A Singer and a World Traveler

Currently residing in West Hollywood with her thick and hazy style of singing, along with those noticeable golden locks of hair, singer-songwriter Sarah Dashew is quickly making her way through the music industry in her own unique fashion. Her music can be seen as extremely inspirational and emotional, expressing her charisma through every lyric she writes to every song that she sings. Dashew has recently released her second album (“Where I Belong”) which nonchalantly displays her fascinating journeys throughout her young life and the feelings of love and romance that fall in between.

Her genre falls in a ginormous range of folk, pop, country and soul. A majority of artists usually give themselves a genre that consists of one or two styles, but Dashew is an exception. Belonging to or performing a specific type of music tends to rely on a certain intention.

Dashew’s explanation makes sense as to why she performs the distinctive sounds that she does.

“My folks had this huge record collection,” said Dashew. “The very first album I ever remember listening to was Stevie Wonder’s ‘Innervisions.’ I was washed in everything from Stevie Wonder to the Beatles, from literally my very first memory. I guess it all fused together. I have a hard time describing my genre because I like so many different things.”

It’s not always easy finding people who are not only willing to perform songs, but to write their own as well. Some don’t have the ability to express themselves through their own lyrics. Instead, they give the job to a person that can easily demonstrate their personal experiences after explaining them. Sometimes it’s interesting to wonder if all musicians sing about what they truly feel, or if they have no other choice but to perform words that they cannot relate to.

Believe it or not, Dashew writes her own exclusive material that cannot compare to anybody else’s. “I started out as a writer,” said Dashew. “Both of my parents are authors, they’ve both written books. My sister is a writer. So the lyrics are super important to me.” This only boosts her as an individual, simply because everything she speaks about comes straight from her heart and her own personal perspectives.

The type of person that is willing to try almost anything, without hesitating about the consequences, she’s one to take risks regarding her music, and isn’t afraid to take chances in order to give her style a dissimilar taste from others.

“I’ve actually never had horns in my music before, but it’s something that I love” said Dashew. “When I set out to be one of the producers for this album, which was a new thing for me too, the first thing I said was ‘I have to have horns.’ I didn’t even know what the songs were going to be yet, but I wanted horns.”

Singer, songwriter, producer. What more can fans ask for from one single artist?

Apparently, all people do everything for a reason. This could be due to the struggles, journeys and/or adventures they may have sought. Dashew’s passion for music gradually started to grow once her parents decided to travel the world for seven years. The traveling gave her a sense of what direction she wanted to lead herself toward, allowing her to learn a whole lot for her age.

This particular occurrence of hers was highly intriguing, only because it’s rare for any person to endure such an experience in a lifetime.

“The first thing [traveling on a boat] taught me was that you don’t have to live inside the box,” said Dashew. “When my parents were doing that, their parents were telling them that they were crazy, what are they doing going off on a boat with two small children. My sister was seven and I was four when they left, and we traveled around the world for seven years. The most wonderful thing about that was that they really set the example of following your dreams. Do what you wanted to do. When we were out in the middle of the ocean, we didn’t have TV, we didn’t have Game Boys or anything like that. You can read or listen to music, and we did a lot of both. Music just became a part of everyday life. There was always some point in the day where we would play a record or play a CD and I would just hang out, watching the waves, listening to the rhythms. Rhythm, in general, just ended up imprinting itself on me.”

Seeing that Dashew is a songwriter, she wonderfully places her influences into words in order for audiences to understand why she feels the way that she does. Most musicians break down their messages during everything they perform. Some might express the negative aspects of life, while others donate an endearing energy that fans can easily relate to and feel positive about.

“Well, I am a mush, I have to say,” said Dashew. “I’m a mush, but I’m also tough. I’m not a crybaby. Romance, love, I also grew up in a family that says ‘I love you’ and that has become something that’s really important for me to get across.”

All human beings go through chapters in their lives that greatly defy who they are, how they came about and how this happening will gradually affect their future. We all struggle one way or another. Sometimes this struggle may occur early in life, while others have to wait longer than they thought. This battle could either benefit a person’s character, or destroy it and make matters worse.

In her case, any type of struggle she manages to run into only provides her with strength and motivation to continue learning everything new that may be thrown her way.

Such exposure will not bring her down, but only build her character and personality as far as it can possibly go.

“I’m still working on the breakthrough,” said Dashew. “I haven’t struggled with drugs or anything like that, I guess I’m a little boring that way. I’ve struggled with not eating too many sweets. I cut my teeth in Austin, Texas. I went to Austin because I’ve been hitchhiking in New Zealand and had met girls who were also hitchhiking in New Zealand, which is a rare thing. We all ended up banding together. They were from Austin, Texas, which I have never been, and I ended up going to visit them when I got back from New Zealand. I fell in love with the town and fell in love with the music scene, and I decided that if I was really going to try to do this, this was the way I was going to. In the first couple of years, everything was brand new because I’d never done it. I was fresh out of college and I hadn’t done any of it. Everything was all new and everything was a totally new learning experience and it was fantastic. I found a band, started touring quickly and it was wonderful. There was probably a couple of years in there where I struggled against myself a little bit. I think everybody, or a lot of people, get to a place where they progress really quickly, and then things level off while you’re finishing the mold.”

Patrick Hickey Jr. contributed to this article.