Sara King
By Ky Kasselman
Sara King is an 18-year-old dream pop artist from Dallas, TX. Ky had the privilege of sitting down with her and discussing her latest single “Dreamz” and her new EP Heat.
HEM: Can you talk to us a little bit about your single, “Dreamz”, and what the inspiration was behind it?
Sara: Basically, I was kind of bored and really alone at the time. Honestly, this guy kept falling through, like our plans kept falling through and stuff. And so I’d get really bored and would just kinda be like, well, I guess I gotta go to sleep now and dream about him. So that’s where “Dreamz” came from. I found this cool beat on YouTube and I just started writing over it. I created a demo and sent it to my friends, got their opinions, and then sent it to my friends Ian and Hunter and they said let’s make this. They created a different version of it and we made it my own and put my own twist on it.
HEM: What is coming up for you next in terms of releasing new music?
Sara: I have an EP coming out on August 4th called Heat. Basically, it’s 5 summery songs, it’s light and fun, something hopefully people can dance and have fun to. After that, I’ve already started working on a full-length album that will hopefully get more personal and be more true to myself and stuff like that.
HEM: How did you start doing music?
Sara: I started a YouTube channel four years ago to do covers but before then, I had started to learn guitar around the age of 10-11. I started taking lessons but only did that for a while because I was too shy to sing in front of people, but I always wanted to do it. Once I started my YouTube channel I got more into it and only just recently started seriously writing and stuff like that.
HEM: Do you have a defining moment when you decided to pursue music?
Sara: I think watching a lot of live performance videos of people I looked up to definitely made me feel like this is what I want to be doing sometime soon. I had a Taylor Swift DVD live on tour and I would watch it religiously just because her stage performance is incredible.
HEM: So who are some of your inspirations?
Sara: My biggest inspiration is Lorde. I think she’s incredible and her lyrics are super intelligent and poetic. Her and SZA. They’re like my two main inspirations. And then Lana Del Rey, she’s who I first started covering. My cover of Art Deco by Lana was the first one that actually kinda blew up. Lana was a huge influence on me and she still is. Taylor Swift was honestly my biggest inspiration when I was little. She was the reason I picked up a guitar, honestly. That and the fact that my dad was always playing guitar in front of me when I was growing up. But Taylor had her acoustic guitar and the first song I learned was “Teardrops on My Guitar”.
HEM: What are some of your goals as a musician?
Sara: I want to start doing a lot of live performances and I want to go on tour at some point. Hopefully once my EP comes out, I can do a lot more shows, and then once the album comes out, I can do a tour.
HEM: Do you have a dream venue that you want to play?
Sara: Grand Ole Opry would be super cool, and since I’m from Dallas it would be cool to play AT&T Stadium.
HEM: Dream artist to tour with?
Sara: Lorde. Definitely.
HEM: So how do you like working in music in the city of Dallas?
Sara: I think it’s good, I’ve only done performances as Sara King for like half a year. I did little shows growing up because I was in this program called School of Rock and we would do little shows for our friends and parents, but it’s only been half a year as my solo stuff. It’s been fun so far and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback.
HEM: So I’ve got a couple fun questions for you so our readers can get to know you, if you had a superpower what would it be?
Sara: Time travel. I’d go back to the 70s or 80s, fashion was great then.
HEM: Coffee or tea?
Sara: Coffee for sure every single day twice a day.
HEM: What’s your order?
Sara: Iced almond milk latte, sometimes with caramel in it.
HEM: Favorite ice cream flavor?
Sara: Coffee ice cream!
HEM: Instagram or Twitter?
Sara: Instagram I’d say. But Twitter is so different because it’s like feelings and thoughts. But Instagram.
HEM: First concert you ever went to?
Sara: Taylor Swift on the Speak Now tour, I think. Wait, no, I think I went to Jonas Brothers in elementary school.
HEM: What albums are you currently listening to?
Sara: Isolation by Kali Uchis, and ASAP Rocky’s new project. A lot of Charli XCX. And I love Kelsey Lu, I saw her open for King Krule and she’s amazing. Also I just found out about Roy Blair. His project is insane, I love it. My friend Mallory Merk just released a project called 111 Reasons and it’s so good, I highly recommend that.