Daily Inspiration: Meet Sarah Durbin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Durbin.

Hi Sarah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a new musician in Nashville, but I’ve been doing music for basically my entire life. I grew up in the Chicago area, and from the time I could talk I was singing I always wanted to learn to play instruments so that I could sing and play. My mom started finding me a piano teacher when I was in 3rd grade and things only picked up from there. A few years later I was in voice lessons, started playing guitar, and played in bands through an organization called Rock Academy that was very similar to School of Rock. I had also found a passion for Musical Theatre and songwriting at this point.

By my senior year of high school, I was in a band that worked so well that we actually wrote, recorded, and released our own record in 2018. I was totally hooked. I decided to major in Lyric Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for college. As I studied Musical Theatre and Opera under some of the most amazing faculty I could have asked for, I continued pursuing my songwriting and production skills with Ryan Groff, Champaign musician, mentor, and dear dear friend. He helped me hone my writing and ear for arrangements and production. He helped me release an EP and multiple singles throughout my college career.

During the summer before my senior year of college, I spent part of the summer in Nashville working with some musicians that totally changed the way I approached songwriting and music in general – Candi Carpenter and Alden Witt. I fell in love with the way they approached their songs, with complete honesty and vulnerability and I spent the next year trying to write songs that held up to what I knew would be their standard. Post graduation I decided that Nashville was the place I needed to be. I am continuing to pursue my Musical Theatre career as well as a career as a musical artist.

My most recent release is a song called Gonna Tell Ur Mom which was about an ex of mine that broke up with me over text from just across town after a four-year relationship. It’s a sassy, revenge pop-rock song that I hope people can use to scream about their crappy exes.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Music is never a smooth road. In all industries, but I have found entertainment especially, there are so many egos, people who think they deserve it all and spend more time trying to downplay the successes of others and tear them down than doing the work themselves.

I’ve dealt with rejection more times than I can count and especially in the first few years of college it made me seriously consider quitting. Heartbreak and the general aches and pains of growing up and learning how to be a person I can be proud of in this work have certainly put me through the wringer, but at the end of the day, I always come back to music, to singing, to writing. It always manages to be the thing that brings me back.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Right now, my main focus is on my career as an artist. The music that I’m creating now is a fun pop/rock style with as much honesty packed into every song as I can get. This past year I’ve released several singles, including but not limited to Had Me At Goodbye, Grenade, and Gonna Tell Ur Mom. These songs have felt the truest to me as an artist and it’s beyond exciting to be here in Nashville working with some of the best musicians I’ve ever met to take myself to the next level.

I write songs about things that have happened to me in my life, writing is my coping mechanism above all else. If I’m struggling with something, there’s gonna be a song about it. And I’m learning to not mince my words or cut corners. I think that’s one thing that separates me from a lot of other artists. I’m not afraid to be vulnerable and just give everything I’ve got.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I think my favorite thing about Nashville besides the music is just how easy it is to connect with people of all kinds.

Everybody knows everybody, which is a double-edged sword sometimes, but that means it’s not only easier to make industry connections but personal ones as well. I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had here in Nashville already and I’ve only been here for a few months. So far, I have no complaints!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahdurbinofficial.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_durbin_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sarah_durbin_
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6n9Xcn6I0JBCqSox16reKN?si=RyNxeCp0T1-TazSyZoZMjQ