Bio
Phoenix singer/songwriter, Sarah Vanell, has just finished recording her fourth album, Olly, Olly, Ox I’m Free. Armed with her piano and natural talent, she has truly mastered her own recipe for songwriting. Her inspired, unpredictable melodies mixed with witty and decisive lyrics, are all balanced out with her bold and candid performance. Vanell’s latest work takes listeners on a musical journey of ethereal tones and theatrical tendencies as she portrays each of her “characters” with conviction. No two songs sound alike, and that is part of Sarah’s charm. Listeners never know what they are going to get, but they are always pleasantly surprised.
Sarah comments on the final track of the album: “’Say When’ is the last song I wrote for the album, literally two weeks before heading into the studio. This is the closest song to a lullaby on the album, and it couldn’t have come at a more fitting time,” Vanell references the birth of her first child. “I wrote more than half of my album while pregnant, and I remember wondering if having a child would change my writing, and I can answer that now…absolutely! I am more myself than ever. I have a greater confidence in my songwriting. As a mother and a songwriter, I try not to question my instincts. It is when I am open to the unknown that great things happen. That is how I feel about “Olly, Olly, Ox I’m Free.” It is my way of saying “Here I am world! I want to ‘play,’ but on my terms and in my own time.”
In 2005, Sarah entered the world of music with the soft-spoken and angelic debut album, Icarus. The soon to follow sophomore album, Fickle, would validate Sarah as a true songwriter in 2007, and as television producer Lee Hill describes, “…every note is deliberate, crystal clear. Her lyrics are thoughtful and her vocal range, playful. It’s a magnificent combination.” Then came her 2008 album, Emotional Discharge, and as Otto D’Agnolo (platinum award winning producer/engineer) describes, “Lyrically, melodically and in most other ways Sarah Vanell is all but Emotionally Discharged! This young talented singer/songwriter is just getting started on what is sure to be an amazing career filled with hit songs.”
And now with the release of her fourth album, Olly, Olly, Ox I’m Free, Sarah waits anxiously to see how her audiences will respond: “This album has been in the works for over a year and it feels so wonderful to finally share it with my fans. My only hope anytime I release an album is that my listeners make the songs their own. People often ask me ‘what or who is that song about or ‘what did you mean by…’ and I find it very hard to answer. For one, the meaning of a song for me changes all the time depending on what is going on in my life, but more importantly I would never want to deprive my listeners the experience of discovering what it means to them. I want them to feel like every song is truly theirs and that it too can change with their own life experiences.”
© Sarahsmuse 2011
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