Abby Sage Releases Tender Single “Backwards Direction”
Abby Sage’s debut EP Fears of Yours & Mine, is a sweet collection of songs that showcased her outlook on the ever-changing world. While writing her upcoming EP in various locations, from LA to London UK, she writes on the unfamiliar colliding with the familiar. “Backwards Direction” follows Abby’s two previous released singles, “The Florist” and “Pool Party”, fitting somberly and organically into the line up of releases. Originally brought up in Toronto, she found music to be a mesmerizing turning point for her adolescence. After moving to LA, her growth as a musician turned into a mature space as she released her debut EP in 2021. While Abby’s mother is British, she occasionally visits London and it is here where the changes of location mirrors her writing dynamic as she produced many of her upcoming tracks at a studio in London. While relocating to work in London, she would travel on the tube daily to the studio and watch the people around her interact with the tender world between them. Abby’s rare voice is here to interact with the audience once again with her third track off her upcoming EP.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Originally you're from Toronto, then you moved out to LA and now you have relocated to London. How do you feel these shifts in location through life have affected your outlook on writing?
[ABBY:] I only lived in Toronto until I was seven then we moved to the Bay Area, so I definitely grew up there. But we’ll always go back to Toronto every summer. Then I moved to LA and I didn’t fully relocate to London, UK but I spent a lot of time there. I feel like during times where I know I want to finish a project I do like to go somewhere else that feels like home but also is not my home. I feel like London was a really good place for that. I just love the scene out there right now and I have family out there, so there’s a lot of reflection going on when I’m there. I do spend a lot of time alone as well, I like to go places on my own when I’m working.
[UNPUBLISHED:] “Backwards Direction” follows your two previously released singles “The Florist” and “Pool Party,” how do you feel this upcoming single continues on the story of these two previous releases?
[ABBY:] It was a cool moment where we were working on something else and then we started playing around with this other idea half way through a session and finished it really quickly. Everything is pretty premeditated, but I felt like it fit really well in the way that it was so organic. A lot of the project is observational, but I feel like this song is definitely more about me and what I was experiencing during that time. It’s kind of like an internal battle of feeling like you’re moving backwards but you want to go forwards. You are evaluating what certain things are holding you back.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Can you tell us what the writing process looked like while making “Backwards Directions”?
[ABBY:] I mean, it was all very quick. I think it’s cool because sometimes I’ll be in my room writing lyrics and then I won’t really know what they mean until a few days later. So I guess the place I was in was a feeling of stagnancy. But at the same time, I understood what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be.
[UNPUBLISHED:] “Backwards Directions” I found was a very intimate and honest song lyrically. Why do you think it’s important to have these types of voices heard through music?
[ABBY:] I feel like before I struggled a lot with writing honestly. I would always do it but then you would feel this sense of weirdness once it was out. And I feel like I’ve lost that over time. Every time I have put a song out like that, the reception is really incredible to see. I feel like being vulnerable is definitely a priority for me now because of the impact of it, it doesn’t scare me as much anymore.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I’d like to talk a little bit about the music video for “Backwards Directions.” Can you walk us through the creative process of making those visuals?
[ABBY:] One of my best friends is a filmmaker first and foremost, so we’ve been doing every video together so we like to keep it a very small intimate set. The person in the video as well, his name is Ryan, and he’s been in a video of mine before and this one is covering a similar topic, but more on a relationship standpoint. I wanted him to be in the video in that way as you’re frustrated with the other person and frustrated with yourself, but you also lean on them for support. So we shot it backwards in a way where I choreographed it in a specific way so we ended up back together. I thought about it in the way of losing yourself in a sense, like during that process and feeling just kind of invisible and alone.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Your debut EP Fears of Yours or Mine came out in 2021, how do you feel you have grown as an artist after the release of these first singles from your upcoming EP The Florist?
[ABBY:] I feel like with Fears of Yours and Mine, it was very much what I was feeling in the moment and it was just me working through all of that. It felt like a diary, where this one is a little bit more reflective of what’s going on around me, which I really liked. Those elements in “Pool Party”, which is the first one we put out, is about struggles of youth. Then I incorporated an interlude on the project. That one is one of my favourite things because it’s like a voice note from my Nana. When I was in the UK, I visited her and I was just recording her because she goes through so much too as she lives on her own. It’s kind of like a reflection of the stages of life and what you run into in each part of each chapter.
[UNPUBLISHED:] If there is one message that listeners can take away from this upcoming era for you, what would you like to tell them?
[ABBY:] I just want to put out a universal message that there’s always going to be battles for everybody and you kind of just have to figure it out as you go. It’s okay if you’re not at that place where you’re allowed to reflect but you’ll get there eventually. That’s just been something I’ve been working on doing where I just try to view everything from a step outside of your body and be able to remove yourself.