By: Mia Quinones and Lily Davis

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/S8YmJhBgHlY

Sarah Kinsley is an alt-pop artist based in Brooklyn, New York who has been making music for 5-6 years. She has been spotlighted by artists such as Chappell Roan, and opened for Mitski and Niki. She just released her new EP Fleeting and is currently on her second headline tour across North America and the UK, making a stop in San Diego on April 1st. 

Lily: “The first thing I would love to know is, if you could describe your new EP, Fleeting, in three words, what would they be?” 

Sarah: “Shimmering, indigo, transparent.” 

According to Kinsley, this EP is set in a “nighttime landscape,” in terms of production and energy. She also describes it as “the most honest of [her] work,” jam-packed with raw emotion and complex feelings that she processes through these songs. 

Mia: “When listening to your EPs Ascension and Fleeting, I noticed they were pretty different sounds. It felt like Fleeting had a newfound energy and maturity. Would you say you feel this way too? Was there anything different about the writing/recording process between the two?”

When asked about the writing and recording process and their differences across her EPs, Kinsley agreed and added that the two are definitely her most vulnerable records.

Sarah: “I definitely think that Fleeting, the production to me, is just so much further along than where I was production-wise on Ascension. Ascension was a more child-like state, where I feel that Fleeting – we just went really hard on getting the sounds to be perfect and getting them to a really developed place, which I loved doing. This EP to me is slightly more polished and bold because of that.”

Lily: “Your last album, Escaper, got its very own tour in 2024 and 2025. Does this tour feel different for you compared to the Escaper era in terms of the energy you’re bringing to your performances and if so, in what way?”

Sarah: “More excitement, more playing, more experimenting, more freedom.” 

Kinsley can feel a serious shift in energy from the Escaper tour to the Fleeting tour. The Fleeting tour features much bigger shows and more experimental playing as a result of Kinsley’s increased experience since the Escaper tour. She shared that she and the band are playing the songs much differently than they appear on the EP, which makes her shows a more unique and dynamic experience for everybody in the venue. 

Mia: “In your song Reverie (my personal favorite off Fleeting), you sing ‘How could I pretend that you’d want me?, How could I believe what you told me?’ These lyrics pose real questions about the thin line between compromise and self-sacrifice in a relationship. Tell me more about this bridge, what inspired these lyrics, and the feelings you speak on in this song?”

Kinsley explained that Reverie for her was mainly focuses on feelings of unreciprocated romanticism. She candidly described unrequited love as “one of the worst feelings and experiences you can go through.” She tied the experience to feelings of shame, pity, and an endless cycle of questioning yourself and your mind. She explained that Reverie asks very real questions like “How is it possible that I led myself to this place?” or “How is it possible that I somehow projected a fantasy for myself to enter, for myself to be a part of?” She wanted the bridge to be a warning for herself to not “feel indulge in illusions, in fantasies” as they are “so painful, so detrimental.”

Lily: “The first song I heard by you back in 2022 was The Giver and that song gives me chills from the first guitar chord… if you could talk to the version of yourself who wrote that song, what would you tell her now?”

Sarah: “It’s literally going to be fine, haha.”

Kinsley empathizes with her younger self who was actively feeling the emotional lyrics to The Giver. She jokes that she would urge her younger self to leave the man who was inspiring these lyrics, but truthfully, she would just want her to know “It’s really going to be okay.” 

Sarah: “There isn’t anything I would really truly change. The thing, for me, that I love most about making art and being involved in art is just that I worked through so much of that sh*t that I was going through for me to write that song through writing it… It was kind of a necessary internal word vomit.”

Kinsley sees real value in being able to create a piece of art in the wake of a heartbreaking situation. The Giver has helped her process the twisted and gut-wrenching experiences described in the song, and has also been cathartic to perform for her growing audiences. 

Mia: “I know a lot of your musical life and upbringing had to do with classical music. Would you say that genre of music still has an influence on your arrangements and artistry now and for Fleeting?”

Kinsley emphasized that classical music is still a very big part of her today.

Sarah: “I think that when you grow up with something, it just sticks with you, it just stays with you for a long time.”

She described Ascnension as very “symphonic”, however, she carefully explained that Fleeting is the farthest away she has gone from the genre. She said the EP is more synth heavy, but that “the voicing, the way I use sound, is definitely still inspired by [classical music].”

Lily: “Your song I’m Not a Mountain from your EP The King has always resonated with me and many other listeners. What does this song mean to you and can fans expect to see it on the Fleeting tour’s setlist? 

Sarah: “Yes, we are playing it on the Fleeting tour setlist! I wrote that song when I was in such a sad, lonely place. I think I had just turned 20, or I was 19…It’s just purely a song about being alone and questioning if I am capable of being a human that can be alone and independent. Each verse is a new thing within myself that I am picking apart…the whole song is this wallowing in doubt and sadness and shame, and then the chorus completely changes harmonically. It’s this whole thing of, like, ‘Well I can’t do any of these things’ and that’s actually okay.”

The song was written during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to Kinsley’s sense of isolation and loneliness. Now that she is able to perform this song for thousands of fans, she describes this song as cathartic and a chance for her to reclaim feelings that she didn’t know how to name before. 

When asked about her pre-show ritual for the Fleeting tour, Kinsley laughed and said it varied tour by tour. She acted out how she used to have to hit different parts of her body to shake out the nerves.

Sarah: “I don’t really get nervous anymore.”

Everything she does now is very calming for her. She recounts sitting or lying down and meditating, sometimes throwing on a pair of headphones, anything to keep relaxed.

Lily: “You did a collaboration with Paris Paloma in your song After All. If you could have any artist featured on your next project, dead or alive, who would it be?

Sarah: “I love the Cocteau Twins so much, it’s ridiculous, so probably them. Or just Elizabeth Fraser solo…I was listening to Bjork at a record store the other day; really incredible stuff, love her…Tim Buckley, he would be incredible. Although I think our stylings are, haha, a little bit too different, but it could work.” 

We are BIG supporters of all the collaborations Kinsley proposed, especially Cocteau Twins. Blending the dreamy and ethereal sounds in both of their discographies would change lives. 

Don’t miss Sarah Kinsley’s show at the Music Box in downtown San Diego on April 1st. We can’t wait to experience her art in real time. Thanks again to Sarah for doing this interview with us!