FEATURE:
Spotlight
Sasha Alex Sloan
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I have been following…
PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times
Sasha Alex Sloan for a while now. Her new album, The Crowd Goes Mild, was released last month. I did want to spotlight this incredible American artist. I hope that she has some plans to come to the U.K. and play next year, as we would love to see he here. I cannot find any reviews for The Crowd Goes Mild. There are some interesting recent interviews with Sloan. In addition to being an acclaimed artist, she is also a respected and prolific songwriter. She has penned some songs for major artists. Collaborated with Charli xx among many others. I am starting with Music Row and their look inside Sasha Alex Sloan’s songwriting universe:
“The early years were anything but easy. Sloan worked at a coffee shop, clocking in for 5 a.m. shifts before heading to songwriting sessions. She spent roughly four years doing that without seeing much tangible progress, but she now looks back on the experience as an education in collaboration.
“I was this 19-year-old who had written alone forever, and then I was thrown into rooms with people who were used to co-writing. The first couple of years there, I just spent learning how to be a good co-writer.”
Nashville eventually became the place where Sloan felt most connected to the kind of songwriting she wanted to do. She bought a house in the city in 2019 after making several trips to write, then moved to Music City permanently in 2020. The shift gave her a deeper connection to guitar-and-piano-driven writing and the storytelling that first drew her to music.
Her Nashville work includes five cuts on Zach John King’s I’m What You Get album, as well as collaborations with Wetmore, Max McNown, Willow Avalon, William Beckmann, Carter Faith, Kaitlin Butts, George Birge, Sam Hunt, Alana Springsteen and Kelsea Ballerini. Among those songs, Wetmore’s “Yours” and King’s “Way To Go” reflect the songwriting process Sloan values most: starting with an idea and building the story together.
“What I love about Nashville is it’s so much about the song and the production comes later. It’s about getting from point A to point B and telling an amazing story.”
At the same time, Sloan’s pop work has placed her in rooms with some of the biggest names in contemporary music. She co-wrote Olivia Rodrigo’s “what’s wrong with me,” featuring Robert Smith, a collaboration that became particularly meaningful after Sloan had stepped away from songwriting for a period and was struggling with her confidence.
After hearing that Smith would appear on the song, Sloan tried to put the information out of her mind until it was real. Watching Rodrigo and Smith perform the song together at a festival ultimately became a turning point.
A similar sense of disbelief followed when Sloan learned that a song she had written with Isabel LaRosa and Thomas LaRosa would be released by KAROL G and Bruno Mars. Hearing Mars’ voice on the song was especially significant for Sloan, who has long admired him as a songwriter and performer.
“Hearing his voice on something I was a part of was just full body chills.”
Those experiences have reinforced what Sloan already believes about songwriting. It’s less about fitting into a genre and more about making music that connects. Her experience as an artist has also shaped that philosophy. After initially releasing her own music as a way to help other artists understand her writing, Sloan eventually embarked on her own major-label career and toured, giving her firsthand insight into what artists need from the songs they record”.
Not to mangle these interviews too much or bring in the same information twice. I am keen on Songwriter Universe and their conversation with Sasha Alex Sloan. I really like The Crowd Goes Mild. I get a new favourite each time I pass through it, though perhaps the opener, Glitter, is top for me. I would urge people to check out the album:
“Along with her career as a pro songwriter, Sloan has also established herself as a distinctive singer/songwriter who has previously released three solo albums. And she’s about to release her latest album, And The Crowd Goes Mild, on October 23.
With the 10 songs on her new album, Sloan shows why she’s a unique songwriter and gifted lyricist, who is also an expressive vocalist. The songs on And The Crowd Goes Mild range from uptempo, modern pop-rock cuts, to heartfelt ballads.
Interestingly, Sloan’s creative lyric ideas shine through on her new album. The album’s title song, “And The Crowd Goes Mild,” shows her quirky sense of humor and her subtle understatement. Another imaginative lyric is “Delusional Optimism,” which displays a lyric freshness and clever wordplay. On the more serious side is “Still Be Me,” a sensitive ballad about a couple that she’s friends with, who are going through a difficult time.
Sloan will soon be taking her music on the road, embarking on a new concert tour. Starting in late November, she will be headlining shows in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston. For her shows, she will be playing a combination of her older popular songs, and songs from her new album.
Sloan grew up in Boston, MA, and she attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music. When she was 19, she moved to Los Angeles and began to have success as a songwriter. She secured cuts with Kaskade, Idina Menzel, Kygo and Maggie Lindemann, and she reached hit status when she co-wrote the Top 10 single “Never Be The Same” with Camila Cabello.
In 2018, Sloan began to establish herself as an artist. She released two EPs (Sad Girl and Loser), and in 2019 she released her third EP, Self-Portrait. Then in 2020, Sloan released her debut album, Only Child (on RCA Records). She subsequently released her albums I Blame the World (in 2022) and Me Again (in 2024).
We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Sasha Alex Sloan. She tells how she co-wrote the hits “Never Be The Same” and “What’s Wrong With Me,” and she also discusses her artist career and her new album.
DK: Sasha, do you see yourself mainly as an artist who also writes songs for other people, or are you a songwriter first who is also an artist?
Sloan: That’s such a great question. I think throughout the past decade, those roles have interchanged in terms of what comes first. I would say right now, I’m songwriter first, an artist second. But for a long time, it was artist first, songwriter second. I originally started as a songwriter, so I’m kind of back to where I started.
DK: You’re about to release your new album, And the Crowd Goes Mild. Can you talk about the making of your new album?
Sloan: I think with this new album, I was in such a weird place mentally. I thought I was done with my artist stuff, and I hired new management. And I sat them down and was like, “Hey look, it’s been a long time since I just focused on writing songs. And I can’t really commit to being an artist and a songwriter. They’re both full-time jobs.” I had been trying to straddle the line of the two, and I was like, “You know what? I feel like I’m done with Sasha Alex Sloan (the artist).” And they were like, “Cool.” So I started writing for other people. Then I wrote this song called “Glitter” and I was like, “Uh-oh, I have the itch again.” This song is hitting me in a way that makes me feel like I should put some more music out (as an artist).” So I slowly but surely started making another album.
DK: On your new album, I like your song “Still Be Me,” which has a heartfelt and creative lyric theme. What inspired you to write this song?
Sloan: Thank you. It’s actually about a couple I know. It’s about watching a couple, trying to make it work. When I wrote that song, I was thinking what it would feel like to be in that position. I’m married, and hopefully I’m never in that position. But I also inserted myself hypothetically, and it made me really sad.. It’s actually about a couple of people in my life where I think when you’re in something, it might be harder to see than it is when you’re outside of it. So yeah, I’m glad you like that song.
DK: On your new album, besides the songs we’ve talked about, what are your favorite songs on your album?
Sloan: I think one of my favorites is “What It Isn’t.” That song hits me in a way that I hope doesn’t sound too narcissistic since it’s my own music. But as I always say in my marriage, I may not have learned what to do, but I know what not to do. And to me, that song is special in terms of, “Hey, I don’t know what the hell we’re doing, but I know that we’re not doing this, and that’s a good thing.” So that’s one of my faves, at least today. We’ll see if it changes”.
I will end with Music Business Worldwide and their detailed and engrossing interview. A lot of these facts and biography about Sasha Alex Sloan I was unaware of, so it has been interesting learning more about her. I know that she has some U.S. tour dates but I am not sure whether there are plans for more next year. It appears that Sloan had a very musical childhood. In the sense that she was exposed to a lot of great artists from an early age:
“Twice Sasha Alex Sloan has tried to formally study music; twice she has got bored, given up, and done something else. Yet both times, these experiences (once indirectly, once directly) have pushed her along the path to becoming a successful songwriter.
The first time, she was only 10. She remembers: “My dad is from Siberia, and he hired me a very Russian piano teacher, because he wanted me to learn classical music. So, I started taking piano lessons. But then I was like, wait, this is boring; I just want to make my own music.”
Thankfully, Mom stepped in and bought Sloan a guitar, a Beatles chord book, a Queen chord book, and a Phantom Of The Opera chord book. “That was my holy trinity. She also bought me a Carpenters CD and a Kate Bush CD, both of which I became obsessed with. And without realizing, I started learning about song structure. And from there I started writing my own songs.
Success was far from instant, and even when it came, says Sloan, it came gradually. A couple of early cuts, one with DJ and remixer Kaskade, and This Town on Kygo’s debut EP, might not have pointed to her future output as a songwriter, but were enough to convince her she might at least have a future.
“Up until then I thought everyone wrote their own songs, so I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant.”
At the same time, she embarked on a career as an artist in her own right, and has released three albums, most recently Me Again in 2024.
Writing is her first love and main priority, though, and it’s through writing for and with other artists that Sloan has become a bona fide hitmaker.
Her first big breakthrough came with Camila Cabello’s 2018 hit Never Be the Same (Top 10 in the UK and US). Since then she’s written with Charli XCX, John Legend, and, most notably, Olivia Rodrigo – on the Robert Smith-featuring What’s Wrong With Me. Most recently, she co-wrote Karol G’s Bruno Mars duet Still.
Sloan now has a schedule filled with sessions. Boredom won’t be an option for quite a while.
At the same time as being a songwriter, you’re forging a parallel career as a recording artist. Was it always part of the plan to do the two things in tandem?
I’m very introverted, and what I thought being an artist was turned out to be very different than the reality.
The truth is, what first sparked me to put music out was my songwriting career. Because I started having cuts, but I thought, well, if I were an artist and I was looking at this writer’s cuts, I’m not sure I would want to work with them – because sometimes as a writer, your favorite songs don’t come out.
So why don’t I just put some music out myself? I thought about it as more of a calling card than as wanting to be an artist.
But then it kind of scaled, and I had a lot of anxiety. I was really bad at touring and all that came with it.
I enjoyed parts of it though, and I do think it really helped me as a songwriter in a room with an artist.
What do you remember about working with Camila Cabello?
I love Camila. She’s the sweetest, best person on earth – and an incredible songwriter.
When we wrote Never Be the Same [2017] we were pretty much the same age; we were both babies, but we had written so many songs, and we were just having fun. Like, I didn’t really understand what was happening, even when that song came out; I didn’t realize the impact it was having.
You also worked with a pre-Brat Charli. What was that like?
That was also just such a fun time, because Charli and I also worked with Camila, and we would all just hang.
Unfortunately, whenever I went into a room, I always used to put this insane pressure on myself to deliver. But you can’t do it every time.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m older, and not everything’s as intense as it is when you’re in your 20s, but I have a new outlook now: it’s supposed to be fun; it’s not supposed to be scary.
Charli’s just the best. She is what you see. She loves to party, she’s funny, she’s smart. She’s that girl. I learned a lot from her too, just seeing her navigate the industry.
What single thing would you change in the industry if you could?
This is something that can’t be changed, because it’s just life, but as a songwriter there’s just this huge lack of control.
I always say, I would have done well at a corporation, because I love to be on time, I love to do my job, and when I go home I like to feel I’ve really contributed and that my boss is happy with me.
And in this industry, where I struggle is you have no control. That’s true of all songwriters, no matter if you’re just starting or if you’ve been at it for a while. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. You can wake up every day and do the best possible job and have nothing.
If it were up to me, I would love to wake up every day and know that if I go do a great job, this is gonna happen. As it is – trust the process and hope for the best”.
I shall end there. The superb Sasha Alex Sloan is someone I would like to see live one day. Such an accomplished songwriter, her work as a solo artist is brilliant. I am not sure what next year holds in store, but I imagine that she is going to be pretty busy. If you have not heard The Crowd Goes Mild, then do give it a listen, as it is an excellent album. The latest chapter from…
THIS amazing talent.
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