Elliott sat down with Sarah Shook of Sarah Shook and the Disarmers before their show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY this past Thursday night to talk about everything from her upbringing & vegan lifestyle to her incredible album “Years” that was released back in April of last year.
Sarah Shook resides in North Carolina and plays country music (think Johnny Cash meets Elliott Smith with a small twist of punk attitude) and her songs cover everything from the heartache of broken relationships to drinking and life’s daily struggles. Although she was raised in a Christian family household with no TV, she is a bisexual atheist who advocates for equality and civil rights.
When Elliott asked what it was like growing up in a strict Christian household and what her biggest fear was while growing up, Sarah answered with the following:
“It was very isolated. I was homeschooled all the way through for religious reasons and didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. So I learned how to enjoy my own company and keep myself busy. I did a lot of reading, climbed a lot of trees, spent a lot of time outside, and I think my biggest fear would probably just be not really knowing what I was gonna do when I was done with school, and like, if I was gonna move out of my parents’ house and what kind of career I was gonna look at. And I started getting interested in music pretty young, so I had a feeling it might go in that direction. And here we are.”
When Elliott asked Sarah what power she would like her music to have if she had the choice, she responded, “To give people confidence in themselves and to empower people to make good choices for themselves and look out for themselves. And I feel like, if we were all a little bit better at that, we would all be a little better at taking care of each other, too.”
And on her favorite song of “Years” and why:
“My favorite song off ‘Years’ is called ‘New Ways to Fail’ and I wrote that based off of something my dad used to say when I was really little. And again, my parents were like, really religious so swearing was not allowed in our house but every once in a while he would get a stack of bills at the end of the month, and he would sit at our kitchen table and just like, go through bills. And he thought none of us could hear him, but he would sit there and be like, ‘I need this shit like I need another hole in my head’ and I was like ‘That needs to go in a song!”
Aside from some country artists, Sarah is also influenced by classic punk bands and you can hear some of that in her songwriting. And one of her favorite artists is Elliott Smith as she details that as well in this interview.
Watch the full interview below:
Find out more info on the band, their releases, and tour dates here:
THANK YOU!!!
