Sadie Dupuis might just be one of the best people in music. Not only does she make top notch tunes – both with her band Speedy Ortiz and her latest solo project, Sad13 – but she makes a difference. A driving force behind the current movement to make gigs safer for fans, she’s one of the first in line to tackle social and political issues such as consent through hard-hitting yet super fun songs like ‘Get A Yes’. This month sees her release new album, ’Slugger’.
Hey Sadie, how’s things?
Heyyyy. Eating some noodle soup of my own culinary devising. Watching last week’s episode of Empire ft. Mariah Carey. Gonna get some film developed after that. It’s my first day off and at home in a while. Now that the press cycle for this record has started I’ve had to be in New York most of the time.
You’ve recently embarked upon a new solo project, Sad13 – is it something you’ve been itching to do for a while?
I love pop music and have always wanted to work on something that aligns closer to that genre. Even though my brand of pop was made in a lo-fi, DIY, guitar-oriented fashion (understandable, considering my musical background), these feel markedly different from the kinds of recordings Speedy Ortiz produces as a group. I’ve had some of these songs in my head for a long time – years, for many of them. So when I had some downtime early this year, it was a priority to get these songs written and recorded.
Have you found you’re able to explore anything on this new material that you’ve perhaps not been able to before?
Because I’m viewing this as a “pop” project I felt I could be a bit more straightforward in these songs, not just lyrically but with regard to the chord progressions and arrangements. Also, even though I write the songs in Speedy, we view the songs as belonging to all of us. Because I play everything on Sad13, there’s no real question of authorship, and I was more comfortable expressing certain concepts and ideas knowing that I was the lone woman behind them.
How have you dealt with every little thing being down to you? Is there more pressure when nothing happens unless you do it?
I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment with getting everything ready for tour, but I’m lucky to be touring with a band comprised of great musicians and people, so it doesn’t feel quite so lonely. Two of the members of my band – Jade Payne, who plays in one of my favourite rock bands Aye Nako, and Emily Reo, who performs under her own name and self-produces some really amazing pop songs – have been super helpful in figuring out how to present this record live. Playing with backing tracks – or even playing a synth live – are totally foreign to me and I’m so thankful to have friends who know what they’re doing! We’ve just started practices and I’m trying not to freak out which is no easy task for me.
What was your absolute favourite thing about creating ’Slugger’?
There’s this ascending synth part over a few measures in the coda of ‘Just A Friend’ that I effected pretty heavily and filtered and it gets louder and scarier as it goes on. It’s not really a proper scale and jumps back a few tones every once in a while and has this feeling that it’s endlessly getting higher and higher. I love to put really frightening moments in otherwise really pleasant-sounding songs so I was psyched when I added that part.
To what extent do you feel a responsibility to positively impact others with your music? Songs like ‘Get A Yes’ for example, feel like they’re specifically for the listener or society’s benefit.
I think making art your profession is narcissistic by nature – your whole job is to convince other people to interact with something you’ve made. In that way, it’s very much like marketing. So many people use music to convey a vacant or apathetic message, and to me it just feels like wasting the listener’s time or devaluing their intelligence. So yeah, it’s important to me to write lyrics I think will be impactful to some of my listeners – or songs that I think would’ve been impactful for me as I was growing.
Are there any topics you’d especially like to explore in future that you haven’t yet?
Hard to say at this point. Possibly dependent on how our election goes. I’ll just say “pizza” for now. Like maybe I’ll just write a full-on apathetic fun-rock album, like the shit I was complaining about above.
What do you think is a really positive thing about music right now?
Some of the best selling records in the past few years have been political records. That’s very heartening. It’s cool to see more people care about representation politics in music, too.
Album release aside, do you have anything coming up that you’re especially excited about?
My mom and I are planning to go to Texas around Christmas. That’s a way away, but she’s never been, and I’m excited to show her Austin – my favourite North American city.
Taken from the November issue of Upset, out now – order your copy here. Sad13’s album ‘Slugger’ is out now.
