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Camila C.
Photo by: Naomi Lovescu
Q: Who is SAE? What do you want to share about your upcoming projects? S: SAE is my new Alias. SAE is my sort of alter-ego, I guess you could say (or “sae” haha.) I really tapped into this alter ego this past year, I had a lot of life-changing moments this past year and it really really helped me discover this other side of myself, the side of myself which I labeled as “SAE.” My debut EP is coming out very very soon! So definitely be on the lookout for that! I have a lot of new music coming end of Summer to mid-fall.
Q: What’s the name of your EP, and what inspired that to be the representation of the songs you’re releasing?
S: The EP is called “Narratives.” I actually had an entirely different EP and name/theme for the EP, and right before I flew out to LA to record it, I ended up changing the whole thing. I started over pretty much from scratch, and now listening back to all of these songs I know that I made the right choice. I relate to these songs so heavily. It kind of scared me at times because of how vulnerable I was being, but it was liberating. “Narratives” felt appropriate, I’ve never really been just one “thing.” I’ve never liked to box myself in and so I feel like I can fit into a lot of different categories or in this case; narratives. SAE is a collective of all my various narratives and this EP is going to show a glimpse into all the different narratives I feel as though I land in or have landed in, in the past.
Q: If you could use one word to describe the energy of the EP and upcoming songs, what would it be?
S: Bittersweet.
Q: What inspired you to make such a versatile group of songs? Was it hard working on such a wide variety of sounds? How were you able to perfect them all?
S: I never want to box myself in, and the whole idea of the EP was all these different narratives, so I wrote all of the songs from various perspectives of my life. It was hard at times, I had to really sit down with myself with each of these songs and ask myself “what is it that you’re feeling?” along with “how are you wanting others to receive this when they listen to it?” I wanted to make an EP that was for anyone and everyone. I didn’t rush it, I stayed with it, I rearranged it, tried different things sonically, I experimented a lot within this.
Q: What has been the most challenging part of this process?
S: The vulnerability was really hard for me. There was one song in specific off the EP that I hadn’t written yet and my producers were waiting on me to send in just a rough draft and I literally had nothing haha. I had just flown into LA and I’m not even kidding, that same night I woke up at around 2 AM and stayed up until about 4:30 AM writing this song. The idea came to me as I was sleeping and woke me up, and once I started writing I couldn’t stop, that wasn’t the challenging part though, the challenging part was recording it, there were quite a few times where I was starting to get emotional while recording. I poured a lot of myself into this music and that’s why it’s so special to me. I was figuring out a lot about myself in the midst of the making of this EP and I feel like that goes to show once you hear the songs.
Q: What are you most excited [about]? Are there any music videos we should expect?
S: Super excited to say that there are quite a few music videos I’ll be releasing once the EP is out. I’m most excited for everyone to hear this EP because It’s the most “me” I’ve ever been in any of my music and in my life. I’m super stoked to release the videos, bringing my ideas to life visually is so fun for me. I’m a very visual person so I’m doing a lot of creative direction in these videos which is really fun.
Q: How long did it take you to compose the songs? Did any road bumps come your way? How did you overcome them?
S: Well I was only in LA for about two weeks, so our time for recording and producing was quite limited, but thankfully we got everything recorded while I was out there! I feel like the only “bump” I had was the limited time I had to record and not wanting to rush the process but everything worked out really well in the end and we got everything we needed!
Q: I have heard the EP is going to be different than your previous music, what makes these songs so special? What sets them apart from your previous music? How have you crafted them to fit your style more?
S: Very different. I tapped into parts of my old self, my current self, and my future self for these songs. These songs consist of many things I’ve felt or said at one point or another, and I feel like because of that honesty, they’re my most relatable songs. I can see how much my songwriting has improved as well, I took time away for a while to really work on getting honest with myself which then led me to be more honest with music. I learned how to have fun with this new music too. I can honestly say this is the first project I’m truly proud of releasing.
Q: How has the pandemic affected the progress of your EP? Is there any advice you want to give to young artists who may be struggling with getting creative throughout this time?
S: I honestly feel like the pandemic really helped me in terms of songwriting. I had so much free time and it gave me the time to work on music constantly, there was no pressure of releasing this music but it was practice. You never stop practicing, even when you think you’ve gotten good at something, you still practice. Practice makes perfect, not the other way around.
Q: Everything has been kept very private and we are all very excited to learn more. Are there any hints you want to give for what we can expect?
S: I want everyone to know me on a more personal level so I will be giving them a view into how SAE came to be and what the process of becoming SAE looked like so there will be a video… or two coming soon.