Breakout artist, songwriter, and producer Sarah Kinsley has released three EPs thus far in her career. Her highly anticipated debut studio album, “Escaper,” will be released on September 6th. Kinsley’s first EP, The King, includes her hit track of the same title. Its magical crescendoed piano opening went viral on TikTok, overlaid on videos celebrating life in its fullest moments. Kinsley’s subsequent projects share this common aura in their production and style. Her music allows the listener to absorb themselves in a subhuman listening experience, led by complex instrumentals and her siren-like vocals. In a press conference with °1824, Kinsley broke down what listeners can expect from the record and how she defines escapism in an immersive collection of fantastical, otherworldly tunes.
A driving theme of the album, Kinsley shared, is the process of escape and what it looks like for different people with varied experiences and ways of coping. She said, “I wrote a majority of the songs… while I was dealing with different forms of grief and loss… from friendships, love, and family…” Her past works have discussed the importance and impact of love — platonic and romantic — and familial relationships on personal growth and prosperity. “Escaper” reconciles with the aftermath of those relationships when they end.
While writing the initial songs for her debut album, Kinsley was fascinated by the concept of immortality and the self in various universes and planes of existence. She explained how she understands that there exists “so many different versions of us if we did other things… there’s a completely different alternate reality of who you become when you make these tiny decisions, and if you spend too much of your life thinking about it, there are infinite realities of who you might be.” Subsequently, she posed a few staggering questions: “Are you the right one? Have you escaped to the correct world? Are you presenting as the right person? Following the right path?” She confessed that these mind-boggling phenomena are often too much for her to handle. “As an overthinker, a control freak, it’s an insane… concept to want to write about. Out of my own interest, I’m like, what does this mean and how do we balance the fact that we can imagine all these worlds and live in allusion but also we do have to return to who we are, the body we inhabit, the world we live in… the so-called ‘real world.’” What better way to wrestle with the infinite possibilities of the human experience than to commemorate them in song?
Referencing her definition of escapism in the context of the record, Kinsley commented, “A huge theme of this album is who do you become when you need to escape? Where do you go when you don’t really want to exist in the real world?” The first half of the album, she explained, is about “that sort of imagined world of the places that we go to.”.
We all have different places we go to when we need to escape the real world, and recognizing this varied yet shared experience as a coping mechanism is something Kinsley wants listeners to honor when “Escaper” releases. She stated, “Individual interpretation is the greatest gift of music.”
Regarding what she hopes her audience will carry when listening to the album, Kinsley recalls a revelation she had while creating the record. “The album is called “Escaper,” but my realization through making a lot of this music and the story of this album is that escape is necessary… for survival, but at the end of the day there’s something beautiful about engaging with the world… even with flaws.”
“Escaper” is not necessarily autobiographical. Kinsley explained, “The person that I am inhabiting through this record realizes that eventually that love is still worthy and humanity is still worthy of our attention and participation.” She added, “That’s the decision and final place that I come to with the record… you are worthy and love, and love is worthy of you. A “dual realization,” as she called it, that listeners can reach once the album concludes.
Kinsley shared that the album process was full of new experiences. “I learned a lot about myself as a person that exists outside of my music and what I require from art and music to keep going in healthy ways,” she told us. The impact of creating “Escaper” on her, she said, is “a testament to music as a form of expression, as a necessary way to move through grief and understand yourself.” “Escaper” helped her tap into her “more vulnerable, darker side,” she confessed. Kinsley collaborated with producer John Congleton on “Escaper,” an experience unlike anything she has done in the past. Kinsley admitted, “[Congleton] has worked on some legendary records, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.” She added, “As a producer on my own, I’m a very insular person, I like to work alone, I like to think alone and not be disturbed by other thoughts and that need for perfectionism and control… it’s a great thing sometimes but it doesn’t help with collaboration.” Throughout the process, she realized the songs themselves did not have to be perfect from the get-go. “Creating the song leads to so much magic,” she mused. “Understanding what is working and what is not was new for me.”
The concept of escapism and all its existential offshoots have intrigued Kinsley since her last EP, “Ascension,” which she shared was inspired by a friend with whom she co-directed “Starling,” the most recent single on “Escaper.” This friend, Kinsley explained, “was telling me this quote from Céline Sciamma who directed Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), about love and heartbreak, which is devastating as is, but the language that is built between the two of you that is never to be spoken again…” Enamored in the beauty and complexity of this idea, she elaborated, “between two people, there is this whole universe of things, and when you decide to — or have to — leave that world, that entire place is sort of left untouched… this wasteland of memories… that no one else would understand… that concept was so strong for me and I wanted to continue it with “Escaper”…”
While writing the initial songs for her debut album, Kinsley was fascinated by the concept of immortality and the self in various universes and planes of existence. She explained how she understands that there exists “so many different versions of us if we did other things… there’s a completely different alternate reality of who you become when you make these tiny decisions, and if you spend too much of your life thinking about it, there are infinite realities of who you might be.” Subsequently, she posed a few staggering questions: “Are you the right one? Have you escaped to the correct world? Are you presenting as the right person? Following the right path?” She confessed that these mind-boggling phenomena are often too much for her to handle. “As an overthinker, a control freak, it’s an insane… concept to want to write about. Out of my own interest, I’m like, what does this mean and how do we balance the fact that we can imagine all these worlds and live in allusion but also we do have to return to who we are, the body we inhabit, the world we live in… the so-called ‘real world.’” What better way to wrestle with the infinite possibilities of the human experience than to commemorate them in song?
Kinsley will kick off her tour for “Escaper” across North America, the UK, and Europe in the fall. What we can expect from “Escaper” thus far is a bold world of imaginative, transcendental, somewhat existential pieces that allow the listener to temporarily indulge in a story that is not their own, but perhaps relates to their experiences. “Escaper” is an invitation to soak in grief and sadness to heal and cope with the hardships of the real world.
Featured Photo Credit: Dillon Matthew