{"id":15875,"date":"2016-11-04T19:58:04","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T02:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=15875"},"modified":"2016-11-09T10:41:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T17:41:08","slug":"video-feature-interview-rachael-sage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2016\/11\/video-feature-interview-rachael-sage\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE U.S. PREMIERE RACHAEL SAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-15923\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-preview.jpg\" alt=\"rachael-sage-preview\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-preview.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-preview-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>VIDEO FEATURE &amp; WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Musician:<strong> \u00a0RACHAEL SAGE<\/strong><br \/>\nMusic Video: \u201c<strong>Home (Where I Am Now)<\/strong>\u201d<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Songwriters: Rachael Sage &amp; Fiona Harte<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tCH8tzdW7xk\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video Directed by Rachael Sage &amp; Meredith Tarr<br \/>\nShot &amp; Edited by Meredith Tarr<br \/>\nPerformers: Rachael Sage, Kelly Halloran and Zaharry Zaharryeff<br \/>\nLocation: Camden Lock, London, UK<br \/>\nTrack Produced by Rachael Sage &amp; Andy Zulla<\/p>\n<h3><strong>RACHAEL SAGE Web-Exclusive Interview<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3><strong>with\u00a0<em>M Music &amp; Musicians<\/em>\u00a0magazine publisher, Merlin David<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Rachael Sage is one of the most engaging, hardest working and busiest touring artists in independent music. She performs 100+ dates a year both solo and with her band The Sequins\u2014touring the US, UK and Europe. Sage has an innate ability to engage the audience with her enchanting piano playing and powerful vocals that covers a wide dynamic range. When you watch her perform live, you can feel the energy and see how much she truly enjoys performing. And with her improvisational audience interaction, she has earned an incredibly loyal following.<\/p>\n<p>In a review of one of her albums, <em>M Music &amp; Musicians<\/em> magazine said \u201cSage injects a tattered vulnerability and quiet resolve into her originals\u2014which invite comparison to Tori Amos and Fiona Apple in their sly elocution. And Sage\u2019s emotional commitment seems just as genuine and compelling as those artists. She sets her own standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sage is not only a gifted songwriter and musician, she is truly a well-rounded creative artist\u2014and her talents cover a wide spectrum of the arts, including dance, painting and graphic design. In September\/October 2016, NYC\u2019s Think Gallery presented an impressive art installation by this East Village-based mixed-media artist.<\/p>\n<p>Sage is a former dancer who studied at the School of American Ballet in her teens. She has been thrilled to see her music widely embraced by the lyrical dance community over the past several years. Videos featuring young girls dancing to her music have received over 9 million YouTube hits.<\/p>\n<p>Sage has received numerous songwriting awards, including the John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize and several Independent Music Awards. Her songs have appeared on MTV, HBO, <em>Fame <\/em>movie soundtrack, and 16 of her songs have appeared in the last three seasons of Lifetime\u2019s controversial reality series <em>Dance Moms<\/em>. She first began playing by ear at two-and-a-half years old. By 12, she was dancing at Lincoln Center in classical ballets like \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d and \u201cCoppelia\u201d\u2014while balancing schoolwork and making demos of her songs.<\/p>\n<p>With this new album <em>Choreographic, <\/em>Sage delivers a musically ambitious and emotionally accessible tribute to dance, her very first love. She \u201cenvisioned each song as a fully-choreographed multi-media experience.\u201d The result is an inspired set of piano-based chamber-pop merging orchestral elements with her signature blend of folk, pop and rock. The album was co-produced by Sage and Grammy-winning producer Andy Zulla (Idina Menzel, Rod Stewart).<\/p>\n<p>We are thrilled to present this exclusive U.S. premiere of her video \u201cHome (Where I Am Now).\u201d From London, during her UK tour, Rachael Sage discusses songwriting, touring with fiddler Kelly Halloran (G Love), producing a unique, unassuming video shoot for her next single, and how a busker they\u2019d never met magically entered the frame during this shoot. Since the second verse of \u201cHome\u201d is about buskers, they decided to roll with it. She laughs and says, \u201cYou can\u2019t plan this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did the idea of \u201cHome (Where I Am Now)\u201d come to you?<br \/>\n<\/strong>This song was my very first co-write.\u00a0A very talented young singer from Dublin named Fiona Harte reached out to collaborate, and we got together and quickly realized her passion for New York City was identical to mine for her hometown. We bonded on our reverse-affection for our respective cities. After I spent a bit of time just getting to know her over tea, I started playing a piece of music I\u2019d already been developing\u2014and suggested we write a lyric sparked by the dynamic richness of city life, for an artist. She was only 18 at the time, and I loved her line \u201cfearlessly breathing with the wind\u201d\u2014it\u2019s very youthful and definitely not an image I would\u2019ve come up with. The rest of the lyric I tried to write from a very young artists\u2019 perspective, which was easy because I just imagined the summer I spent in Dublin in college, when I was 18\u2014and how beautifully inspiring that was. It\u2019s wonderful to me that unless we\u2019d sat in a room together in NYC, where she gushed about loving my hometown so much and fantasizing about moving there, we wouldn\u2019t have written this song.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15881\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-3.jpg\" alt=\"rachael-sage-3\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-3.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-3-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What does \u201chome\u201d mean to you?<\/strong><br \/>\nIn general, home is a pretty abstract concept to me. I feel most at home when I\u2019m connecting with an audience. I have no idea what that says about me psychologically (<em>laughs<\/em>)\u2014that I\u2019m most at ease on stage performing for virtual strangers. But something about this lifestyle of being a touring artist, traveling from place to place and meeting kindred spirits all over the world\u2014who also inevitably share their insights with me as well\u2014has always felt more like home to me than actually being home. I adore NYC and will probably always live there, but absence really does make the heart grow fonder. (<em>Smiles<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s not Manhattan in the video. Where did you shoot this?<\/strong><br \/>\nMost of my videos have been very polished, choreographed and designed. It\u2019s no secret that I\u2019m very visually oriented and get a bit obsessive about details. So shoots can take several days and editing a lot longer. With the case of \u201cHome\u201d I decided a couple days before we were to be in Camden, London on my tour that I wanted to do something entirely the opposite and completely spontaneous. I didn\u2019t even know exactly where I wanted to set up to shoot, but since I wrote the bulk of my current album <em>Choreographic<\/em> in a hotel room in Camden last year, it seemed fitting. I really have come to think of London as my home away from home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell us about the video shoot.<\/strong><br \/>\nBasically we took the tube to Camden from our hotel a few stops away, armed with a video camera and our instruments. I said \u201clet\u2019s just walk around until we find a really vibey spot where we can do a few takes of the song.\u201d We sat in a caf\u00e9 for a bit, had some tea. I talked with Kelly Halloran, my fiddle player, about what I wanted to do, and then started walking around Camden Lock. I saw the canal with the canoes and the swans and said \u201clet\u2019s do it here!\u201d My tour manager, Meredith Tarr, set up the camera leaning against a concrete divider where bicyclists were whizzing by, which was a bit dangerous. We all had to watch out so we wouldn\u2019t get hit. (<em>Laughs<\/em>) And then we just started recording. The one thing we didn\u2019t have, for better or worse, was a way to play back the song loudly enough to actually lip sync to. So we just counted off the starting tempo from my violinist\u2019s iPhone and played it live\u2014without hearing a track and hoping we could just line it all up manually later. (<em>Laughs<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>I love the busker. Is he someone you know?<\/strong><br \/>\nNo, we\u2019d never met him. (<em>Laughs<\/em>) Because we were actually playing live and there was no recording playing from a boombox or anything, folks started gathering and thought we were just a couple of buskers. Then an actual busker started jamming with us. (<em>Laughs<\/em>) He was from Bulgaria and had a bit of hard luck, seemingly. He didn\u2019t speak much English, but when we tried to explain to him what we were doing and give him some direction after the first take (where he just casually walked into frame and we kept shooting), he didn\u2019t quite get it. So we just did the same thing a few times, let him come and go as he pleased. Then after, he told us that meeting us had made his day and he got very emotional. He was also a very talented visual artist and showed us a journal he\u2019d been drawing in\u2014with beautiful images of the exact area where we were shooting. It was definitely a \u201cmoment.\u201d We gave him a bit of cash after the shoot because he really was great and we were very grateful that he\u2019d magically showed up for our little video. He said he was going to use it to buy an amp, since his had broken. The whole interaction was very poignant and surreal. We got his email so we could send him the video, hugged him and watched him set up to busk only a few yards down from where we\u2019d been shooting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That is an amazing story. I love happy accidents. Anything else unique during this tour?<\/strong><br \/>\nThis tour has been unique in many ways\u2014because of the connection my new album <em>Choreographic <\/em>has to my history as a dancer, in my youth. I composed this batch of songs specifically with dancers in mind. I hoped it would inspire lyrical dancers to choreograph in the way the TV show <em>Dance Moms<\/em> has used so much of my music the last few years\u2014which is what triggered all of this again for me. Amazingly, we\u2019ve had many schools, in both the US and UK, reach out to have me perform and do workshops for their students. So inadvertently, after 20 or so of these, I suppose I\u2019ve become somewhat of an educator now. This week alone, we\u2019ve performed at half-dozen schools, between our regular evening gigs, and it\u2019s been extremely gratifying\u2014and humbling as well. Kids are so honest and direct. It really forces you to be quick on your feet and completely authentic, while coming from a positive place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you start writing songs?<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile I wrote instrumental songs at the piano long before I wrote lyrics, I do remember going away to sleepaway camp and hearing Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cPiano Man\u201d for the first time. I was the youngest camper they\u2019d ever had. But my older sister was going and I begged my parents to let me go too. It was a huge turning point for me, not only because I was away from home for eight weeks but because it was the first time I recognized that playing by ear was actually a \u201cskill.\u201d For me, it had just been a fun thing I did automatically, and I was always sounding out music I heard in ballet class\u2014or from my Dad\u2019s Beatles\u2019 collection on our piano.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15880\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage.jpg\" alt=\"rachael-sage\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Who inspired you to become a songwriter?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy camp counselor had cassettes of various pop and rock artists, and I would hear them for a bit and then go find a piano and reinterpret them. I vaguely recall hearing The Police for the first time at camp, and also Journey, Chicago and Hall &amp; Oates\u2014all of whom I instantly loved. I didn\u2019t really hear any female singer-songwriters until I was older. My best friend in junior high school played me Carole King. Suddenly, after mistakenly thinking I wanted to be a synth-pop artist like Debbie Gibson or Madonna, I had a very clear sense of what I wanted to do and be. Substantively and sonically, <em>Tapestry <\/em>encouraged me to write more personally\u2014while still writing catchy hooks. She was the singular inspiration for me to reach beyond merely imitating pop artists I\u2019d heard on the radio or seen on TV\u2014and develop my identity as a \u201csinger-songwriter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anything else help inspire you during those early years?<\/strong><br \/>\nI also saw two films when I was very young that definitely ignited my desire to become a serious musician and work on my craft a lot harder as a singer-songwriter: <em>Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/em> about the great Loretta Lynn, and <em>The Buddy Holly Story<\/em>. Seeing these great icons\u2019 life stories and iconic personas on the big screen by such charismatic actors was extremely formative\u2014and it planted a lot of seeds in my young mind, to say the least. (<em>Laughs<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>You play songs on piano and guitar. Tell us why you chose a guitar for this song?<\/strong><br \/>\nI actually do play piano on this track as well, but it\u2019s mixed a bit more subtly and was an overdub. The reason I chose guitar on which to write the song is because I was co-writing it with a young artist who played very minimal guitar herself. I wanted to make sure it was a song she felt capable of performing herself. When I\u2019m on guitar, I necessarily tend to keep things simple. If I\u2019d written it on piano, it would probably have much more complex harmony and then she wouldn\u2019t have been able to play it herself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What guitar do you play?<br \/>\n<\/strong>I play a Guild on tour\u2014it\u2019s served me very well for many years, and holds tuning exceptionally well. It has a nice rich tone with a lot of low end, which is great for me because I finger-pick very quietly. In the studio, I also play an older Martin guitar\u2014but it\u2019s much too fragile to tour with.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15878\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-Casio.jpg\" alt=\"rachael-sage-casio\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-Casio.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-Casio-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What keyboard do you use?<br \/>\n<\/strong>I use a Casio Privia, which is great because it\u2019s 88 keys but also very light\u2014which my back really appreciates. (<em>Laughs<\/em>)<br \/>\n<strong>What PRO are you with, and how do they help a songwriter\/artist like you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m with BMI, and have been since I graduated college and released my first album shortly thereafter. BMI help me collect royalties from songs that air on the radio not only in the US but all over the world. They also collect when my songs air on television. Through the years, they have been very accessible and helpful to me whenever I\u2019ve had questions or needed help navigating the publishing aspect of my musical income.<br \/>\n<strong>Best advice someone has given you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Suzanne Vega and I were on a panel together at Lilith Fair. She obviously as the established, experienced one, and I was just a newbie completely overwhelmed to have garnered an opening slot at the festival. At one point she turned to me and said, \u201cWhen it comes to the business you\u2019ll get all kinds of advice from managers, lawyers and agents\u2014but take it all with a grain of salt. Make music you love, and block out the rest of that noise.\u201d\u00a0I took it very much to heart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best advice you\u2019d like to give.<\/strong><br \/>\nGet a regular gig and shed where you\u2019re \u201csafe\u201d\u2014well out of earshot of the \u201cindustry.\u201d Even in the age of <em>The Voice<\/em> and <em>American Idol<\/em>, don\u2019t expect to spring fully formed into the career-artist you imagine you could be just by practicing at home or recording. You need to be in front of an audience, however small, to learn to connect with one. Looking back, I wish I\u2019d had a regular gig as early as high school. In college, I started playing the coffeehouse once a week. It was the beginning of a very long, at times arduous but always interesting, process of finding my true voice\u2014both as a musician and a persona. The 10,000 hours theory applies to performing onstage too. (<em>Laughs<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ll be doing more touring behind this album, which came out in May 2016 in the US\u2014but is only coming out this month in the UK\/Europe. I\u2019m also super excited to share that I\u2019ll be touring with one of my biggest childhood idols, Howard Jones, in March 2017. (<em>Smiles<\/em>) I have to think that experience will prompt more writing since his music has been a lifelong source of inspiration to me. But I guess we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where can your new fans get more info and stay updated?<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.RachaelSage.com\">www.RachaelSage.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>facebook.com\/rachaelsagepage<br \/>\ninstagram.com\/rachael_sage<br \/>\ntwitter.com\/rachaelsage<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15879\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-6.jpg\" alt=\"rachael-sage-6\" width=\"660\" height=\"990\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-6.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rachael-Sage-6-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VIDEO FEATURE &amp; WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Musician: \u00a0RACHAEL SAGE Music Video: \u201cHome (Where I Am Now)\u201d Songwriters: Rachael Sage &amp; Fiona Harte Video Directed by Rachael Sage &amp; Meredith Tarr Shot &amp; Edited by Meredith Tarr Performers: Rachael Sage, Kelly Halloran and Zaharry Zaharryeff Location: Camden Lock, London, UK Track Produced by Rachael Sage &amp; Andy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7725],"tags":[1354,8377,5407,5879,3948,8378,5736,2601,8379,7423,8380,8381,8382,8383,8384,8385,8386,8387,7964,8388,8389,8390,8391,8392,7570,8393,1637,8394,8395,149,7272,1188,7566,823,8396,3277,8397,3010,7978,7277,4947,8398,483,482,6544,3616,8399,3818,8400,5754,8401,8402,4860,8403,8404,8405],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15875"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15924,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15875\/revisions\/15924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}