Sara Devoe On Her Latest Single, 'sleep with me'

New York City-based singer-songwriter Sara Devoe released her latest single, “Sleep With Me” on May 29th. Her self-produced music contains coming-of-age tales and the lessons picked up along the way. Starting at the time of the pandemic, Devoe honed her craft in order to create her dream-like sound as she began releasing her first singles. Now a frequenter of the New York City music scene, Devoe has an upcoming EP set to release this summer. 

Can we start off by talking about the beginning of you as an artist?

During the pandemic, that's when I started learning how to produce and learning how to actually play guitar and write songs. I started doing that in 2020. The first song I ever released is bad. It's not good because the production is terrible. I released that, and that was just on GarageBand basically. And when the pandemic hit, I was going to school and I had to go home. I spent a lot of time learning the softwares and actually trying to produce and write music, which I'd been wanting to do for a long time. I'd always been into music, had always known that I wanted to write music, but I think I had imposter syndrome. I didn't think that I could do this. But then it became real and that was awesome. 

How do you feel about your earlier music versus your music now when it comes to production? What's changed?

I've gotten much better I think at guitar. The first time I ever learned was in 2020, so I only knew a few chords. I wasn't very good. But I feel like since playing live shows and doing all of that, I feel a lot more confident. Confident playing music and playing instruments and not overcomplicating things. I think if something sounds good to me, it probably sounds good to other people too, which was hard to come to that understanding. I think the biggest difference is that things are much more concise and solid now, which is good.

“am i pretty in the light?” is one of the most recent singles. I liked the beginning and how the sound is fuzzy and stripped down until the beat drops. Also, I really liked the vocal layering. Sonically, can you talk about creating that song and the production of it as well?

That song started originally with just acoustic guitar, and it was a voice memo of that idea of feeling not pretty, I guess. I feel like a lot of my songs go towards this feeling that I felt probably in college. Then something that I really like to do in all of my songs is have a verse and then a little instrumental break that's kind of a tease to what the chorus would be. Another shorter verse and then a powerful chorus that has a lot of synth and keys, and different layers. A lot of really crunchy, fuzzy guitar. And that's what that was. It was really light in the beginning. I wanted to make it dreamy. The chorus had a lot of synths and eight or nine different vocal tracks all stacked onto each other and three or four guitars. Really reverb-y drums to make it sound dreamy. My producer/mixer/masterer, Slowaves, really helped bring this song, all the other song I’ve released, and will release, to life.

I love the piano and acoustic guitar in “Late Bloomer.” It felt really comforting. And one lyric that I liked in the song was “never had a thought about how to live for just myself without thinking about anyone else.” Can you talk about the lyrics for this song and what the messages are that you're trying to convey?

Yeah, so that song I wrote several years ago, two or three. I decided to actually release it last year. It just felt like the right time. But I think again, what I was kind of talking about before, a lot of my songs are based on this feeling that I had in college and high school. I was really quiet. I didn't get a lot of attention from anyone that I wanted to get attention from. And also I think a lot of my self-worth was based on attention and what other people thought. That song I think is pretty focused on that and also accepting the wrong kinds of attention. So I think that really encapsulates going into college and being just faced with all of these different types of people, going out, feeling pretty, feeling hot for the first time. I think that's a reflection of how I felt then, where I was definitely living for not myself. I was doing things for validation or attention in different ways.

Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)

I was interested in comparing “Girl” with “crying after sex.” I felt that these two songs were somewhat similar in the way that they both have these emotions and thoughts after something ends. They have different sounds, but lyrically and from the message I interpreted, I found them to be kind of parallel. So comparing these two, what do you find similar and different?

I've never thought about that myself or made that connection, but they are very similar. I think both of them are about a hookup type situation where perhaps I was feeling a bit more than the other person or vice versa. Just about hookup culture in New York City, definitely both of those are about. “Girl” I wrote recently after I had moved here and “crying after sex” was a bit more recent. But I think sonically they are similar in a way. But “crying after sex,” I think is more sonically compared to “am i pretty in the light?,” where we have this build up to a chorus. But both of them are definitely about hookup culture and being super vulnerable and feeling used.

What I took away from a lot of your songs are these coming of age stories, especially with the titles, messages and just navigating relationships. When you're writing songs, where do you find that inspiration from and what message do you typically look to send people?

Coming of age is a really good way to describe it, especially for what I'm going for with a lot of my songs. I think they are reflections on the way I used to feel when I was very insecure and not really knowing what I wanted or who I was. Really trying to figure out how to commit to myself and be a person that I wanted to be and be confident. I think the biggest thing is I used to not be confident and when I gained that confidence, whenever that may have been, things were just much more clear in my head. In terms of what I would want people to gather from those songs, I think I'd want them to be relatable in a way. I'd want people to listen to them and be like, “Oh my God, I’ve felt that way. I get it.” And I'd want people to understand the toxic nature of those songs. I'd want people to listen and be like, “Oh, this is an alarm of toxicity that I have felt or that I have dealt with.” I feel like they are about this toxic character that perhaps I have in my head or that I've met before, where it's just the wrong thing that you should think or the wrong thing that you should say. And those types of lyrics seem to come a lot easier to me than writing about something really positive, which I do on the upcoming EP. 

What does your typical songwriting process look like and how does that start?

So mostly everything I'm writing in my room. I have my little music production set up, but I think that I have periods of not being able to write really anything that I like, or just writing these projects that I end up throwing out. That's how it goes. And then with a lot of those songs that I've released recently, I think that just came from one day when I started writing something and I just carried it and finished it because every stage of writing felt like it worked. It felt like, “Oh, this is going to go somewhere.” Sonically, I write the instrumental first. It always starts with instrumentals. Usually I'll do a drum beat first, so I figure out how fast I want the song. And then guitars always come next, figuring out the chords that I want, progression that I want. Then things like where the song is going to build up, how I want it to be structurally, I'm really big on structure. 

You have a new song coming out, “sleep with me.” I thought that the sound was a softer eighties pop and a little more upbeat. Could you talk about creating that song and what you want people to take away?

“sleep with me” is kind of what I was saying before, more of a happy song. It's really positive and I think it reflects the way that my outlook on relationships has changed, and it's become much more positive. This is going to sound awful, but I was never with someone and wanted to really get to know them. I feel like I have been with people that I didn't even like. And I think this song is about finding someone who you want to give things to, wanting to do things for them, and be with them for a long time. And it's a really happy song in that way. So, I think that I wanted the song to reflect that even in the instrumental. The instrumental was already kind of uplifting, so it was easy to make the lyrics also uplifting.

In terms of writing this song, I wrote this a while ago, so I hope I even remember. I think this was a beat that I had laid down and similar to, “am I pretty in the light?” It has this verse, this little instrumental section, another verse, and then a lead up to this really powerful chorus. I really like writing songs that way. I thought this would be the perfect single off this EP as a kind of summary of how all the songs on that project will sound. 

Photo via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)

You've been playing live shows since you've been in New York. I'm interested to hear your experience here in the New York music scene.

The first show I ever played in my life was in New York City, and it was through Breaking Sound in 2022. It was just me and this other guy and then my backing tracks, and it was so much fun. I don't know, it was such a great experience. And through that I met all these other musicians and started playing shows. And I think most of my friends here are in the music scene. And it's such a welcoming community. Every artist that I've played with is so good. There's so much talent in New York City and in this scene that I think it can almost be overwhelming, but also it's positive in a lot of ways. Everyone's just supportive. There's so many different types of music and niches, and I love going to shows. I used to play a lot more shows. I think I started winding down because I was playing three shows a month and it was crazy. So now I think I play one show a month and then take a break to write.

You have an upcoming EP, but can you kind of give an insight into what is coming next?

This EP I am really excited about. It comes out July 19th and it has five songs that I'm really proud of. One of them is featuring this other band that I recently started called Charms. And that's really cool. After the EP, I really want to kind of go in a new direction, try some different types of genres. I just want to experiment with different sounds. And also this band that I have started, Charms, we have some songs coming out, which should be exciting. Also, (this is) the first time I've been in a band, which is cool.

Follow Sara Devoe on Instagram and Spotify. Stream her latest single, “sleep with me,” here.