Name: Sarah Solovay
Hometown: New York City, New York
Major: Undecided
College: Berkley
During the first few weeks of school, while studying in Bass, my friend said to me, “Margaret, you have to listen to this song. It is amazing.” I plugged the headphones into her computer and she played me a song – it was unique, refreshing, catchy, and SO good! Then she said to me, “Yah. It’s by your friend who just left.” The friend was Sarah and the song, ‘Raindrops,’ is just one of the many songs that she has released and are available on iTunes.
When asked to do this piece about a campus celebrity, the first person I thought of was Sarah Solovay, because although she is already a celebrity (and an incredibly talented one at that) she also is very humble about her talents, which is an admirable quality, indeed! Kind, intelligent, sarcastically humorous, and unbelievably cool, Sarah is above any one label. On top of being a student here at Yale she is also a member of Something Extra, a professional singer-songwriter, and she is deeply invested in becoming a writer.
She first discovered her love for music and lyrics at a very young age, starting to play guitar when she was six and starting to write songs when she was nine. From that time on, as she said, “the rest was history…”
HC: How did you first get involved with the music scene?
SS: I was very lucky because I grew up in New York, where there were a ton of awesome music venues. Throughout high school, I performed at a lot of them, and that’s where I met other musicians, performers, producers, and so forth.
HC: What motivated you to start playing music and singing?
SS: When I was six years old, for whatever reason, I decided I really wanted to play the electric guitar. I’m not really sure drew me to it – probably something absurd – but for whatever reason it stuck. At my parents’ behest, I started with the classical guitar, but I hated it; after two years, I transitioned to “real guitar”—rhythm acoustic guitar.
HC: Do you play/have you played any other musical instruments?
SS: Many. So far, I have played the violin, trombone, French horn, piano, and drums. Oh, and also the recorder! But I wasn’t good at any of them.
HC: So how did you become a songwriter?
SS: Before writing songs, I always wrote poetry. Once I got involved with music, I started coming up with melodies. After a while, it seemed logical to combine the two. It wasn’t ever a deliberate decision; it was more of a process that just happened over time. Sometimes I wish I still wrote poetry. Yale has an awesome English department, so it seems like a cool place to write poetry.
HC: It is clear that people know you as a singer-songwriter, but if you could have a different describing catch phrase, what would you want it to be?
SS: That’s a good question. In high school, music was definitely a big part of my identity, but most people here don’t know that I’m involved with music. If I had to pick, I would like for people to one day describe me as “Sarah the writer,” because I love to write everything from songs to stories to essays.
HC: How did you get discovered in high school and what was the process of releasing your two albums and various singles like?
SS: Well, the first show I played at was an open mic night, which is where all of the musicians draw a number and then get up on stage in that order. At those nights each person has 8 minutes to play, so I played two songs. After I finished someone approached me and asked if I would like to play at his bar that weekend for 30 minutes. I first started finding gigs through shows like that, and once I had my foot in the door, there were a lot of people willing to help me out.
HC: How would you describe each of the albums?
SS: The first one is more of my younger musings on the idea of romance, love, etc., whereas the second one is based more off of experience and therefore is a little bit more about life, rather than just ideas. I wrote and released the first one when I was 14 and the second one I wrote over the course of a few years (I released when I was 18). I wasn’t trying to record and release a second record on purpose, but I figured I should probably put out a body of work before I got to college. I figured my style of writing would change when I came here, so I thought it would be nice to have a placeholder for that time in my life.
HC: How has your writing already started to evolve since being here at Yale?
SS: Well, I have less time to write here than I would like because I am so rarely alone, and for me writing is a very individual activity. But I definitely already have so many experiences to write about, so when I finally get around to writing there will be a lot to draw on. I’ll probably have a spell of writing over winter break, but I’ve written down bits and pieces of songs already. I like to think my writing has been evolving and getting more mature since I’ve been here, but I’m generally a bad critic of my own work so I don’t know.
HC: I know one of your songs was on the hit TV series, 90210. What was your experience with CBS (who owns The CW), the show, and having one of your songs featured?
SS: My experience with CBS was awesome. The song they decided to feature on the show is called “Hearts Collide.” It’s about the initial stage in a relationship where you have your eye on a special someone, but nothing has happened with that person quite yet. When I watched the episode with my mom, I think she was just excited as I was. She has been so super helpful in all my musical endeavors.
HC: Are you like Taylor Swift in the sense that you write songs about people?
SS: I don’t tend to write about specific people, but I do have moods and people in mind when I write. The one time I did write a song about a boy, I told him, and to this day he is pretty excited about it.
HC: And he brags about this song?
SS: Yes. It’s actually not unflattering – it’s a love song. My introduction whenever I am performing it always goes like this: “This is a song I wrote about my best friend. It’s called ‘I Hate Him’.”
HC: One final question to wrap things up: What is your favorite thing about Yale so far?
SS: I love that there is no curfew. I also love how many libraries there are.
If you want to learn more about Sarah then check out these fun facts and her websites listed below!
Favorite song you’ve written and why? “Super Human” because it has a story to it.
Musical inspirations? Parent’s music (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Brown, Tom Petty), Joanie Mitchel, Madonna
Favorite male and female character on 90210? Liam (he’s cute) and Silver (she’s feisty and cool)
Fun fact? Never been skiing
Favorite activity (other than singing!)? Bikram Yoga
Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Writer in Europe
Websites:
http://www.facebook.com/sarahsolovaymusic?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/sarahsolovaymusic?ref=ts&fref=ts