UPSAHL: “One day it hit me — these songs all have Sagittarius energy”
UPSAHL sits down with us to speak about her new EP, Sagittarius.
Photo: Aubree Estrella
It’s a bright sunny morning when I walk through the revolving door at Sony Music by King’s Cross. As soon as I stepped foot in the building, I can sense the slick professionalism and aura of talent in the air.
I’m taken upstairs to a very relaxed and sleek floor where Taylor, aka UPSAHL, is waiting oh-so-coolly in an armchair for me. Her flaming locks are unmistakable, complemented perfectly by her alternative head-to-toe ensemble of red, white, and black. She greets me with a warm hug and perfect manners before we sit down and swap tattoo stories that nearly carry us away completely.
So, Taylor, you’ve come to the end of a two month headline tour, it’s the morning after – how do you feel?
Hungover, tired, and satisfied. The whole band walked off the stage and we were all like, ‘I think that was our favourite show we’ve ever played’. It’s the first tour where I’ve come away feeling satisfied like that. Usually, you can feel a bit lost after a tour, like you don’t know what to do with yourself and all the new free time. But this time I just feel like we did it.
Almost like a bit of tour closure?
Exactly that.
It must be quite a physically and emotionally draining experience – how have you found being on tour this time around?
Totally. When I’m on tour, I’m so present and switched on. It’s definitely been a different experience this time, particularly with this being the first dry tour I’ve ever done. There’s been a lot more focus on health and well-being for this one, like the whole band being up for a workout before the show and prioritising our performance.
Sounds like there’s been a shift of maturity between this tour and the last.
Oh, for sure. There are fans paying for tickets and if you go onstage and perform a shit gig because you’ve been drinking or you’re hungover, that’s just a bummer for them.
Has that maturity filtered through to your writing?
Definitely, yeah. I always try and write to reflect where I’m currently at, whether it’s in a breakup or being on my own, and just who I am.
It certainly seems like you’ve found your spot in the music world. Can you tell me a bit more about how it feels to be a female presence in the alternative/indie scene?
I’m just so grateful for everyone who has come before me and how they have completely broken down genre barriers. I mean, Billie Eilish is putting out albums where one track is a sad song and then there’s a fucking bop. I feel like now there’s a lot less expectation to just fit in one box.
We definitely saw that from your first album, Lady Jesus. The difference in feel between songs like Thriving and Lady Jesus is huge – where do you find the musical process usually starts?
Oh man, it can be anywhere, really. Sometimes we’ll just be in the studio messing around and something will come out of it, sometimes I’ll be inspired by something I’ve just been listening to. Like one week I was listening to a lot of Prince and I went into the studio like, I just wanna whisper a bunch of shit, and some of that ended up in Into My Body.
Do you find that women are being given enough presence within the industry?
It’s definitely getting better. At the start of my career, I was usually the only woman in the studio. Or there would be one other producer or exec. To begin with, I was just happy to work with anyone who was happy to work with me. But now that I have a bit more say, I try to get as many women in the room as possible.
What has been one of the craziest things about releasing music so far?
I think it’s probably been seeing the variation in how people react to my songs. This one fan came up to me once and was like, “oh my god, I love Thriving, it gets me so hyped”, and I actually wrote that song when I was on a bad low. So it’s really interesting to see how differently people can interpret your own thoughts and feelings once they’re put out into the world.
And speaking of putting songs out into the world, you have a new EP, Sagittarius. Can you shed some light on what that process has been like?
For sure! This one has been a bit nuts cause I was still recording vocals and getting masters back whilst I’ve been on tour. I had been writing over the summer and all these songs were really working, but I couldn’t figure out how to tie them all together. Then one day it just hit me and I was like, ‘OH these all have such Sagittarius energy’. Having spent some more time in LA, you can’t not get dragged into the star signs and astrology shit, and it just fit.
Sagittarius is out now via Arista Records.
