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idenced with her unwavering focus on music. She’ll soon yield her highly anticipated fifth studio album, which she likens to her “sonic universe” that she is currently molding. “This whole quarantine, it has been like, ‘well you know what, it doesn’t need to be perfect. I’m just going to put it out as is, c’est la vie, and see how it goes,’” she says, “because I’ll put something out, and be like, ‘Ah I wish I could change that, just a little bit.’ So I’m trying not to overthink it right now, but I am trying to make sure it tells the story I want to tell. So I’m taking my time with it.” In the midst of Carpenter’s careful songwriting process, she remains steadfast that she is perhaps the most inspired she’s ever been with “so much to cover and tackle.”
Drawing influences from the likes of Dominic Fike (she says his song “The Kiss of Venus” with Paul McCartney is one of her favorites), Julia Michaels, and timeless artists Sonny & Cher and Marvin Gaye, Carpenter is staying true to her roots, while
also naturally shifting introspec- tively. “I think the fans are gonna be pleasantly sur- prised with the storytelling on this album compared to other albums,” she reflects. “This, more than ever, is very specific to me and my life and my stories. Before, the way I was writing songs was a little more for everyone else and a little less for myself. This one is more inward.”
“Skin,” Car- penter’s first single from the album, echoes nuances
of the emotional turmoil Carpenter has faced in the heat of the public eye. The accom- panying music video, shot in a vintage home with
swoon-worthy love interest, Gavin Leatherwood, depicts the couple cursed by the environment around them collapsing— damned by earthquakes, rain, fog, and snow. The imagery seems to be synonymous with the buzzing media negativity Carpenter has received as of late. “‘Skin’ was a culmination of a lot of expe- riences that I had built up into,” she explains. “I remember try- ing to write around it, and trying to avoid it, and dance around the subject. I was trying to write anything but that. And then I think I wrote it, and I thought, ‘Maybe it lives out in the world, maybe it doesn’t.’ I felt it was the right time to do that song and express what I was feeling and going through. It was a different perspective than what a lot of other people were going through at the time, but it was my truth. I felt compelled to write exactly how I was feeling.”
Fame is certainly an aspect Carpenter has grown accus- tomed to over time, but one that has warranted her to learn
that you reap what you sow. She attests that trust is not some- thing she renounces with as much ease anymore. “When I was younger, I used to trust people so easily,” she affirms. “I thought people were so good, which is still true, and I still believe people are naturally good. But over time, I learned that some people
don’t like you, don’t have a reason to like you, or feel threatened by you, which has been years and years of different experiences. That was always a really hard thing for me, because I really just always wanted to be friends with everyone. It’s been a rocky rollercoaster of learning people’s true colors and knowing what it takes to have that armor to protect yourself, while also being vulnerable in your art and letting people into your life.”
In discussing the single, the topic of her recent Tinker Bell-esque GLAAD award performance outfit comes up, as out- fits do in accordance with young style influences like Carpenter. With the discourse of the memorable green chain metal mini comes the inquiry of how Carpenter’s distinct style has unfold- ed over time. “It’s constantly finding new versions of itself while remaining Sabrina,” she remarks. “There’s always been a sense of boyish-ness in what I wear, but I also really like to dress up. The worst thing I can do is pick one style, one cut, and wear it forever. I never want to put myself in a box.”
The altered landscape of the touring industry is one partic- ular facet the pandemic has ripped away that Carpenter craves, deeply desiring the return to the face-to-face connection with her fanbase. “When you are touring, you think touring is the worst, because you’re tired all the time, and it takes so much
out of you,” she says. “So when you have that break, it’s a breath of fresh air. But being away from it for this long has just been strange. Like not being with my bandmates, who are some of
my closest friends. And being able to interact with my fans on a daily basis. They’ve been dependent on Twitter and Instagram to talk to me, and I am just so bad at those.”
Carpenter’s distaste for social media is a sentiment echoed by many other famous figures, especially for its drastic, destruc- tive impact on mental health. “I think everyone gets to that point where it’s like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna touch grass and go for a walk.’ So I got to that point. Now it feels a bit more vague and atmospheric. We don’t realize how much we depend on it, and how much we consume it. We’re consuming things we don’t want to see, but it pops up in front of us, and it’s there, and we’re stuck with our feelings. But I think the best thing for me, sometimes, is to just not look at it.”
Despite the detachment we are all facing, hope is on the horizon, and Carpenter has a shining buoyancy regarding the return to normalcy. Even currently living out of a hotel amongst the blaring sirens of Atlanta, Carpenter remains a stark optimist through it all. “Even when things were getting worse, I always was like ‘There’s a light at the end of the tunnel’ or ‘The sun will come out tomorrow,’” she declares humorously. “If anything, it makes it so exciting to think about sharing these things we used to love doing all the time, like going to concerts, movie theatres, ice skating, roller skating, and fun things I used to do with my friends that I haven’t gotten to do in a hot minute.”
Carpenter’s eagerness is similarly shared in her itch to get back to the twinkling Broadway stages of New York. Her Broadway debut occurred at the unluckiest of moments in March of 2020, as the leading role of Cady Heron in Tina Fey’s Mean Girls. While only two shows took place before the impending apocalyptic doom, the two-month rehearsal pro- cess helped facilitate a familial bond for the cast, an imme- diate energy that Carpenter says is unique to stage work. “It was the push that I needed and wanted,” she asserts. “There’s really nothing like it, where you finish the show. It’s some of the happiest, purest moments that money can’t buy.”
Jovial moments are certainly in store for Carpenter’s future, and from the radiance of her demeanor, you get an inkling that she may just sashay her way to the top of produc- ing stardom. Planting new seeds is certainly nothing out of reach for the star. “I’m always reading stories to see if there’s nuggets of certain things that I can turn into something bigger,” she concludes. “I’d like to push some envelopes in any way that I can.” And therein lies Carpenter, a Blue Poppy, standing tall and lively as ever against the woes faced by the parched California brush.
“THIS WHOLE QUARANTINE
“THIS WHOLE QUARANTINE
IT HAS BEEN LIKE ‘WELL YOU
IT HAS BEEN LIKE ‘WELL YOU
KNOW WHAT, IT DOESN’T
KNOW WHAT, IT DOESN’T
NEED TO BE PERFECT, I’M
NEED TO BE PERFECT, I’M
JUST GOING TO PUT IT OUT
JUST GOING TO PUT IT OUT
AS IS, C’EST LA VIE, AND SEE
AS IS, C’EST LA VIE, AND SEE
HOW IT GOES,BECAUSE I’LL
HOW IT GOES,BECAUSE I’LL
PUT SOMETHING OUT, AND
PUT SOMETHING OUT, AND
BE LIKE, ‘AH I WISH I COULD
BE LIKE, ‘AH I WISH I COULD
CHANGE THAT,
CHANGE THAT,
JUST A LITTLE BIT.’
JUST A LITTLE BIT.’
SO I’M TRYING NOT TO
SO I’M TRYING NOT TO
OVERTHINK IT RIGHT NOW,
OVERTHINK IT RIGHT NOW,
BUT I AM TRYING TO MAKE
BUT I AM TRYING TO MAKE
SURE IT TELLS THE STORY
SURE IT TELLS THE STORY
I WANT TO TELL.
I WANT TO TELL.
SO I’M TAKING MY TIME
SO I’M TAKING MY TIME
WITH IT.”
WITH IT.”
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