Introduce yourself!
My name is Sage Avalon and I sing, songwrite, play guitar, produce, and make videos as far as music goes. As an independent artist I often find myself in the role of video editor, graphic designer, merch designer, and so on as well, but honestly, I don't mind, it's all part of the creative process. I dabble in a few other art forms on the side including drawing, painting, and photography. Other than that, I'm a third year biology student, video game enthusiast, and aerial acrobat.
How did your local music scene affect your career/music?
I love the local music scene, it's for sure the biggest thing I miss during this pandemic. I grew up around the San Diego rock and singer-songwriter scene, and I went to countless shows and open mics in high school before starting my solo project with my debut EP. Going to local shows made me appreciate how much more human and intimate local shows are. The energy is more cohesive in smaller crowds, and in the local music scene, people tend to know each other, so it's just a fun time and has a party atmosphere.
I would say the local music scene has pushed me to write more upbeat band songs recently, not that I can play them live right now but I think upbeat songs with more live instruments make a good performance for local shows and house shows. My biggest local music influence is for sure Kaylee Kussman aka KAY $, she got me into going to local shows and is an overall G. She engineered most of the vocals for my EP and has influenced me in music production and genre bending. I used to take guitar lessons from her as well a while back, we met in high school at the shittiest point in our lives and both got super motivated to pursue music and overcome whatever obstacles got thrown in the way...in terms of fellow San Diego artists, no one has influenced me like Kaylee. Total legend.
You just released your EP, In Vivo. What was your favorite part of making it?
Making In Vivo was my first experience with music production and I did a lot of writing by doing and learning by producing. It changed my writing process forever, I can either start on the computer or the guitar but I will always end up producing it on the computer and the production is an integral part of my style now. I think the satisfaction of finishing a song I created all by myself from the lyrics to the instrumentation and production, is the best part. There's a lot of experimenting and tweaking little things along the way, and it can get very tedious, but that moment where I finish a song and I know it's truly done and reached its potential, is the best part. I also really enjoy recording harmonies and backing vocals, I do my leads in the studio for the most part and then record all my backing vocals at home by myself. A lot of the time I am recording and writing them at the same time, and doing many layers. I get to write, produce and use my full vocal range, and see how the harmonies enhance the song I'm working on, so that's another favorite part. Making videos is super fun, too.
What inspires you most when writing your own music?
I think just getting out an idea or inspiration that was stuck in my head is really satisfying. I listen very attentively when I'm listening to music and when I notice something I like about a certain song, it just goes in my mental bank and then when I'm writing I'll think of something cool that I heard, like if a song had some cool stereo or vocal fx, or if I really liked the song structure, the arrangement of instruments or whatnot. As far as artists I am really vibing with right now, the first to come to mind are Placebo, Soccer Mommy, Glycerin, Bjork, Tash Sultana, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have some cemented inspirations I just carry with me subconsciously through my music as well--Mogwai, Morgan Kibby from The Romanovs, and my friends Kaylee and Jeri.
What has been the most positive thing to come out of quarantine for you?
Not a lot of good has come out of this for me to be honest, I got my housing fees refunded from my university and saved some money doing school from home, and I've had the chance to work with other musicians collabing online but I overall haven't had a very positive experience with the quarantine. It got me more into gaming and I have really enjoyed that...since I started gaming more, it's helped my mood a lot. I am in a fine position as far as having a place to stay but my school situation is very up in the air, my work situation and music situation is up in the air and there is a lot of uncertainty. I used to do aerial acrobatics as well and I am no longer able to do that so it has been hard to find the motivation to do other workouts. The only good thing to come out of the pandemic so far is that I have been spending more time with my family.
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start making their own music?
Yes, absolutely! It would depend on their specific situation, their strengths and what they're struggling with at the moment, whether it be the production, or distribution, or simply gathering the confidence to put something out. I think my advice to pretty much anyone would be to figure out what you're good at and hone your skills while working with other people who can help you bring your vision to life if you struggle with something like video editing, styling, engineering or website design. There are so many other DIY artists out there you can work with and make awesome art with and I would say work on finding community, before you get focused on trying to be popular, work on building genuine relationships with your audience and your musical community both online and in the live show scene.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
If we're talking about any medium, I really want to collab with fashion designer and photographer Yeha Leung with her brand Creepyyeha. Her photography and creative direction is amazing and I have mad respect for her skills as well as her efforts to be inclusive with her models before it was even cool. I also would love to work with this Portland photographer called Halfanese, his lighting and concepts are incredible.
For music artists, it would be super fun to collab with Kaylee, Glycerin, and Sitting on Stacy, cause I just really like what they're doing. Kaylee and my vocals mesh really well together, we made a song together and then her hard drive crashed and we lost it but that collab needs to happen. Glycerin makes epic videos, seriously I like their indie vids better than I like a lot of high budget stuff. Sitting on Stacy have great harmonies and I'm a sucker for harmonies and duets. Would be super fun to work with Bjork and Tash Sultana as well. That's a little more out there, but hey Tash is doing a remix contest for Greed so I should really take that up.
What is one thing you want people to take away from your music?
An Amy Winehouse quote comes to mind, about wanting listeners to "hear her voice and forget their troubles for 5 minutes". I think that's my goal with live music. For recordings it depends on the song. Lightning in a Bottle is intense lyrically, Pure December is a calm and happy vibe for driving and Hyperspeed is good for listening to at 3 AM. I think you can convey a lot with music but ultimately the creator's meaning and the listener's meaning are found separately...I would want someone to take away whatever they went looking for in my music.
Comentarios