“Music is like a good old friend. It brings back memories connects you to your present by uplifting you and sometimes it also speaks about you or things you are going through so you cannot feel alone with music. Humans need music to get trough everyday challenges.“

Sarah Sokal: Twisted Games Blues

After veering from the adult contemporary and pop worlds, Montreal blues singer Sarah Sokal is bringing a sensational and powerful new album Twisted Games (2024) to listeners led by a delectable, brawny single "Man Made." It's a beefy, bluesy, party-starting track that showcases Sokal's alluring and alarmingly strong pipes, keeping the blues alive by bridging the gap between tradition and modernity, drawing in a younger audience who appreciate both timeless blues and the appeal of mainstream music. Sokal, who cites Beth Hart and Susan Tedeschi as influences along with icons such as Peggy Lee, Etta James and Dinah Washington, grew up listening to rock and rhythm and blues in her teens. That blues passion resurfaced and solidified after meeting producer Marc Dube for a coffee in Montreal a few years ago.

(Sarah Sokal / Photo © by Philip Faith)

Sokal has had an illustrious career thus far. Writing her first song at age five (entitled "Pourquoi"), the musician professionally recorded her first song "I'm Lost" when she was just 15. From there she performed as a teenager in various hotels around Montreal and Quebec before forming The Sarah Sokal Band. Her group performed at various private functions, corporate events, and fundraisers, showcasing a musical mix of pop, adult contemporary, and blues. She is also a vocal coach and has worked with a variety of Juno Award-nominated and Juno Award-winning artists.

Interview by Michael Limnios                                Special Thanks: Eric Alper

How has the music influenced your views of the world? What moment changed your music life the most?

Listening to artists that writes their music, is letting you dive into someone else’s vision of the world. I find it interesting to discover music from different eras the most, but I also like hearing native chants or exotic music that uses different scales. It is not only inspiring, but it opens your mind to new realities too.

I think my music journey started to change the moment I learned to say no. No to what I didn’t want to do, and no to what people wanted me to do. I don’t think there is any big enough box to fit a person in. We are complex urban animals. Saying No is saying Yes to creating out of the box.

How do you describe your music philosophy and songbook? Where does your lyrics creative drive come from?

My Philosophy is that everything can be adapted or rearranged but when you get touched by a song you have a duty to make it exist and it touches you in its purest form. I always try to capture that essence and build around it. My songbook is a lined black hard cover mess!

In my last album it was mostly about men. I love men that much, I guess. But it could be about anything or everything really. There is no pathway its like jumping in the water and you have no clue if it’s a river, a stream, or even a bathtub.  Wherever it comes from or wherever its going! I often write a bunch random words quickly then look at it and I make sense of it. My brain is a little crazy like that.

”Women are underrepresented it’s that simple! We are rare, we are cuter, we have higher tones, we are nice to watch and to listen to. That makes an awesome product to sell, don’t you think? Time to massively embrace the movement.” (Sarah Sokal / Photo © by Philip Faith)

How do you prepare for your recordings and performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina?

I like to sleep a lot before a performance to recharge. When you perform you give a lot of yourself soul wise too and that can be draining for the body. So, Sleep, a good healthy meal, I light candles. Something I do as a ritual is: I make sure to hang my outfit to the view two days prior just so I know what’s coming and be ready to embody my alter ego. She is sort of a clone of Aretha.

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I miss the brass sections, the glam the orchestra and how everyone was dressed so classy and clean the message was clear and there was no attempt at going for the shock factor. I am afraid we are using tech a bit too much whether its autotune AI and I really don’t want music to be made by robots with virtual instruments. We need more organic music, some truth & some soul.

What does to be a female artist in a Man’s World as James Brown says? What is the status of women in music?

I’ll give you an image: A guy with a guitar, a guy with a gang of guys with guitars … It’s everywhere so I want to be right there to represent. We need to entertain the other half of the planet and the men who like women, there are a lot of these out there too.

Women are underrepresented it’s that simple! We are rare, we are cuter, we have higher tones, we are nice to watch and to listen to. That makes an awesome product to sell, don’t you think? Time to massively embrace the movement.

”My Philosophy is that everything can be adapted or rearranged but when you get touched by a song you have a duty to make it exist and it touches you in its purest form. I always try to capture that essence and build around it. My songbook is a lined black hard cover mess!“ (Sarah Sokal / Photo © by Philip Faith)

Why is it important to we preserve and spread the blues? What is the role of music today?

The Blues is very special. Mainstream music is really upbeat, and life today is upbeat and intense too. Blues allows the listener to either relax a bit without putting you to sleep or to let out a bit of daily frustration with the fusion of rock. There is music for all audiences and I like making music for my generation.

Music is like a good old friend. It brings back memories connects you to your present by uplifting you and sometimes it also speaks about you or things you are going through so you cannot feel alone with music. Humans need music to get trough everyday challenges.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

I’ve learned not to let producers tell me what to do creatively speaking. Take what you need but leave the rest. You need to be level-headed and have a thick skin. I also learned to recognize snakes dress in sheep skins. You need to stick with people who believe in you, by doing so you believe in yourself even more. I’ve learned that music grows with you.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

I listen to mainstream music a lot. It’s important to get influences by what people are listening to in the now. It allows me to make something commercially viable too. My goal is to share blues and bring a modern twist to it so I can reach a wider and a younger audience. Blues isn’t music only for the older generations anymore.

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(Sarah Sokal / Photo © by Philip Faith)