Rachael Sage has just unveiled ‘Just Enough’ – a serene vintage pop-meets-folk gem encapsulating the joy of unconditional love and friendship without judgement and the restrains of adulthood. We chatted to Rachael about maintaining this perspective, her upcoming album, ‘Canopy,’ and how she hopes to uplift and shed light on the LGBTQ+ community.
Let’s start with your new single, Just Enough. Can you tell us the story behind it?
“Just Enough” was sparked by my longtime, continued friendship with someone I used to date years ago, but now we have the most easy-going, unconditionally loving friendship. We would do just about anything for each other, but there’s no pressure or judgement. We both feel like we can be exactly who we are, utterly ourselves…and after one particular day hanging out together, that inspired me to write this song about unconditional love, in a somewhat old-fashioned, retro, and wholesome musical style. I wanted it to be something that hearkened as much to my Dad’s doo-wop era as to Lenny Kravitz. With a fun, uptempo groove – a rarity for me, since I often write on piano!
The track feels like a soulful exhale – a gentle reminder that simply being ourselves is enough, even in a demanding world. Why is this message particularly meaningful to you?
Having been inspired by a longterm friendship with “more than friend” origins, it felt to me like a perfect song through which to channel the message that there is no “right” way to love. If “Love is love is love” then love is also the infinite variety of types of relationships that can be as valid and meaningful – whether platonic or romantic. What matters most is that we love and are loved…it’s a way of being, an ongoing choice to accept and appreciate other people as well as oneself as the walking miracles we are. I can love someone as much in another country who I see a few times a year as I do a good friend I have tea with every month in my neighborhood. I can have a 5 minute conversation with a perfect stranger who I will never see again, and we can exchange dignity and respect and that is a kind of love, a a soulful way of interacting and remaining open and connected, in the world.
It’s a kind of meditation to live this way, and it becomes more and more difficult when we are constantly told by social media or toxic people we may encounter that we are not enough. But we are! We are born innocent and playful and open and creative, and then the grind of adulthood and stress can slowly chip away at our self-esteem and positive purpose. I still believe music and art have the power to bring us back to that feeling of openness and community, and therefore to encourage to be more of our best selves well after a concert is over. So this message, really, means everything to me because I’m a die-hard music fan who’s experienced the message through other artists over and over and it’s saved me many times. It’s also a really fun song to sing with my bandmates in three-part harmony, and to see their smiling faces single the line “love like a bottle in a soda shop”!
The single’s release aligns with Pride Month. How does its message connect with the spirit of Pride and support for the LGBTQ+ community?
I will always leap at any opportunity to remind my fellow LGBTQ+ friends and family that they are just enough – and that being what people sometimes snarkily call “extra” i.e. “too much” is also just enough! I am sometimes perceives as one of those kinds of people because I dress theatrically even in my daily life, love bright colors and just march to my own drum, so to speak. Kids were especially mean to me in grammar school and I was badly bullied for reasons I could never understand, but then eventually I found my tribe, my people and all the things that made me odd or an outsider eventually became my strengths. Like most young artists, I spent too much time and energy early in my career worrying about industry approval, and heeded too much advice from people who just didn’t “get” me. That also applied to partners in relationships and it took me a long time to come to the place of self-love, acceptance and confidence I have now where I can honestly look in the mirror and love the person I see, inside and out. I’m sure being a cancer thriver has a lot to do with that…but regardless: I am more than happy to be that voice who is very clearly saying: I see you, I honor your uniqueness, and you are loved, during Pride and every other day of the year!
Your music often carries a nostalgic, uplifting quality. Do you hope to inspire or comfort listeners – especially those in the LGBTQ+ community?
I am an equal-opportunity entertainer and uplifter – but certainly the LGBTQ+ community deserves all the love and encouragement and appreciation possible, especially during Pride! One of the things I strive most for is to have my shows feel safe and inclusive for as many types of listeners as possible: younger, older, any/all sexual orientations, gender identities, nationalities, ethnicities. The message underlying many of my songs is one of resilience, acceptance, inclusivity and also trying to forge understanding via humor and shared experiences. I’m always happy when people come up to me after my sets and confide personal experiences to me that they feel resonate with certain songs or stories I’ve told onstage. Sometimes people just want to feel seen, to feel acknowledged and ironically, just by listening – even though I’m the one who just played! – I think there’s a real comfort to that, and an opportunity to be present and fully myself, so others feel they can be, too…
This single offers a new glimpse into Canopy, your upcoming album. With songs that feel like emotional refuge, how does Canopy reflect your personal truths or healing journey?
There is a pretty wide variety of songs on my forthcoming album – stylistically it’s super eclectic in a way my last few haven’t really been, even though I always try to have wide dynamics on all my records. About 70% of the material is brand new and very consciously reflects what I wanted to create as far as a collection of songs that encourage the listener to hold only hope and light and resilience even in these overwhelming times. The other 30% are songs that I composed as a teenager, that I’ve toyed with including on other records through the years but this time, they finally felt like they belonged. Among them is a song called “Kill The Clock” that I originally wrote about chasing status, and the seeming ridiculousness – from my teenaged perspective – of things like country clubs that exclude anyone, or how wearing certain brands make you “cool” or not. But even beyond that, at the age of 14 I could see how certain jobs my friends parents had stressed them out that the minute they walked through the door they had to have a drink before they could talk to their spouse. I don’t think I could write that song now because it was a child’s view of a warped adult dynamic. It has a very different meaning now to me when I sing it but feels resonant with our social media obsession, in a new way.
Similarly, my song “Colorized World” was written when I first discovered my attraction to other women, and it’s a pretty literal chronicle of my first girlfriend encouraging me to come out to my parents. She was telling me, in so many words, that the strength it would take for me to be honest about would only magnify, if I could overcome the fear. The song is a metaphor of living in black and white versus technicolor, and likewise, has a totally different meaning to me now all these years later. I included it as evidence of my own healing, my own truth as expressed early in my life and career, and to remind myself of just how timeless and crucial the message acceptance and safety is, no matter the “era”.
How does Canopy differ musically from The Other Side? Were there any specific influences that shaped the sound or style of this album?
I think this is the album I might’ve made next, after “Character”, had there been no pandemic. But there was – so like most people it took me a number of years to fully re-inhabit myself, to let go of all the fear, neurosis and numbness that being isolated and surviving such a surreal and painful time of loss, entails. This record contains more of the essence of who I like to think I am – on a good day! – than any of my previous, but gratefully it is also the most collaborative album I’ve ever made so my band The Sequins (my core players and special guest members) have really helped to take these arrangements and performances to the “next level” creatively and dynamically. Immediately after lockdown I think we were all just so happy to be making music, period, and it was a bit more desperate and perhaps thrown together a bit more recklessly. I’ve always written pop songs and probably always will – but the vision was very strong for this record to lean hard into each player’s ability and willingness to contribute their talents, so I hope that joy is palpable…from the harmonies to the string and horn parts, to the guitars.
The foundation of the album is a group of musicians I’ve played with for many years but haven’t necessarily encouraged to totally let loose and be themselves rather than to interpret the specific sounds I heard in my head. I’ve always been a composer first, a producer and then a vocalist. For this record I tried to let myself be a singer and instrumentalist first, and then trust that gathering this group of amazing musicians would naturally lead some beautiful recordings. I hate to use the “m” word because I still feel very much like a kid most days of the week, but I do think this is my and my band’s most mature recording so far. What that means to me is that we said “yes” more than “no”, and let the process lead us to some unexpected places as much as realize the plan I walked in with. I don’t really listen to other music while I’m making music, but I did a lot of painting and am always looking at art, all the time. I think this was more of an “impressionistic” phase for me, and I would go so far as to say that while I was recording I embraced orange and yellow – new colors for me – probably because they’re colors I”ve never loved to paint with before but decided I should give them a chance; now of course they’re my favorite. Metaphorically that’s pretty loaded!!
You’re currently on tour in the UK. What do you enjoy most about performing live, and how is sharing the stage with The Sequins bringing fresh energy to your shows?
My favorite thing about performing live is helping to create something unique to each audience, that’s a kind of catharsis that hopefully, will leave them feeling uplifted and inspired. I am so fortunate to play with such incredible musicians and touring with Kelly Halloran (violin) and Will Wilde (harmonica) is a huge pleasure. They’re both so soulful and melodic, always aiming to support the song but also to imbibe the material with a quality of freedom and surprise. They keep me on the edge of their seat with their solos!
Can fans expect any surprises from Canopy? Is there something unexpected they might discover?
There are actually a few songs I wrote as a kid that are on this record. It finally felt like they belonged. I reworked the arrangements and it felt like a gift to my teenage self to have my band reinterpret them in a grownup way. Aside from that…there’s a Buddy Holly cover, an instrumental, and more guitar songs than piano songs! I can’t wait for folks to hear it – it’s definitely a dynamic smorgasbord, musically!
What does your creative process usually look like—and did recording this album teach you anything new or shift your approach in any way?
Because I also run a record label and spend a certain amount of time touring, my creative process can be challenging to cultivate and essentially requires me to book time with my engineer, gather musicians either in Upstate NY at my home studio or another studio where I like to work in Connecticut, and treat that time as if it’s absolutely sacred. My phone is relegated to “emergencies only” and I behave a bit as though I’m on a meditation retreat and the only thing I’m allowed to think about or do is music! It sounds like I’m kidding but as someone with ADD who has a lot of additional responsibilties – other artists to tend to and so forth – I have to get a bit extreme about avoiding distraction and the best way for me to do that is to use all my powers of persuasion to convince the people around me that whatever seems timely can probably wait until I’m NOT recording…and to also apply that discipline to myself!
It is really true that time is the most precious commodity – aside from health – and yet somehow time when creating seems to expand. It’s magical how that works and it’s because creating is such a natural state and other things seem to suspend. As far as learning anything new making this – my 17th! – album, I suppose I learned how to let go a bit and trust the process more. I pre-planned less and came up with most of the ideas on the spot out of pure necessity, but I think it actually really benefited the music to do that, and credit the players involved for being able to roll with so much spontaneous composing and arranging of parts on my end; these are incredible musicians with the very best ears who can absorb anything I hum or tap out on a keyboard in real time, and make it feel like we’ve been playing it together forever. It’s a joy when things come together that easily, and I really do believe that “casting” the right people around you to help tell the story is such a gift!
Finally, what’s next for Rachael Sage? Are there more songs waiting in the wings, or are you planning a creative pause?
I’ll be touring pretty solidly from now through the end of 2025, so that’s going to be at least 6 months of steady shows. Hardly a pause – except to make the odd video or to present some of my paintings at a handful of art exhibitions this summer/fall – but it’s what I love to do most…so I’m incredibly excited to bring this music to audiences far and wide, and to share the stage with some amazingly talented peers, along the way! As far as more songs, I’m always ready with a notebook or voicenotes on my phone, and try to be open to song ideas every day so it’s never a scramble when I’m finally ready to do my next album. At this point, I’m super focused on “Canopy” and the shows on my calendar, but next year listeners can expect a live record, and hopefully some touring in Europe as well as the UK!