She’s written for Katy Perry, John Legend, and Camila Cabello.
Now the 25-year-old singer-songwriter is getting her own chance to shine.
While some of us spent quarantine making banana bread, 25-year-old Sasha Sloan was writing her debut record.
Credit: David Od
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:You started off songwriting and then transitioned into writing for yourself.
Is there less pressure or more pressure when you’re writing for someone else versus yourself?
Or are they just kind of equally difficult?
RCA
It depends on the situation.
If youre with the artist…I don’t know.
Is there somebody you haven’t written with that you would love to?
I’m really bad at these questions.The Killers!
Tell me a little bit about the approach to writing this album.
Were some of these songs you’ve had for years that you just needed to tweak?
Or did you come in with this plan to write the album start to finish?
The first single Lie was actually written about three years ago.
I always loved that song, but I think we never really cracked the production on it.
So I kept coming back to that one.
The rest of the album is pretty fresh and was written in the last six months to a year.
Some more pop-leaning songs got the cut for more intimate songs.
Is it hard when you have 50 songs to narrow them down?
Do you let other people weigh in so that they can be more objective?
I definitely lost a lot of sleep trying to pick which songs would go on.
I give a shot to keep the opinions limited.
I have a few people that I really trust.
It’s hard though.
Is there a process you have for writing music versus lyrics?
Or a mix of both?
I’m only thinking about lyric.
I have like a list of titles on my phone at all times.
I don’t really do abstract lyrics.
They’re pretty literal.
So I take forever to write songs.
The lyrics in that were really hard to nail because it’s kind of an unpopular opinion.
I was tweaking the lyrics in that song for three to four months.
Many of the songs on the album are really open and vulnerable.
Is that something you find easy or difficult to do in your songwriting?
It’s definitely got its challenges.
So I think, for me, music is that outlet.
Its easier for me to sing about it than talk about it, I would say.
It’s still super scary.
But I think vulnerability is empowering too.
So yeah, it’s an emotional roller coaster.
But I bet the feedback from people listening to your music is probably reassuring, right?
That they’re like, I feel this way too, thank you for putting that out there.
That is super exciting.
I know I’m not alone in that.
I’m not alone in that.
This story appears inthe November issue ofEntertainment Weekly,on newsstands Oct. 16.
