Press

Date: April 02, 2007
From:
Edge New York City

Sacha Sacket Heads To Vlada
by Padraic Maroney, EDGE New York City Contributor

Some musicians love life on the road and performing for their fans. Others hate to be on the road and hardly tour. Despite being currently on tour singer Sacha Sacket is in middle of the debate. He can't decide how he feels.

"I can't decide if I am in love with touring or if I hate it more than anything. Literally, touring is the best thing ever and the worst ever. You have some of the greatest moments and meet some amazing people and the greatest experiences you'd never have. You get out of your own little mind and get into other people's lives. I value that so much," the conflicted singer explains before changing to the cons of touring. "Then you are stuck in the middle of nowhere in a motel and thinking where am I, what am I doing here. Everything I love and all of my friends are back in Los Angeles and I am here. You'll have a night like that."

In the meantime until he can come to a conclusive decision, Sacket will continue living on the road. He has a stop in New York on April 11, where he will be playing at Vlada for a preview show of his new album. When we spoke, Sacket was in Denver during a layover while traveling to Iowa where he was going to be performing two shows in one day. The "double whammy," as he refers to it, consisted of a lunchtime show at the university's cafeteria and later that night he would travel an hour to another school and perform an evening show.

A big part of the singer's performance schedule has been at the nation's universities. He has played at over 150 different schools. Part of the reason is they understand him better.

"The kids at that age usually get more of what I am doing," Sacket explains, "They get me musically."

They might be getting less of him in the future, however, because with his new album Sacket is going to be moving away from doing college shows. Rather, his performance schedule will be dictated more by venues and less universities. The shift isn't meant as a slight against his college-aged fans, instead it is to try to open the shows up to all of his fans.

"There are people out there other than college kids who want to see me play," Sacket said.

Sacket explained that during his shows he bares himself and his soul through his performance. It is though the rawness of his show that truly connects him with his fans.

"It's like a little love affair. I go up onstage and share my life," Sacket explains. "People come up after shows will share their lives with me because they feel I've done that with them. They will share the hardest part of their lives. I love that. That's pretty much why I do it."

Along with those who share their life with him, there are also a number of people who will come up looking to hook up. Sacket said it's always a compliment but he would actually prefer if they didn't.

"If I am playing a show and baring my heart and thinking about the most intense period of my life, I'm not necessarily looking to hook-up at that part of my day," Sacket says.

Along with the performance shift, the singer says that the new album, Lovers and Leaders, is also a shift tonally. His previous album, Shadowed, dealt with darker subjects such as addiction and break-ups. Being at a different place in life, including being happy in a relationship, has helped to form the material on the soon-to-be released disk.

"I look at the album as a big kiss. It's a big bear hug. It centers a lot more around love and surrendering myself to love,"

Sacket credits falling in love with helping to inspire the album. He warns that he isn't singing about how in love he is currently; rather it's about struggling to be in a relationship.

"I was always avoiding [falling in love]. Not letting it happen; not letting go of my control," he explains. "[The album is] borne out of me learning to let go. Not necessarily me being like 'love is great.'"

The new album features a full band on almost all of the new record. After Lovers and Leaders is released the singer plans to begin performing while utilizing the band on stage. In previous go arounds Sacket hasn't consistently played with a band on tour, opting instead to use his computer.

Playing the piano himself, Sacket knows what it's like to play an instrument and be scarred by taking lessons as a child. After two years of taking lessons, he stopped the lessons and playing. However, it was hearing his mother play the piano that re-ignited his interest and he eventually began to play again, but on his own terms. To this day he still has discontent with the idea of taking lessons.

"Forcing kids to do scales and really boring things, it's absolutely not creative on any level. I don't see any point in it at all why a teacher would feel the need to teach a six year old child scales on a keyboard," Sacket explains. "You should just teach them song at that point. That's what they want to learn."

Being an independent artist is something that Sacket enjoys because he doesn't have anyone telling him what to do with his music. Much like with his relationships, Sacket doesn't want to lose control of his work. However, he is excited because the record label he is on is starting to grow. This means less work for him in terms of business and it allows him to concentrate on the music.

"It's really not about the money. It's a struggle to do this. So if I didn't get to write my songs from my heart there would be absolutely no point," said the artist.

Sacket says it was hard to come out to his parents about wanting to be a musician. It was the similar story of many artists, coming home from college and letting them know. But due to his persistence, his family has accepted it and completely supportive.

"My dad will bring my CD into restaurants and have them play my CD and tell everyone that is his son," recalls Sacket. "My dad never would have never done that five years ago. It is a progression. He's proud of me and what I am doing."

The issue of him being an openly gay artist is actually not an issue to the singer.

"I don't know if it means anything anymore," Sacket said about being an out artist. "With time it's more what I do is music. Obviously we know my sexuality, or even if I am a guy or a girl, white or black. It's so secondary. I see it as a non-issue. People sort of just want content more than they want political statements. It matters less who I am screwing."

Along with making music, Sacket is also moving into film. While studying at USC he started as a theater major, but felt irresponsible to get a degree in theater so he switched to USC's well known film school. The singer says that he never had aspirations to be a director, but that film has become a passion of his since graduating. The passion is only going to grow now that he has finished his debut role in the indie film November Son, a psychological thriller about a man who tries to create a family after being disowned by his own.

"We shot the bulk of the film in five days. I slept two hours, if I was lucky, a night," he said laughing. "It was a life changing experience."

Sacket says that he has an acting teacher that he works with and would like to do more film in the future. One thing that he's not sure about though is going to the premiere and having to watch himself on the big screen.

"I don't know if that is possible. I might have to get completely slaughtered," Sacket laughed. "People can't even look at themselves on home video. Imagine a few hundred people staring at you and having to sit in the audience."

Sacket originally agreed to do the film because when director Jason Paul Collum, asked him because he thought it was a horror film, like Collum's previous work.

"[I thought ] I would get a scene with blood all over me, screaming and running from somebody trying to kill me. I thought that would be the most awesome thing you could ever do. It was always a dream of mine."

Once he got the script though he realized he it wasn't a horror flick, nor would his dream come true. But after reading the script, he found a lot of material to work with. In the film, Sacket also sings a song from Shadowed.

Just as we finished talking about the new adventure that his career was about to embark on with the new album and upcoming film, Sacket had to bid farewell due the trip he was already in the middle of. It was time for him to board his connecting flight and share his life with the good people of Iowa.

All original material © 2007-2010 Sacha Sacket Source. All other material property of their respective owners.