Carol Ades/Sabrina Song

Emotions make a mess. It's not the kind of mess you can just shove under the bed, either. Carol Ades isn't here to help you scrub out the mess until you can't see it anymore. Instead, she's here to help you celebrate it, learn something from it, and move on confidently because of it. 

The New Jersey-born and Los Angeles-based artist, singer, and songwriter wants to empower you, but she's going to keep it real too. Ades dedicated her whole life to music and even had a few brushes with major success on stage and behind-the-scenes. Following a bad breakup in 2018, she turned inward. She wasn't afraid to get raw. Under the influence of everything from the series Fleabag, Greta Gerwig, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Glennon Doyle to the Japanese House, MUNA, and Phoebe Bridgers, she began to write her own coming-of-age story. Ironically, the first song of this phase ended up in the hands of two other artists, becoming "Past Life" for Trevor Daniel and Selena Gomez. 

With the onset of quarantine, she wrote for herself at a prolific pace, making emotional, lyric-driven songs "you can scream to or sob to in your car." You'll find she's a lot like the friend who lets you cry on her shoulder, but still tells it like it is when you need to hear it the most, holding your hand through the mess with timeless music of her own.

Sabrina Song’s music captures the weary heart of young adulthood—with all its heartbreak and bursts of hope in between. The Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and producer emerged as a rising star with her early trilogy of EPs—2019’s Undone, 2020’s How’s It Going to End?, and 2022’s When It All Comes Crashing Down—which saw her unpacking growing pains with plainspoken vulnerability. In 2023, she broke out with her single, “Strawberry,” which captivated a newfound online audience with its delicate, emotionally-stirring sound. Now, the 24-year-old artist is poised to become a new force in introspective indie rock with her debut album, You Could Stay In One Spot, and I'd Love You the Same.

On You Could Stay In One Spot, Song parses through the existential thoughts and murky relationship dynamics that arise in one's early 20s and crystallizes the pure, timeless emotions at the core of all the turmoil. “This album touches on the things that I’m constantly thinking about but not always expressing,” Song says. “I’m grappling with the oppressive feeling of time slipping away, the experience of womanhood, and trying to find balance as I fully become an adult.” She exhibits a wisdom beyond her years as she writes of letting go of people-pleasing tendencies, the rage of being looked down upon, and the magic of surrendering into love—despite self-sabotage and doubt.

Song began writing the songs on You Could Stay in One Spot in 2021, during a time of life transition following her graduation from NYU’s Clive Institute of Recorded Music. While she steadily released her early indie pop songs, her 2021 Tiny Desk Contest entry was featured on NPR and picked as a favorite by judge Phoebe Bridgers. The following year, Song made her SXSW debut and brought her own intimate sets to Sofar Sounds’ London residency. Opening for artists like Del Water Gap, Sarah Kinsley, and Hannah Jadagu, she’s honed a live set with a full band that’s as intimate as it is electrifying and raw. She’s also produced for rising artists Dana McCoy and Camp Kona, striving to foster an “egoless” creative process outside of the male-dominated production world. 

Born and raised on Long Island, New York, Song began taking piano and violin lessons while participating in community theater productions at a young age. As she honed her songwriting as a teen, she was drawn to singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Mitski for their deeply personal and narrative-driven lyricism. With their influence, her songs capture universal experiences, while still tapping into a specifically Gen-Z ethos. As her work tracks the process of her abandoning her perfectionist and realist mindset, Song faces these messy coming-of-age feelings to find herself anew on the other side. “My projects are something I feel I can put on a shelf, and have it be timeless,” she concludes.