By Maddy Yen
Who is Sara Kays?
Sara Kays is a singer-songwriter based out of Nashville, Tennessee currently on tour with Dean Lewis. She got her first guitar at 12 getting her start performing as a street musician or in bars and restaurants. Soon after she began writing her own songs and posting them on TikTok which amassed a large following. Kays was signed with Atlantic Records (under Warner Music Group) with now over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. I got to sit down with her before her set in Portland and ask her questions about her start, songwriting, her life on tour right now, and what is next for her.
Her road to success
Q: What was it like playing gigs at restaurants and bars to now going on tour and playing venues across the US?
A: It is super sick because that was initially my dream. And it’s so much different because the bars and restaurants felt like a job to me where I was playing cover songs for like three hours and people were eating and not listening. So it was a completely different thing when I played my first actual show. It was a completely different muscle I had to use to engage the crowd and see if people were actually looking at me. It’s been amazing, so much better.
Q: You have an immense TikTok following. What do you enjoy about interacting with fans there since you blew up there?
A: Initially, I loved it when people would request song ideas and I would write songs for people. Especially during COVID — when I had nothing to do — I would do that all day, it was a lot of fun. TikTok is a lot different now, people’s attention spans are so much shorter now, and only videos that are like 15 seconds long people see. So it’s harder to interact with fans there now, but I still like using it.
Q: What was the release for “Remember That Night?” like with the track hitting over 300 million streams?
A: That song I wrote in the middle of the night in my bedroom, and it was about something that just happened in that moment, and I wrote that song about that. I posted a TikTok of me just singing the verse the next day, and my producer and I decided to immediately record it because of the reaction of it. We recorded it and he finished producing it over the course of eight days, and it was released three days later. So from the day I wrote it, it was less than two weeks before it was out. Any time there was a good reaction about something, it was like we needed to release it.
Songwriting
Q: What is your songwriting process and how do you get inspiration?
A: I generally start with a title, or a lyric, or a concept so I know what I’m going to be talking about — because that’s my favorite part about writing a song. I like having a lyric so I can sing them in different ways and pick one from there. Singing words I already have written down helps me come up with a better melody.
Q: Who is your dream collaboration?
A: I mean growing up it was Alec Benjamin and then I got to tour with him last year — which was so amazing. I still would love to do a song with him. There are so many artists I would love to work with, like Kacey Musgraves, I love her.
Q: Is there a reason you chose the acoustic singer-songwriter direction? Was that always the route you knew you were going to take?
A: I think so, none of my family was into music or anything growing up, I would just hear the radio. I remember hearing Ed Sheeran and thought that was cool because I played guitar and sang, and I never heard that type of stuff on the radio. Everything I kept listening to and was most inspired by, and taught me how to write songs, was in that kind of vein too.
Q: Was writing and producing your most recent single “Show Me Off” different or similar to your previous releases?
A: It was kind of different because I wrote that verse first then showed it to this guy Grant who produced the song. Then Grant, my friend, and I finished out the song. The only reason it’s a little different is because most of my songs up until now were produced by my friend Steven. So normally my process would be to write a song, bring it to him, and he would produce it, which we still do but this one was different.
Life on tour
Q: What is it like touring with Dean Lewis right now?
A: It’s the best. They’re all great, Dean and everyone on his crew, we’ve all become great friends. The crowds at the shows are really good. I see some of my fans singing along at every show, and I think that me and Dean’s music are pretty similar, where if people don’t know who I am they’re still listening and it’s creating new fans.
Q: What is something you cannot live without on tour?
A: On this tour I have been having a lot of Celsius, it gets me through the drives. It’s just me and my guitar player Val taking my car, it’s like the smallest crew I’ve had on a tour.
Q: What is your favorite song you sing live?
A: On this tour it’s probably been “Show Me Off” because it’s the new one and I haven't been able to play it live before so it’s been fun getting into the groove with that song. It was kind of rough the first couple of shows being like ‘Oh this is what this song is going to sound like live.’
What’s next?
Q: I heard you have a new single coming out soon, what is it about and what do you expect your audience’s reaction to be?
A: It’s called “Screaming in My Pillow.” The acronym is SIMP, which I didn’t realize until after I wrote it. But it’s about being like a quieter person and people not expecting you to speak up or say what you’re thinking, and then when you get home letting it all out essentially. It does sonically sound a little bit different from some of my other stuff. Most of my other stuff is pretty similar and there are some new elements too.
Q: Are you planning on doing a headline tour soon?
A: Yes, next year! I really want to because I didn’t do one this year. This is the first tour I’ve done this year. Last year I did three tours, and I’ve been writing most of this year.