Sarah Marie White
Doylestown, PA
www.myspace.com/sarahmariewhite
Sarah White is a singer / songwriter from Doylestown, PA, and one of our very own contributors at AudioXposure.com. While we get to read Sarah’s articles and interviews each month with other artists, I thought it would be nice to introduce you to her other side. You can find out more about Sarah and her music in my interview with her below.
AX: When did you start performing?
Sarah: I started singing almost as soon as I started talking. I started really performing in high school at coffeehouses that were held once or twice a quarter. That was when I had just started learning guitar, so I did a lot of my first songs a cappella, but I still loved it.
AX: How would you describe your sound? Where do you pull your influences from?
Sarah: I think it’s acoustic folk rock; sometimes pop. I draw influence from Sarah McLaughlan, Enya, Natalie Merchant, Anna Nalick, Dar Williams, and others like these women. I tend to write based on personal experience and then write a melody to it.
AX: What sparked your interest in the music industry? Was there a specific person or event that really convinced you to take your first steps to become an artist?
Sarah: I didn’t start thinking about the industry until I was looking at colleges and entered the Music Recording Technology program at Lebanon Valley College. My friends and teachers encouraged me, saying that my music could be good enough for the real world. I had it in my head in high school that I would love to be an artist. Now that I am finished college, I still enjoy performing a lot, but I have the thought that I would like to be a songwriter. It wouldn’t be so bad to have someone else perform my music.
AX: Is there anything that you hope your fans are able to take from your music?
Sarah: I actually had a message from someone on Myspace that they randomly found my page, and one of my songs helped them through a rough time they were having. That is the best feeling, that someone can listen to your music and hear something of themselves, or they can take something away from it to make them happier.
AX: Where do you see this project taking you? Where would you like to find yourself in the next few years?
Sarah: I hope to find myself relocated closer to a music hub, Nashville, New York City, or even closer to Philly. I hope to have a publishing deal by then and my songs will be shopped around. If not, maybe I will still be performing at less open mics and more solid booked gigs. I don’t know, as long as music is still in my future.
AX: How do you come up with your material?
Sarah: Most of the time it comes from life events either I am experiencing or from my friends. I think most of my songs deal with things everyone thinks about or experiences – love, break-ups, faith in something, etc.
AX: What do you feel sets you apart from other artists in your area and genre?
Sarah: I’m not sure if anything really sets me apart from other female artists. Maybe my voice, because it’s still developing, and my style – I don’t really stick to one certain song form or lyric style.
AX: You not only perform, but you also write about music. Do you feel that doing one helps you with the other? In what ways?
Sarah: Writing about music and the people who are making it definitely helps me. I can take from the things they have done, they have written about, and places they have played and aspire to achieve the same or something similar. When a band describes to me what it’s like to perform and what they hope an audience takes from it, I can completely relate and sometimes they open my eyes to something else about performing.
AX: Do you have any music/merch for sale, and how can people get it?
Sarah: I have been asked a lot about merch and CDs – I’m working on that for the future, hopefully by summer. But, for now, people can find me at www.myspace.com/sarahmariewhite
Be sure to catch Sarah’s act live, or at least give her a listen on MySpace. And don’t forget to come back and read her articles here on AudioXposure.com at the beginning of each month.
