX: But I’m trying to remember, how long ago was that?
SF: That was in 2015. So, that’s eleven years now. Jesus.
RRX: And you haven’t aged a bit.
SF: Thank You.
RRX: But … what an amazing voice. I’m sure you’ve moved way past the show, but that’s when the world became familiar with you.
SF: Yes.
RRX: And you won the damn thing! Did you ever stop and think like, wow, I have the greatest voice in the world?
SF: No, I never stopped and thought that (Laughs Really Hard).
RRX: I know you don’t have the ego or anything like that, but I think about your career, and I respect it. Because at one point in time you could’ve gone completely commercial.
SF: Yeah, the labels were definitely pushing me to do that, and I did not want to.
RRX: So, you stayed true to yourself.
SF: I did.
RRX: And that’s what I respect about you. It’s kind of like movies, right? I enjoy a great film; I’m not really into the blockbusters.
SF: That’s fair.
RRX: You can equate that same idea to music. If you had taken off and did the commercial thing, you might have been playing stadiums, and you would’ve been a lot richer than you are today.
SF: But you lose a lot of the creative freedom that you have being independent if you’re doing stuff like that. I think that’s important for us artists to stay true to what our passion has created.
RRX: Correct. I want to get right into a couple of songs, and then we’ll come back and chat more. I’m going to play the song “Bad Luck,” and then we’re going to play “Lonely Bear.” These are from your latest album?
SF: Yes. These are off of my newest album, “No Need To Wonder.” “Lonely Bear” is a song that’s actually kind of inspired by my Dad. It’s a fun one; I enjoy it!
RRX: Okay, we’re gonna get right into it now; you’re listening to RadioRadioX.
(Songs Play)
RRX: We just heard “Lonely Bear” and “Bad Luck.” Sawyer Fredericks in the building right now, and so happy to have him here. Tell us a little about the album that these songs came off of.
SF: “No Need To Wonder”—I’m very proud of this album. I initially wanted it to be strictly a folk rock album. I had the idea that the first half was folk and the second half was folk rock, split into two. I did my first instrumental piece on this album as well, which I haven’t done that before. I feel like this album has been a big step for me in a sense … going more into my folk rock style. I wrote a lot of songs on an acoustic bass that I play slide on. I brought that today, and I’ll play a song later.
RRX: Yes!
SF: I wanted to shine a light on things going on in our society, in our world, and get a little more political on some of them, but …
RRX: It’s hard not to.
SF: In these times for sure.
RRX: You’ve got plenty of inspiration to work with. Honestly, I wish it would just stop, and then you wouldn’t know what to write about. That would be so much better. You were here at 11:11 a.m., and I make a point to make a wish or say a prayer or something when I see it every day. I do it because I feel like you’re putting good vibes out into the world. I always just wish for world peace, even when I blow out my birthday candles. When you come across 11:11, what do you wish for?
SF: I can’t tell you that, then it won’t come true.
RRX: Is that how that works? That’s why we don’t have world peace.
SF: You keep telling people what you’re wishing for.
RRX: Dammit! Well, I wanted everybody to get on board. If we all wished for the same thing at the same time.
SF: It’s good to send out those energies.
RRX: I’m kind of a spiritual person. Do you have spiritual elements in your life? Do you consider yourself that way?
SF: I would say … not too much, but I definitely believe that the energy that people put out does affect everyone else. I do think there’s a power of observation, as well as what people are believing in. I think we can move towards that if we are truly unified.
RRX: That’s what I’m hoping for, and I think we’re like 350,000 to 1; we’re on the winning team. We just don’t have the tools, I guess. Well, we got to pay some bills, and when we come back, Sawyer is going to play some music for us live on the program, so stick around.
(Commercials Play)
RRX: Welcome back to RadioRadioX. Sawyer Fredericks is here, and he’s going to tear it up here in the studio. And honestly, everyone in the world right now should be jealous of me because it’s like … you get a concert at home, but I get my very own private performance. What are you going to play here?
SF: I’m going to play another song off of my newest album. This one is called “Funeral Parking Only.” I’ll tell a little story about how this song came about. This song started off from an open mic I was doing that had a songwriter’s challenge. They post a phrase at the beginning of the month, and you had until the end of the month to write a song that had that phrase. And the phrase was “funeral parking only.” At first, I had no idea what I was gonna do with this. But where I took it is about something I think a lot of my generation is struggling with, which is being able to afford buying a home. To get out of renting, so our money can start to accumulate, where we can own something. How I see people receiving homes in my generation is mainly through inheriting them. So, in that sense, the housing market is “Funeral Parking Only.”
RRX: I love it.
(Sawyer begins beating on his acoustic bass and sings, “You say you want a home to call your own …” After sending chills throughout my body, the song ends.)
RRX: Wow. I don’t know what to say; that really hit home, man.
SF: Thank you.
RRX: You’re 27, right?
SF: I’m 27, yup.
RRX: It seems like you live a good lifestyle, so you’re not going to join the club or anything.
SF: Hopefully not.
RRX: Anything else you’d like to say?
SF: I’d just like to say thank you for listening, and I hope I can keep making music that people enjoy.
