The Absolute Catharsis That is Playing Loud, Rock Music: An Interview with Sara Keden
NAME: Sara Keden
WHAT: Bassist, Musician
The first time I saw Sara Keden play was almost five years ago on one of her first tours with the School of Rock All Stars. Even as a teenager, her sheer technical skill and confident poise made her a stand-out among other talented players that night. The awkward, thirteen-year-old, amateur bassist I was couldn’t help but watch her in awe. Her vibrant energy and joy was simply infectious, lighting up every inch of the dingy, basement stage. Sara was a force to be reckoned with.
Credit to @mckinleymusic
Fast-forward a couple of years and her musical accomplishments are surprising to no one. Already, she has gone on an international tour with Billy Raffoul, a rising rock artist who’s worked with the likes of Avicii and Mondo Cozmo, and somehow found the time to record and release her own music while re-adjusting to college life. In spite of the glamour and excitement of these experiences, she looks back on them with reflective honesty, finding truth in quieter moments, self-care, and collective healing. Below is a conversation I had with her about her journey thus far.
V: When and how did you start playing bass?
I started playing the bass when I was twelve years old. I was sort of a sad kid in middle school and I didn’t really have anything in my life that I was passionate about. My mom was worried about me, so she signed me up for a program called School of Rock. School of Rock is a performance based music program where students receive private lessons in an instrument and then apply their skills by learning and performing rock music. I only did private lessons at first, and after about a month I was ready to quit again. My mom was so pissed, and she told me that if I was going to quit I had to do it myself. So, I went inside the school and tried to tell my music director, Frank Perrouna, (an unbelievable bass player who is now one of my dearest friends) that I would be dropping out of the program. I remember saying “I’m quitting,” and he just said “No you’re not, you’re actually going to be in our punk rock show, it’s in a month, come to rehearsal tomorrow.” And I said “Well, okay,” went to rehearsal and played some punk rock. There, I got the tiniest taste of the absolute catharsis that is playing loud, rock music and it was game over for me. In spite of the glamor and excitement of these experiences, Sara looks back upon them with reflective honesty finding truth in quieter moments, self-care, and collective healing.
V: Growing up, did you expect that you would go to school for music? What has your experience at UMiami been like?
I honestly can’t even remember what I wanted to be when I was a little kid, but I was always very creative. I know for a while I wanted to be a visual artist, but I never thought about that stuff in terms of what I was going to study in college. It wasn’t until high school that I really started entertaining the idea of going to school for music, but I also applied to a ton of liberal arts programs for creative writing and English related studies. I actually almost went to Oberlin for creative writing. However, all of those other schools totally vanished from my mind after I visited Frost to audition for the contemporary program back in February of 2015. I went and sat in on one of the contemporary forums and I was just absolutely stunned by the music that I heard from the students, and I knew I needed to be there.
My experience at Frost has been really amazing, but not for the reasons that I thought it would be. I’m actually about to change my major, but thus far I’ve been a music business major. I’m in the contemporary program and my principal instrument is electric bass. I’m also part of a really interesting program called the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music (CAM), which is basically a songwriting program. I have access to some amazing resources and fantastic professors. It’s the type of situation where you really need to make the community work for you and create opportunities for yourself. The best part about Frost though (the part that keeps me sane when I start to question my choice to study music) is the student community. I truly think that my classmates are some of the greatest musical minds of our generation and I get to work with them and play with them every day. I learn so much from my friends constantly, and there’s always so much love and music and knowledge and laughter going around. I really would not trade these people for anything. I’ll actually include some links to their stuff below, because there really is something in the water at Frost that everyone needs to hear.
Credit to @meg.myer
V: How would you describe your bass playing? What characterizes your style?
Oh man. What a question. I always get told that I don’t play too busy and I don’t get in the way of the song and that compliment always pisses me off because it’s just a reminder to me that I don’t have the chops to ruin a song even if I wanted to! Man! Wow I don’t even know what characterizes my style. I feel like right now my playing is in a state of flux… it’s been a tough semester. I think I’m really aiming for warmth, if that makes sense. I’m looking for warmth in my tone and I’m looking to bring warmth to the arrangement with whatever lines I play.
V: Recently, you went on tour with Billy Raffoul, which is incredible! How did that end up happening? Was going on tour a difficult decision to make?
Billy is amazing! He is just so talented, so hardworking, so passionate, so humble… I could go on. Basically what happened was a very kind, very generous faculty member at Frost named Brian Wilkins had a connection with Billy’s management company, Vector. A call went out in Vector for a female bassist and vocalist. Brian let me know about the opportunity so I sent some videos his way, and before I knew it I was on the phone with Billy’s manager Kevin, and then on a plane out to Nashville, and then on the road with Billy and his team. It was nuts. Deciding to go on the road was a tough choice because at the time I didn’t know if I was going to go back to school at all. Billy and his team were extremely accommodating of my situation. They offered that I come out with them for the summer and then decide in August if I wanted to go back to school or not. I ended up deciding to go back to Frost because I feel like I have a lot more growing to do in my musicianship, but it really was an incredible opportunity, and I hope to work with him again when I get out of school.
V: As exciting as being young and on the road sounds, I could imagine it being pretty stressful, too. What do you feel you learned most from the experience? Is there anything you wish you knew before embarking on an international tour?
It’s really exhausting. Maintaining your mental and physical health is a real challenge on the road. I got to a point at the end of our first real American tour with Mondo Cozmo where I just had no appetite. I was eating like a bird, just bags of carrots and CLIF bars. I came back pretty thin. I also started to understand why musicians struggle with substance issues. You drive all night and all day, run your body in the ground, then you have to turn on and exert literally every ounce of energy you have for about an hour on stage, then turn the adrenaline off and try to go to sleep for a few hours. I definitely started wishing for something to help turn on and then turn off. Despite the craziness though, I really think it helped me learn to get comfortable being alone with myself. I learned to enjoy being alone in hotel rooms or alone on flights or in restaurants or just walking alone through new cities. I do miss that about it. Like I remember when we did our Europe leg, I took a walk through Paris and it’s all very dreamy and beautiful there, with these little cafes and courtyards that you can just disappear into. I felt like I was in a dream world but not in a bad dissociative way, I felt like I was my own anchor, a reference point for experiencing and absorbing all of this beauty. Yeah, tour makes you become your own anchor.
Credit to @estorie
V: Do you have a favorite moment from tour?
There were so many amazing moments. I really got to travel to so many beautiful places. We went to Europe for a week which was incredible, and I met some really fantastic people everywhere we went. I think one moment that I will never forget was when I got to meet Liv Tyler at a Kings of Leon after party in London. We had just finished playing a huge stage at the Hyde Park Summerfest, it was my first time in London, and I was on top of the world. Billy shares a manager with Kings of Leon, so we went to their after party. There were a ton of celebrities there, but I really wanted to talk to Liv Tyler because my dear dear little sister Liv is named after her. Finally when we were about to leave I thought “Screw it, I will never get a chance to tell Liv Tyler this information ever again, ” and I walked right up to her and said “Hi Liv, I really don’t mean to bother you but I just wanted to introduce myself to you and tell you about my little sister Liv. She’s named after you and we always tell everyone that, and I’m actually out on tour right now and I really miss her, so when I saw you here I knew I had to tell you.” She was so lovely. First of all, Liv Tyler really is the most beautiful woman in the world, so just making eye contact with her was insane. But she was so kind and personable. She immediately asked to meet my little sister, and then she talked to me for a whole five minutes about the lineage of her name and about her mother and her grandmother. It was amazing.
Credit to @sarakedenmusic
V: Any exciting plans for the future?
Man, I just want to get better. I just want to keep going, you know? Keep expanding, writing and playing and recording. I started this semester quite strong, but right after Hurricane Irma hit Miami, my life got really out of control and my mental health completely deteriorated. The semester turned into a nightmare, and I stopped being able to do the things that I wanted to do (practice, write, record, collaborate, gig, etc). But, I made it to the end; I just got home for winter break and I’m actually going back to therapy to get my head back together before spring semester. Obviously when I get back I want to return to making music in every way, but the thing that I’m most excited about is returning to an amazing job that I just started last semester. Through a friend at Frost, I was able to get a job with a program called Exchange for Change teaching weekly songwriting classes at a men’s prison in Dade County. These men who are my students live such painful lives, but the music that comes out of them is stunningly beautiful. It is a really heartbreaking job sometimes, but to be able to bring music into their lives gives me the greatest joy I’ve ever known.
Listen to “Everybody” by Sara Keden: