UPSAHL Embodies the Fiery Spirit of Sagittarius in New EP
Alt-pop sensation UPSAHL returns with a fiery, unapologetic EP Sagittarius, which embodies the zodiac sign’s triumphant attitudes. The EP’s standout track “Toast” co-written by Tove Lo reminisces on her independent nature and response to a breakup.
Sagittarius channels the songstress’ earliest punk influences that perfectly capture her signature assertive voice and impressive dynamic range. There comes a balance to UPSAHL’s range, she conveys the essence of the zodiac sign throughout the five tracks, the positive and negative, the dark and the light. The songstress enters her “selfish” era and puts herself and her emotions first throughout the creative process of Sagittarius.
“The writing process for all of them was a very selfish thing for me and I think in a healthy way, I was able to dive into writing about myself instead of other people and it was very much my experience,” UPSAHL says. “Each song represents a certain characteristic or part of me that makes up who I am. Sagittarius immediately came to mind because I've always just really resonated with that, and so I decided to call it Sagittarius and it's been really cool for people to resonate and to find little pieces of themselves in certain songs or certain lines.”
UPSAHL’s favorite part of embodying her fire sign, inside and outside the studio, is that Sagittarius is present in all areas of her life from relationships to her writing. The EP acts as a fiery ode to the essence that makes her passionate about the songs she makes everyday.
Ranging from dark, edgy to resilient, UPSAHL tackles the raw portrayal of heartbreak and how to lean into your own self-love and self-care, which many of her listeners can relate to.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Since the last time we talked you released “Antsy” and announced the Sagittarius EP release and now it's finally out in the world! Our readers would love to get to like take a deep dive into Sagittarius. What inspired the EP?
[UPSAHL]: I think it kind of happened by accident. I feel like all my albums or EPs just happened in that way where I write a bunch of songs and I gravitate towards certain things and then when they go to piece them all together to make a project and there’s a throughline in all the five songs that make up Sagittarius. The writing process for all of them was a very selfish thing for me and I think in a healthy way, I was able to dive into writing about myself instead of other people and it was very much my experience. Each song represents a certain characteristic or part of me that makes up who I am. Sagittarius immediately came to mind because I've always just really resonated with that, and so I decided to call it Sagittarius and it's been really cool for people to resonate and to find little pieces of themselves in certain songs or certain lines. It's been a really, really cool process getting to share it with everyone.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What did the creative process look like for you?
[UPSAHL]: It depends, whenever I'm in LA and not on tour, I'm just doing sessions every day. It depends on whatever type of mood I’m in. Whatever energy I'm feeling on a sad day, I try to bring into the room and a lot of times they'll start with a concept and then pick up like a bass and then the producer will build out a drum track and we just keep doing that. Depends on the day and the people in the room.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What's your favorite part of being a Sagittarius?
[UPSAHL]: I think just being so passionate is my favorite because I think that it finds its way into all different parts of my life, but mostly obviously for my music. It makes me incredibly passionate about the songs I get to make every day and it also makes music very difficult because I am so passionate about it and because it is so vulnerable for me and it means so much to me. I think it makes things a little scary, like if people don't like me, they don't like me. It's a very personal thing, which I think is really fun.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Last time we talked, you mentioned your love for your Sagittarius traits of being bold and unapologetic. Staying true to the unapologetic theme of the EP, did you take any risks to create the EP?
[UPSAHL]: I think going into the studio sonically and on the production front, it was very experimental and felt very freeing. I think each song on this EP has such a different sonic landscape. I think just because going in I was just like, I can make five songs that all sound exactly like me and are very on brand for whatever I would normally make, but like I just don't want to do that. I'd rather experiment, do something weird and I think that's how we got songs like “Antsy” which has almost some EDM influence and “Kickflip” was influenced by “Drop It’s Like It’s Hot” by Snoop. I was pulling from all these really random songs or inspirations and I think it made it very freeing for me to make music.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite track off Sagittarius and why do you love the song? Is there like a specific lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
[UPSAHL]: Depends on the day because it changes everyday, but right now I think my favorite is “Toast” because I'm finding that a lot of my fans are relating to it really hard, which I love because at the time of reading it, I was writing about a situationship and it was an emotional thing that I sort of realized after we wrote the song. Getting to see fans tweeting me and being like, ‘this literally explains what I just went through or what I'm going through,’ like that’s the whole reason you make music, so I think that one's my favorite.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Toast” is also my personal favorite. I just adored the playful, empowering energy to it. What did the creative process look like for you for “Toast?”
[UPSAHL]: I wrote it with Tove Lo, and I was such a fan of Tove just as an artist, so just to get in the room with her to write for my project was really inspiring for me and we had already written like five songs that week and we were wanted to make a ballad so it can be mellow. She started mumbling something about toast on the couch, and I was like ‘toast, what?’ It became this thing like we’re making toast in the morning and it ended up becoming this heartbreaking breakup song. I was so inspired by her and it felt like the song wrote itself. We just wrote it over like some guitar chords. All the inspiration was coming from this situationship that ended in my life, it was very interesting.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I love the cover art for Sagittarius, it just radiates a lot of powerful energy. How was your experience shooting that?
[UPSAHL]: It's funny because that happened on accident that entire cover was actually just a BTS shot from a music video that we were doing for “Kickflip” where my stylist made me this sick dress that was very Renaissance-inspired with the gloves and I felt like a punk rock queen. My glam team killed it with the makeup and the hair. It was this vision that we reached together, this fiery, feminine but also really masculine energy. I was obsessed. I felt so hot in this. Aubrey, my photographer, who was just really shooting the scenes of the music video, started snapping these pictures. I had a different photoshoot idea for the EP cover until I was going through the raw photos from the BTS and I was like ‘oh shit, this has to be the cover, this is so sick.’ It was a team of all women that put the whole thing together.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How has the creative process for Sagittarius differed from your last EP Young Life Crisis? Have you taken any approaches or experimented more, either lyrically or instrumentally?
[UPSAHL]: I think because I’m growing and learning a lot more from the producers and writers that I work with, I'm definitely trying to take a page from their book from people that inspire me and so learning that as much as I love guitar and bass, it doesn't have to be in every single song and learning to do what's best for the song. Regardless of what it sounds like or what instruments are in it, it's going to sound like me because it is me just putting a piece of myself into everything, regardless of what genre we're pulling inspiration from. It’s been really fun and also just on the songwriting front, I think for me, like as a fan of music, I want to hear people say crazy shit, and so I'm trying to incorporate that more into my songwriting and just make people feel competent. I think Young Life Crisis was all about me going through it and struggling during being alone during COVID and going through a breakup and coming out feeling on top again.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What messages do you hope listeners can take away with this body of work?
[UPSAHL]: I think the biggest thing I want people to take away is to just be, it's so cheesy, but just to be unapologetically themselves because that's what this whole process for the EP was like for me was just diving into parts of myself that I hadn't before and learning how to love all those things and learning how to own all of that. I hope that's the reason I call it Sagittarius is because for as many good things there are that you've read and whatever the fuck astrology book there is, there's also bad traits to Sagittarius. For me, it was just about owning all those things, and I hope people feel the same way when they listen to it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career? What does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Unpublished?
[UPSAHL]: Good, feeling the best I've felt in a very long time. I think going on tour just gave me so much perspective on life and music and just getting to play shows and be in the room and feel people's energy has been amazing. There's a lot of touring happening this year, we're announcing some headlining runs soon and music festivals; a lot of live music, a lot of touring and a lot of new music. I've just been in LA for the past month, just in the studio literally every day and every night writing for what's next. I'm feeling very excited.
