Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Erin Harks.
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Mistress of None. I am Erin Harks, and my guest today is Sawyer Fredericks. Sawyer, how are you?
[00:00:18] Speaker B: I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: Thank you for being had. I really appreciate you coming out. This is our first time meeting.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And it's been a long time coming because I have been through this whole rivalry in my head with the Times Union readers poll for the past, like, you know, 10 years or something where we've been neck and neck every single year. And what's funny to me is how I competed and campaigned so heartily for it, and you didn't even know what it was or who I was.
See, so those are the battles that we fight sometimes, guys.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: But, oh, yeah.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: So I really just wanted you here so that I could finally destroy you once and for all.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: But what is the reader's poll?
Just curious.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: It's a poll that readers vote on for best of best musician, best comedian.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: To be fair, a few years ago, they did away with all the music categories, and now they just have one. It used to be, like, bands, genre, solo, whatever, and now it's just one. So, you know, Skeeter Creek wins that every year. So we're both done.
So now the rivalry is over, luckily. So now we can finally be friends.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: After we, you know, just first met.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, now we can be friends. I had to wait for the threat to go away, but it's really. It is very nice to meet you.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: It's very nice to meet you, too. I apologize. I was unaware of the rivalry.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: You know, I just wanted to clear the air, you know, why we haven't met yet. I just wasn't ready for that.
I couldn't handle it.
So for those of you that don't know Sawyer Fredericks, you must be living under a rock. Sawyer, you're originally from this area, right?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yes. Out in the town of Glen was where I grew up.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: What is that?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: The town of Glen. Glen, which is near Amsterdam or Fonda.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: All right. And you obviously, are best known for winning the Voice.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yep.
Which I went on to that when I was 15, actually. Wow.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Okay. So, I mean, winning the Voice, winning the Times Union readers poll, which do you think?
Sorry, I'll let it go now.
So what made you want to try out for something like the Voice?
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Well, so they scouted me, actually. They found videos of me performing at farmers markets because I used to do that when I was younger. I actually still do that because I Enjoy it. But my mom was posting videos of me playing at farmers markets, and they reached out to my mom and saying, like, hey, we'd love to have Sawyer come audition for the show. And this was for what's after the open call audition, where there's, like a ton. A ton of people.
And basically when we first saw it, we were unsure about it because I was like, I'm a folk artist. I don't know how I'm going to do on a reality TV show. Didn't seem like the right fit. And also, I was a bit of an introvert at the time.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: So as opposed to now?
[00:03:28] Speaker B: As opposed to now, I feel like I've gotten a little bit better growing up homeschooled. That, you know, makes you a little more introverted.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: But we'll get back to that.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get back to that.
But basically, we just looked at it as a learning experience and wanted to see how it would go.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: And it went.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: It went well. It went very well. Went very well.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: That's incredible. Yeah. Because, I mean, you would think that something like that would be more geared towards, like, a pop.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Exactly. Which was why I was like, I don't think they're gonna want my music on there. But then they were, like, happy for me to be singing, like, man of Constant Sorrow. I'm like, all right, sweet.
It's a good song.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: If you don't like that song, you don't have a pulse.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: So what you're telling everybody, basically, is that it doesn't matter if you audition. It's basically set up. You were like, a ringer. It was fixed the whole time.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah. That is definitely what I said. Word for word.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: That's what I'm taking away from that. Don't even bother, because they're going to find some kid outside of Amsterdam and he's going to win the whole thing. No, I'm just kidding. You obviously deserved it.
So were you already writing your own songs back then, when you were 15?
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Yes. I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was 11.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome. And is your family musical?
[00:04:48] Speaker B: My mom plays a little violin and sings, but not professionally.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Okay, so it's just something that you wanted to try? You expressed an interest?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: I had some cousins that played guitar, and my uncle taught me my first few chords. And then I just kind of, like, I always was singing when I was younger, and as soon as I learned some chords, I was like, okay, now I can write songs. And just, like, followed that. That interest.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: That's. That's awesome. Yeah, we had. We would have little like old broken rickety pianos and stuff around when I was growing up.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: And I'd be like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And next thing you know, they're like, all right, well, we gotta get her. Yeah, little Casio keyboard or something.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: The funny thing is that my mom got me guitar lessons when I was like seven or so, and I hated it, did not like it. And I think it was also difficult for me to hold down the strings because my hands were very weak at that time.
But once I was 11, it just felt way more natural just learning a couple chords from my uncle and just like latched onto it after that.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Are you kind of self taught at this point then?
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm mainly self taught for guitar. Besides like learning a couple things from like my cousins or whatnot.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I had a similar thing, you know, with piano. I didn't like the lessons. I could never. I didn't have the.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was tricky for me to be like following instructions with such an artistic thing.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And I think there's must be like, you know, similarly brained people. Whatever side of the brain it is. Like, I never had the discipline for what they wanted to do. And also I just wanted to play the things that I heard on the radio, which I was sounding out by ear. Anyway.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Anyway.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: I mean, my poor family had to sit through the Simpsons intro that I played over and over and over and over again for years. Yeah, sorry, I can apologize now. But, you know, look what it's. Look where it's brought me.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: So I would always get commercials stuck in my head and my brothers would have to tell me to stop singing them because I. Yeah, we're basically the same person.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: What I'm discovering, I'm just going to keep putting words in your mouth just to steer. Steer the ship a little bit.
So what. What was it like after winning the Voice? What was it like?
[00:07:04] Speaker B: It was pretty crazy. There was a lot of good things and a lot of things that were hard for me to handle at the time because, like, I was 16 when I won the show and I was signed to Republic Records, which didn't turn out super great. We released an album called the it was a Good Storm was the title. And they were trying to have me do a lot of songs that weren't mine. I don't think they really looked into my music and the fact that I was writing my own songs. They just wanted me to record other people's songs on my album, release it as my own.
So There was a lot of me fighting them on that, which thankfully, all the songs that I got on the album were in some way written by me, whether it was co written or completely written by me. But I had to fight a lot for that.
So I got out of Republic Records and released some albums independently. The other tricky things for me when I got off the show was coming home was a really big change. Not at the farm. Like, the farm was the same.
The cows don't treat me differently, my dogs don't treat me differently.
But, like, it was. It was tricky because I couldn't even just, like, go to a grocery store with my mom anymore without getting, like, mobbed. And, like, so it really changed my childhood at that time, which was hard to deal with when I was only 16. But you had to, like, learn from a lot of that stuff.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: And how long ago was this again?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: That was in 2015.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So about nine years ago. So you're.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm 25 now.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: You're 25 now.
You have, like, the signature. I don't know. What kind of hat is that? Like a derby?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: It's a derby.
Well, I should say this. The first one I had was a derby. Now I wear a bowler.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Okay. Now, were you wearing that out when you were going out with your mom?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: No, no. I purposely was not wearing, like, the clothes that I normally would wear because I didn't want to just get, like, mobbed all the time. But it still was getting recognized everywhere.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's gotta be rough.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: It's tricky. Cause, like, you start to get in your head about it, and it's like, oh, should I hide, like, the way I dress, how I look?
[00:09:21] Speaker A: And that's not fair that you should have to do that.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Exactly.
But I like how it is now. Cause that's died down a little bit. And I feel comfortable, like, walking around, my hat on. And I'm okay with having, you know, people come up to me as long as I'm, like, alone. Sometimes it's a little strange when I have, like, my friends around me and then a person comes up. It's like, oh, my God, you're sorry, Fredericks. And I'm just like, okay, well, these people also exist. Like, I don't want them to feel like, yeah, less than or something.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: So that's very kind of you. I could see, like, especially if you're going from being homeschooled to having an experience like that. Like, juxtaposition's gotta be violent almost for.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Sure as well as, like. So the Type of homeschooling we did was unschooling, which is self directed learning and learning through life, which is one of the reasons why I went onto the show, because we thought of it as a learning experience.
But, you know, I grew up on a farm, unschooled, so I didn't have, like. I didn't have a lot of, like, local friends. So very isolated to some extent. There was some, like, gatherings that I would go to every year, but most of those people that I would meet up with live far away.
It was a tricky thing. I have two older brothers. Yeah. So they were. They were my best friends growing up. And we're very close in age, so that's good.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: You guys are still very close.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Now in the environment, I'm just trying to picture it because I obviously had a very opposite kind of childhood. Like, did you guys rough house or were you just all peaceful and kind?
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Oh, no, there's rough house.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: That's not what I'm picturing on the farm for some reason. It just seems like, like, hugs and sing alongs and stuff like that.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Oh, no, no.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: All right. We're getting to the root of it.
We have folk songs about bully older brothers.
Where. Where did you come right back to the area after the voice or did you.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Or I did a full US Tour after the Voice, and I. And I continued doing that for a couple of years. It kind of shut down a little bit after Covid, and right now I'm in kind of like a mid ground of, like, trying to figure out how I want to start touring again. Yeah.
But, yeah, I did a full tour, and that was a really fun time. It was fun seeing all of these, like, different states.
It was also kind of strange because you, like, people would ask me, like, so how is this state? Like, And I was like, I don't really know. I, like, drove in there and went to the hotel, then went to the venue and then drove out. But it was cool.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: I went to Dallas last year, and I was out of my home for less than 24 hours. Not even in Dallas for 24 hours. And I got back, and people were like, how was Dallas? And I'm like, the airport's huge.
I went to my hotel. I went to my hotel. The airport's actually bigger than Manhattan.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I went to my hotel, I took a nap, I got up, I went and played, went back to the hotel, went to sleep, got up really early, and flew home for a show. So it was like, yeah, so you don't always get to see. Now when I go places, I try to pad it by a few days so I have a little time to look around and explore.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Sometimes my tours have that where I can like, show up the day before, before a show and then have a little time to like, oh, see the city before I'm playing the show. But I feel like most of the time we keep it pretty tight just because we want to save money.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: And keep it. You know, it's already really difficult to make money on a tour, so you gotta. You gotta save the expenses where you can.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's impractical to. Whenever I do, like, something corporate, I'll be like, oh, it's better if I. For safety if I fly in the day before. And they never argue with that because it's like if you get a delayed flight or something.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: True.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: But also when you fly out of Albany, there's no direct flights.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: And they all leave at like 4am so it's like, you don't want me that tired later on that day. It's going to take me eight hours to get there. I will have been up all night.
What was one of your favorite places that you got to see on tour?
[00:13:33] Speaker B: I mean, there's a lot of national parks that I got to go see.
You know, I feel like I should be saying venues, but, like, there was really beautiful spots. Yeah, Yeah.
I got to see, like a redwood forest, and that was really beautiful. I think that was in California. It's always hard for me to remember exactly where I was. There was. I saw the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado that was absolutely gorgeous.
I would probably say the Great Sand Dunes were my favorite. Just because, like, you're walking up this giant, giant, like, ocean of sand, you know. And I, of course, wanted to be barefoot going up it. And I'm just like, wow.
Yeah, if I got lost out here, I would die.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: It's so funny because it plays tricks on your eyes. Like you're trying to figure out, like, where, like, what's cloud and what's the sky? Like, where the earth ends and the sky begins. But I remember driving into that area and we came up from Santa Fe and I remember thinking, like, who lives here? Like, it has to be some, like, witness protection kind of program, because who would just decide to live in these, like, little, like, areas and stuff when you're driving and then you get to something like that, it's like, yeah. And then you, you know, have a few more hours to get to Denver. But one of My favorite places. I actually specifically planned a date in.
In Moab so that I could see Moab and Arches.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: And I had to pack it in real quick. You know, I, like, drove from Colorado the night before, slept in the morning, played the show, got up early, went to Arches, and then headed down to Arizona for my next show. But it was. I've been back four times since. So. Yeah, that's part of the fun of touring is, like, you get a little taste of a city and decide if you want to go back. What was your least favorite?
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Oh, my least favorite. Probably driving through. There was a spot in California where you're driving through where it's all just cafos and it's just reeks and then just looks horrible. Yeah, yeah.
And being, you know, like, growing up on a farm and seeing it done a very, like, natural and healthy way, seeing, like, a highly concentrated, like, cows just, like, packed all in together just like, made me very sad.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: I'll bet. Yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: And you could smell it from, like, miles away, like, horrible.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: So I would say that was the.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Worst, so best and worse. Right. In California. A little something for everyone.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: I've. I've said that I want to make sure that I go to all 50 states by the time I turn 50. And I'm, like, slowly, like, checking them all off. And some people have different qualifications for what counts as having been in the state. And I, like. I don't count if I have, like, a layover there, because.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Yeah.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: I don't count that.
Some people. I've heard some people count flying over it, which is. That's ridiculous. But I heard somebody tell me, they're like, you can't count if you've just driven through. And I was like, what else are you gonna do in Nebraska but drive through as fast as humanly possible as.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Long as you're seeing the sights. When you're driving through, I feel like you've been there to some extent. I mean, maybe stop to get something to eat, maybe. But other than that.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Other than that, when you leave Omaha and you're headed west, there's nothing. You just need to find a big truck and just draft behind it, go as fast as you can and wait for the Colorado border. There's no unless you got to stop. And I have a diesel, so I don't have to stop as often for fuel.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Which is good because there's no place to stop in Nebraska. It's just. It's not spot. All right, so.
So after you toured but you pretty much always still called this area home.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I never another spot as home. I recently just moved to. Well, I wouldn't say recently, but past like four years, I've been living in Troy with my partner, and that's been really nice. I like the music scene in Troy. It's really, like, up and coming and I'm happy to be, like, a part of it, so.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I know that you've made some time at Song City and the Open floor.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Which I was grateful for that connection because I wanted to get you on my show, which we'll talk about in just a second. Well, no, we'll talk about it now. It's my show.
No, I'm really excited that you're going to be on my Lena Go Round.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: I'm very excited, too.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm really.
I was inspired by things that I've seen in Nashville, but also by the Song City that Scott Walmer's put on.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: And he was inspired by the Bluebird in Nashville.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. I went. My favorite one in Nashville was at this place called the Commodore.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And because I've heard of that venue.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: It was like in a. Like a hotel lobby. So you. It was very unassuming, you wouldn't think, but it was in not a lobby, but just off the lobby, like, almost in, like a convention hall. So it's not a typical venue, but they have a stage and there's four people up at a time and they each do like one or two songs and then they get another four up. So, yeah, you'll get like, anywhere from like 16 to 20 performers at night, but you'll get everybody from me to somebody who used to write for Elvis.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: And they're. It was insane. They'd be like, you know, the person would introduce and be like, tell us a little about. Bit about when you were writing for, you know, Dwight. Come back and like, you're just in this. You know these people that have written for the best.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: That was intense.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: There's a lot of amazing songwriters out in Nashville that are very unassuming when you're meeting them. And then like, oh, yeah, I wrote this, like, highly popular song for this major artist. Like, oh, cool.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: I'm trying not to, like, fangirl and be that person in the back, but they would, like, say something. I'm like, shut up. You know, wow. And then you meet them and they're just like, yeah, you know, that's what. They just write songs for other people.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: What a job.
So anyway, yeah, I wanted to do something like that. I knew that Saratoga, I didn't have one. And I reached out to Cafe Lina and was so pleased that they said.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yes, Cafe Lina is a great spot to do it. So.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well, because I said something, I was talking to somebody else and I was like, where do you think? And they were like, cafe Lean. I'm like, they'll never let me do that there. Sarah was like, absolutely do it. And so this one coming up, which is November 27th. Right. Always got to make sure.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the 27th.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Promoting my shows properly. That's actually our one year anniversary of Lena go Round. So I, I think it's so special that, you know, I finally got my. My musical rival.
I said I'd let it go, but, you know, I wasn't gonna do it. But we're gonna have a good time. I. We also have Josh Morris coming up and Girl Love who told me that she was working on some stuff with you.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Anyway, yeah, we've been writing pretty often and we also went on the. The Ink retreat for Song City together. So. Yeah, we're good friends and I'm excited to be playing that show because we're probably going to be debuting a little new song that we've written together, so.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Oh, I love to hear that. I'm definitely gonna hop on one of Josh's songs and he's probably gonna hop on mine. But I want to start encouraging that. We started doing that in the last few rounds where people just kind of like help each other out. Much like what I saw down at the Commodore.
Just because I feel like it's kind of cool to just impromptu. Impromptu jams. What's. So to speak.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: I need to get better at playing like lead on guitar so I can actually like hop in on jams. Like I can do percussion.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: But we're just harmony.
I'm not really good at harmony.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: Really?
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah, never. I mean, because I'm mainly self taught. So like I didn't have like training for harmonies and I always like, I've always sang the lead for, for my songs. I've been like, I can learn harmony, but I can't find it easily.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: I bet you could. You know what I bet is holding your back. I'm gonna make it just a theory here. I bet it you're. You're too nervous to just try.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean there, there definitely is that one. One thing that helped me start to find harmonies this person recommended or how they described it, allowed me to see it differently. And they were just saying, it's. It's just another melody.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: And I was like, oh, oh, that's easy. I can just. I can do another melody over the key. That's, that's, that's fine because I'm self taught as well.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: But like, sometimes I'll find the harmony in my head, but when I'm singing it with somebody, if I'm shy, I'm not hitting it because I'm afraid that it's going to be wrong or whatever. So when I get out of my head and I just belt it out, that's usually when it comes out the best.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: So usually we should just try it sometimes. Not right now. You guys don't get that I'll be.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Doing harmonies with Laura. I've practiced those ones, so we're good.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: Okay.
Nerves play like a huge role in that. But I also. Two of the things that I listened to the most growing up and before you think I'm like, ancient, this was my mom's stuff. But I listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac and ccr.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, me too.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Well, I just have to say it because I'm like, that was before my time too.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: I would say Credence was like my biggest inspiration growing up.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: So again, same person.
But I would listen to Fogarty and I would sing my own harmonies to that.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: But I was all by myself.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: That's hard to sing harmonies to his vocals, like, because we're going to. He's a powerhouse.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: We're going to learn so much, you and I. I think it's going to be great.
So that's great that you're working with Laura and you've also been working with Cassandra.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Yep. Cassandra Kavinsky. We just got finished with a little string of shows together after releasing our single, which was called Burn It Down.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Very cool. And you guys, how have you met these women? Has it been organically?
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Yes. So Cassandra reached out to me because she was looking for artists that she wanted to work with in the area. She didn't think I was going to be responding, but I listened to her music and I was like, yeah, I'd be happy to. We, in the beginning, we weren't sure what we were going to work on. We weren't sure if it was going to be a co write or a duet or something like that.
But then we got together and she showed me her song Burn It Down. I was like, yeah, I enjoy collaborating on this one and singing it together. So that's kind of where it just took Us.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: It doesn't surprise me at all that she reached out because she seems like that kind of like, I'm just gonna go for it.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Yeah, she's a go getter.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Real go getter.
And Laura.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Laura I actually met at Cafe Euphoria. She was performing there. And Cafe Euphoria is a cafe in Troy that I was going relatively often when I was living downtown.
And they had some open mics and then she had a performance there and I, like, briefly met her there. And then I actually became friends with her because I started going to the Song City open mic and she was going to that and just kind of happened very naturally.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: I love that. I love that you can go from something like the Voice to, like. I mean, it's not a. It's not a traditional open mic. It's.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: No, yeah. The Song City open mic's very, very fancy and nice. Like, I love that they do the in the round style for it. Yeah. But still, that's great.
Which also makes it easier for artists to make friends with each other because they're getting up there and they're having conversations about each other's songs and it just invites a collaborative feel.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, I'm just glad that, you know, we, in a sense, get to have you back in the area even though, you know, we almost lost you to Hollywood and the girls.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Things really wanted me to move to Hollywood and I was just like, I don't like it here.
I'm sorry. Like, I like, LA is fine, but they don't have it set up to, like, you can't walk anywhere. You have to drive everywhere. Like, it's. It's a city, but, like, you have to be on a highway to just get to a grocery store. And I'm just like, this is rough.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: And the grocery store is three miles away and it's going to take you 45 minutes to get there.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Exactly. Because there's no, like, transportation. Like, when I think of, like, a city that's well set up, I'm like New York City. I like how they have it set up. Even though it's, like, polar opposite to how I grew up, it's still cool to me.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Like, they did it well.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I only went to LA once and I was staying with my friend. I went to, like, a couple of. It was when I was first starting out in comedy, so I went to a few open mics and, yeah, it was a really cool experience because I met some really cool people. And then I got up one night and Just did a song somewhere and, like, it was fun. But, like, during the day, she would give me her car and I would drop her off at work, and she worked, like, literally five miles away. And it would take me an hour and a half to drop her off and go back and then go around and like. Yeah, you can't get anywhere.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: So sad.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So, well, welcome back.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Well, we're happy to have you. I know you have some new music coming out. We don't have a date, but it's.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Gonna be early next year. The title of the album is no need to Wonder.
And I've actually written a lot of songs for this one. It's finishing the EP that I released somewhat, I think, last year, called the Golden Tree. And my idea for this album was to have it a folk rock album, very literally, in the sense that the first half is folk and the second half is rock.
And I think I succeeded at that. And I'm really excited for people to hear the music. I've been playing a lot of the songs I've written at some of my new shows that I've been performing, and I've been getting a really good response. So that's great.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Well, I can't wait to hear it.
Is there anything else you want the folks to know that they might not already know?
[00:27:53] Speaker B: I think they got it all. Yeah.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: So we're gonna collab now that we're finally friends after all that rivalry.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: No, we still have to get over the rivalry. Yeah.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: See, I knew it. I knew it.
I knew it. That's all right. We'll talk about that. No, it's.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: That can be in the song. We'll write it into the song. Yeah, let's do that.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Let's keep this. Let's perpetuate this whole, like, thing. I mean, I'm much older, obviously, so it'll look very pathetic on my end that I'm going after somebody in this manner. But, you know, it won't be the worst thing I've ever been called now. It was really, really great to meet you and talk to you, and I can't wait to finally share the stage with you. It's going to be such a wonderful time.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: The feelings mutual.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Oh, thank you so much. So this has been Sawyer Fredericks on the Mistress of None. I am Aaron Harks, and we will see you at Cafe LENA this Wednesday, November 27th, Thanksgiving Eve. It's a nice alternative to going out and getting drunk with your friends.
You're welcome to drink here, but it's not going to be like your hometown bar. Sorry. We won't let it.
So catch Sawyer. What's your website?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: So my website is sawyerfredricks.com you can find all of my information on there.
Instagram and Twitter is Sawyer frdrx, and Facebook is just Sawyer Fredericks.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Okay, look him up, come see us. Go see him. And we'll see you soon. Thanks for tuning in.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: Bye.
You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Erin Harks.
