Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Saturday.
Sarah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started playing in bands when I was 16 in a small town in Wisconsin. I grew up having a love for not only music but also visual and performance art from a very young age, as part of a musical and theatrical family. My high school grunge band morphed into a pop punk band in my 20s, which is when I started learning how to book tours and manage my band’s business and marketing.
Social media was pretty new then, and it was a lot of fun learning how to use those websites to help promote the band online. Through touring and building those other skillsets, I landed my first job in the music industry in my mid-20s and moved from my small town to Los Angeles, which was quite the culture shock! I continued to learn about the industry there while starting to write and learn how to record my solo stuff. Soon, I had enough songs for my first four-song demo, which I released online under the name Gardening, Not Architecture.
A couple of years later, I played my first shows as Gardening, Not Architecture (or “G, NA”), and a couple of years after that I released my first album and started touring as a solo artist, performing with a homemade LED light wall, my bass, and backing tracks. After having done the “band” thing for so many years, and then being immersed in the industry side of music for so many years, I was interested in finding new ways to present music in a live setting — ways I had not seen anyone else do before. This tenet is still at the core of G, NA today.
After I left the music industry and moved to Nashville in 2012, I started digging into experimentation and collaboration across mediums. Eleven years later, I’ve just released my third multimedia “visual album” performance piece, entitled “Voyage.”
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, the hardest part of my 20-year journey with Gardening, Not Architecture so far has been the mental health struggles I faced in the early years, which almost brought the whole thing down many times. Shortly after I moved to Nashville in 2012, I had what could be considered a nervous breakdown — or hitting rock bottom, which is what I call it.
I’m grateful for that painful period, now, because it forced me to stop everything and get honest about how I was living my life. I took a two-year hiatus to focus on therapy and recovery work, and I didn’t start writing music again until the end of 2014. This mental/emotional/spiritual detour is to thank for what G, NA is today, in many ways.
Repairing my self-esteem, releasing old grief, and understanding better how my mind worked opened up a whole new creative world for me. I was able to let go of a lot of old beliefs and ideas about who I was supposed to be or how things were supposed to go — which freed me up to be experimental as I wanted to be, to chase any artistic idea that I feel excited about.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an interdisciplinary musician, producer, writer, and performance artist known also by my stage name, Gardening, Not Architecture. I have released several albums, singles, remixes, videos, films, and multimedia performances and played over 200 shows in the U.S. and Canada since 2009.
I’ve also scored music for film and TV, including creating the original score for the feature film “Superpowerless” in 2016. My live performances have always involved multiple forms of media and tech, and since 2015 each new release has been accompanied by a live performance piece centered around film projection. My most recent release is a 40-minute theatrical performance and accompanying soundtrack album entitled “Voyage.”
I was recently awarded a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for fiscal year 2024, which is a huge honor. I think what sets my work apart is the vulnerable approach that I take both in lyric writing and performance, as well as the unique combination of film, original music, and movement that I’ve been developing since 2016.
I collaborate with a lot of musicians and artists on each release, but specifically, my creative partnership with filmmaker Dycee Wildman has brought a whole new dimension to my shows.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is connection. It was through connection that I was able to face and heal a lot of my struggles with anxiety and mental health, and I believe connection is the most powerful antidote to suffering.
I am telling very personal stories through my work, but in a way that I hope can resonate with people so that they know they’re not alone. It’s important to me that I am sharing something that can be useful to others, rather than just adding to the noise.
Pricing:
- People can support my work by joining as a member for $1, $3, or $8 per month. In return, they get a lot of perks and discounts as well as access to behind-the-scenes content and updates.
Contact Info:
- Website: sarahsaturday.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/gardeningnotarchitecture
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/gardeningnotarchitecture
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/gardeningnotarchitecture
Image Credits
Tiffany Bessire and Danielle Shields
