Is this Dartmouth ’18 the next Carrie Underwood?

Sara Lindquist, a sophomore from Mercer Island, Washington is a member of the Decibelles here at Dartmouth and also has been working on her own country music.

Sara released her first EP last March. If you’ve seen Sara around campus it’s no surprise that her powerful voice and upbeat songs can brighten your day.

The Tab sat down with Sara this week to get the inside scoop on her singing career.

When did you first get into singing? And in particular country music?

I officially started singing in first grade joining a local children’s show choir. It was hilarious. We wore sequin outfits and danced (which was disastrous for me). I was in it from first grade through twelfth grade. When I was in in eighth grade my choir director introduced me to a local producer, who had a small in-house recording studio.

I did my first trip to Nashville in eighth grade through him and mostly did covers. On that trip, I was eventually connected, through a family friend, with the co-owner and producer of Skyville Studios. He and his son (the co-producer at Skyville) gave me advice about my singing passion and a helped me find six original songs, and I recorded my EP with them my senior year of high school.

I’ve always loved country music, but it just happened to be where I did my recording. My first trip was to Nashville and this just felt like the most natural route to take.

Did you have a country music idol growing up?

I don’t know if I did growing up honestly. I really didn’t get into country music until high school. I liked Amy Grant growing up and my favorite band is Zac Brown Band. I think Carrie Underwood is a boss.

Other than country music, what do you like to listen to or sing?

I just like listening to good music in all genres. I like R&B, I like oldies, I like rock, even some mainstream stuff. I like singing soft pop, country, and Christian music.

What was the process of creating an EP?

The first thing that you do is song picking. It’s cool if you write your own, but I’m not so good at it. You actually choose through a producer’s acquired song library. In Nashville, there are a bunch of aspiring singer/songwriters that try to get their songs purchased by producers.

I just sat in Wally’s (the producer) office and went through his original song library and picked my favorites. It’s really important to really listen to the lyrics and internalize how a song makes you feel. It has to be something you believe in and something you connect to. It’s a process — it’s really important to find a song that’s a match to who you are.

The next process is rehearsal. They send over rough tracks so you can practice singing along. You pick the key you want to sing it in, and practice it over and over. Next, I flew to Nashville. I went for a full week and recorded the first three songs in March 2014 and the second there in June, but the process was the same for both.

Day one you just rehearse with the musicians. You just sit and play all day to get comfortable with the band, songs, music, etc . It’s the most incredible thing in the world — these musicians just pick up the charts and crank out the songs perfectly, having never seeing the music before. It’s just an incredible and inspiring environment to be in.

Day two is tracking which is when you build the track. I was in a side studio to do “ghost tracks” which is just rough vocals to act as a guide for the musicians. Day three is tracking again. Day four and five are vocals. It was just me again in a little side studio room with a microphone and the producer and an engineer on the other side. Singing and re-singing all day.

What’s the music industry side of Nashville like? What have been some of your experiences?

It’s so competitive. It’s really interesting because the two main music production hubs are LA and Nashville. LA seems to be the more cutthroat place, but Nashville is the same way. Everyone there is so incredibly talented. It’s competitive and unforgiving in that way; you have to be able to hold your ground.

But, at the same time it’s such an amazing experience going to Nashville because you can just walk into a pub or a bar and there will be an incredible singer or songwriter there and you get to listen to this music for free.

How do you balance the workload of singing, and being a Dartmouth student with all your activities?

It’s definitely tough to balance and can often take a lot of time away from sleep or social life. But, I’m so fortunate because most all of the activities I’ve been in have been really flexible with me.

I would also say that I’m a person who is most productive when I have a full schedule, even though it can get overwhelming sometimes. All in all, everyone has been super supportive and flexible with me. It’s organized chaos.

How has your EP done since its release?

By the beginning of this summer I sold a couple thousand copies. And throughout the summer, I did some promotion. I did two concerts in Seattle with some local guys. This is ultimately the next step — now it’s all about promotion. The plan is promote this EP whenever I can — doing shows over breaks and establishing myself locally.

The long-term goal is that junior and senior year I’ll spend more time working on new music back in Nashville. I might consider doing an internship in Nashville my junior year. If I really wanted to sell out this EP I would have to just move to Nashville and drop out of school, so for now I’m just focusing on local promotion and doing what I can during breaks/off terms.

Is a singing career something you want to pursue after college?

I think singing is one of those things where I would kick myself if I never tried pursing it. I’m a practical person and want to get a degree and get a stable job, but I’m always going to have the bug to want to try it. I’d like to be able to pursue that passion in some way, whatever it ends up looking like is fine with me.