December 15, 2021 • 27 mins
Sabrina Carpenter may only be 22, but the singer and actress has made a name for herself in music, TV, film, and on the Broadway stage. In this Interview, Sabrina and Eric talk about how she turned her childhood dreams into a real career, the differences between singing on tour versus a Broadway stage, and how the writing process can help clarify situations - especially with her song Sue Me.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. In my hometown Pennsylvania. I would always go to
this restaurant and it was this way just named Patty,
and she was very sweet. I was six years old
and I remember she was like, it's my birthday and
I was like, I'll sing you happy birthday, and I
sang her Happy birthday. And then she would bring me
around to tables every time we would go eat and
(00:36):
be like is this person's birthday? Like we do you
see them every birthday? And I was like sure. And
then like people would like give me money and I'd
be like thank you. My parents were like you can't
take that, Sabrina, what are you doing? You're six? And
I was like, I'm trying to build a career. What
do you mean. I gotta start somewhere. That's the ambitious
Sabrina Carpenter that I know and love, and she did
(00:57):
turn those childhood dreams into a real career. She started
multiple movies and TV shows, including Girl Meets World. She
even played the lead in Broadways Mean Girls. You might
know from her popular songs on My Way, Skin and
Thumbs and so keep Death Dumb. The fact that I
(01:28):
knew at such a young age like this is what
I want to do for the rest of my life,
and then I've been able to do it, Like I
just don't know what else I would ever want to do,
and so I am very grateful and very lucky. Do
you remember what age where you actually thought this is
what I want to do. I was six. It was
so vivid. I remember watching the pilot episode of Hannah Montana.
(01:50):
You know, it was Disney's first sort of like show
about a pop star, like a singer, and I was
just like, oh my gosh, like I want to do that.
And so I think after that it kind of was
essentially just like my goal and I just would always
draw little pictures of myself like performing for arenas, And
I was very much like a person that liked to
down my manifestations and goals and write songs about wanting
(02:12):
to do that and just always putting it out into
the universe. So I think the universe listened slightly. I'm
still listening, but I mean it's it's very powerful that
kind of stuff. This is backstage pass and I'm Eric Betrow.
I'm a vocal coach to some pretty successful singers on
this show. I talked to my students about their lives,
(02:33):
their biggest insecurities, and how they keep building their careers.
People think the great singers only rely on their natural talents,
but finding your voice takes a lot of work. Together
will explore what it really takes to make it big.
Do you remember one of the first songs you would
(02:54):
sing when you were younger, like a go to song?
My mom and dad had such a different music taste.
My mom was Edda James and Patsy Klein and Maretha Franklin,
and my dad was like Rush and Ozzie Osbourne and
Paul McCartney, So they were they were very diverse. But
I think one of the first songs I ever learned
(03:16):
was Crazy by Patsy Klein. I was like six or seven,
and did you sing it a lot? I sang it
a lot, and it would be that kind of song.
It would be that or like a Christina agulara song
that I would take into like auditions because everyone's always like, hey,
do you sing by the way, and then expecting me
to sing a Disney song or something, and I'd be like,
it's like what you probably thought, like, why is she
(03:37):
a grown man in a small small body? Well, I
think I did think that I think you sang at last,
and I was or maybe crazy, and I was like, God,
she's twelve years old and she's singing this song. Yeah,
I've known you since I was twelve. It's amazing to me.
I mean, if that time flew by. It's been such
a roller coaster, and I feel like you've you've seen
(03:58):
me in such interesting like phases of my life now,
which is wild, and I'm very grateful for it. You know,
when I met you, you were a bit of a mystery.
I've told you this before. You were such a combination
of so many different things. You looked so young. I
could barely see your face because you had all this blond,
curly hair. But then when you started talking, you were
very confident and kind of growing up. But then the
(04:20):
next minute you would laugh, and I go, oh, yeah,
she is really young. Then the next minute you'd say
something very bold. And I remember when Bill, your managers, said, so,
how is the session with Sabrina? What do you think?
I was like, I have no idea whatsoever. I don't know.
Let me do another lesson with her, then I'll tell you.
Oh my gosh, you were so many elements and what's
been so great through the years is see all of
(04:42):
those different elements progress a person almost into a person.
But also I think that's what makes you so charismatic
on stage. I think that when people have a lot
of different elements to them, they are much more watchable
and interesting on stage. So it's a big compliment from you, well,
twelve years old, I mean, it's amazing, but you're only
(05:03):
twenty two, so you're saying only, well, it is only
you've done a lot. I started at an age where
I was fearless and I was so excited and curious that,
like I would go into these rooms with these adults
that normally now that I go into and I'm terrified
and I'm like, I gotta do a good job. They
expect a lot from me. I'm twenty two, and back
(05:24):
then I was ten, and I was like, I'm cute,
doesn't matter what happens, like they're gonna like me. And
I think that that's something that I'm very grateful that
I got to do. I got to experience those things
at a time where I wasn't overthinking and I wasn't
boxing myself into what I thought I should be or
what I thought other people think I should be. I
had not really thought about that. I mean, I do
think about young kids when I work with them, that
(05:46):
they're just not jaded. They don't know how hard or
how difficult things are going to be. But you saying
you were fearless at that age, that's a really great observation. Yeah,
I think I see it now, and it's only because
I know what I'm capable of now. I think back then,
you're sort of still learning what you're capable of. You're
not even thinking about limitations. You're just doing it because
(06:09):
you're like, this is fun. I love making people smile,
I love making people laugh. And then as you get older,
you start to see like, oh, people expect certain things
from me. I am a brand, I'm a corporation, which
is not true, but you start to get those things
in your head as you hear people say them. But
you know, I always try to remind people, try to
(06:30):
reconnect with that feeling, try to reconnect with that person
that you were, and that'll free you from all of that.
People say so much like you need to go back
to your roots and remind yourself why you did this
in the first place. And for me, it's always very
comforting to go back to the basics of like, oh,
I just I love singing, I love performing being on
(06:51):
a stage, I feel the most comfortable and that's why
I do and that's why I continue to do it. Yeah,
would you say that that is the most helpful thing
with you having anxiety or whenever you do have anxiety,
or is there any other tips you have. I'm still
navigating it, to be quite honest, so I don't really
have like the go to this is what I do
(07:11):
to cure it. I think it's always different. I think
sometimes you just need to listen to yourself because you
will be able to tell what you need, whether that's
space and time to yourself, whether that's just a big
deep breath and to relax your shoulders, drop your jaw
and bend forward and hang loose like a rag doll.
Like I don't my favorite genuinely though, like I do
(07:34):
that I shake everything out. I just like I get
it all out of my system. That's sometimes what I
need and other times, like I need to go on
a walk, and other times I need to like call
a friend and you know, decompress it. Just it always depends.
But when it's like crunch time and you're about to
go on stage. I think the deep breath is the
biggest A deep breath inside exactly. Let's talk a little
(07:59):
bit about preparation, like prepping your voice for a tour,
because that is a big thing. It takes a lot
of stamina. It's gonna be hard to just get on
stage and be able to have the control and breath
and long capacity to be able to be bopping all
over the place and singing and have control. And you're
(08:19):
talking before the show. We've talked about this so many times,
you know, meet and greets and how much that can
take your voice away depending on how many people you're
meeting before a show, and trying to preserve that in
the smartest way possible. So I think for me, it's
a combination of working out. Maybe it's doing my warm
ups like on the treadmill, just so I'm moving and
singing at the same time. Obviously, it's singing and warming
(08:42):
up every single day, practicing the songs, getting them in
your body. I think we underestimate like repetition as far
as like the more that you get a song in
your system and your voice is comfortable with singing that
and it's in your body, and it's in your bones,
you don't have to think about it so much. Then
the rest kind of comes naturally, which is why we
do like sing these songs over and over again. I
(09:05):
want to get into a little bit how we did
prep for a big show. Yeah, you only got a
few performance this because that gosh darn pandemic closed everything down,
which was devastating. But did you feel like your prep
for Mean Girls on Broadway felt different than prepping for
(09:25):
a tour? And how was it different? Immensely different in
a great way. I felt like I was ready for
the Olympics. I was in dance rehearsals, I was in
scene rehearsals, I was in vocal rehearsals every single day.
It was the craziest schedule, but I was constantly working
out my voice and really working on my mixed register
that I don't use a lot when I'm singing these
(09:47):
pop songs, because these songs were in a very different
place for me that I normally used my voice. It
was a lot more enunciated, it was a lot more open.
There was a lot more theatrics and personality in some
of these songs than I would ever have to use
on a record where I'm close to a microphone in
the studio and I'm whispering something and you can kind
of take it easy. Yeah, well, it's interesting. I think
(10:08):
for people listening if they don't really know a lot
about voices and singing, they might go, what is she
talking about with the mix? And you know a lot
of pop singers, especially when you write your own music,
you can kind of tailor the music around your voice,
so you can be in your lower chess voice or
your upper head voice, you know, falsetto sound, and you
don't really have to blend them together because you're working
(10:30):
around it the way you write the music. Whereas in
Mean Girls you had to sound like you were belting,
but you couldn't really belt that high in full chess
voice every single night. Yeah, eight shows a week, especially
the notes that were really high. So I remember being
it concerned and excited all at the same time when
you told me you were going to do it, because
I thought, well, we've got to make sure to do
(10:51):
it right in order to maintain your voice so you
never lose it, but also to work at it. So
how exciting that you're going to work at this part
of your voice, which you never really had to do before,
and now you're going to walk away with a new
skill and using your voice definitely, And it was so
exciting to see how much it did grow stronger over
that time period. And I was hitting notes that maybe
(11:14):
before I would have taken quite a bit more effort
because I knew exactly where to place them. I got
to step into shoes that I don't necessarily get to
be in all the time, and really stretch myself and
push myself in a way that I don't always get
to do when I'm just you know, writing songs for
Sabrina um my alter ego, right exactly. One of the
(11:34):
exercises we did to blend the voices was sliding up
and down. I love my slides and now and you
told me once that was your favorite. Can you give
the audience an example of what a slide would sound like?
And I love the woozy woozy Like doing slides automatically
(11:55):
like releases a lot of tension because like in that
short time span, you're using a pretty wide part of
your register. So yeah, I'm always doing that. Well, I
love that you said the woozy woozy, do that again,
so people whoozoo love that because I feel like that
really grounds people and it calms them because you're you're
not trying for a specific no, you're not holding a note,
(12:18):
or you're just letting go. You're loosening up and letting
it flow. My other favorite thing is when we're doing
warm ups and you're like, just lose all feeling in
your mouth and just do whatever exercise we're doing. Is
if like your tongue is numb and you're just like
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That to me
calms down all my face muscles, which are always so
tense when I'm nervous, and I think like a huge
(12:40):
part is relaxing your jaw and dropping it and not
like being like smiley and tense when you're trying to
hit these notes, because they'll come out a lot more
forest and maybe pitchy, Whereas when you're relaxed and you're
just able to kind of let it float freely, it's amazing. Well,
I always tell people they can think that before they
get on stage. But let's say it hits you durn
(13:02):
a song. You can always trigger it in your mind
by oh, I'm starting to feel tense and tight or whatever,
just start loosening up your mouth right in the middle
of the song. You know, it's not one of those things.
Oh well, now I'm you know, too far in. Yeah, exactly,
I'm down that road. I can't turn back. You can
always feel that sigh, that feeling of loosening your mouth, relaxing,
(13:24):
and like you said, dropping your jaw, which I think
is so important when everything is getting tense. Now, don't
go anywhere. When we come back. Sabrina talks about another
helpful vocal practice, one that kind of confuses people. My
fans always ask me why all of a sudden I'm
a different person, and why I don't sound like myself
(13:44):
or why I suddenly sound so much calmer. Thanks for
listening to Backstage Pass. Let's get back to my conversation
with Sabrina Carpenter. I wanted her to talk about what
a concert day looks like for her. I mean, for me,
(14:06):
it starts with being able to like wake up my
voice early in the morning, lots of hydration, and then
doing my warm ups and preserving my voice. I'm always
talking up here like this. My fans always ask me
why all the sudden, I'm a different person, and why
I don't sound like myself or why I suddenly sound
so much calmer, and why they can't hear anything I'm saying.
And I was like, it's because I want to sound
(14:28):
good on stage tonight, you know. So yeah, I mean
it's doing whatever it takes to take care of my
voice before the show and preserve it as much as possible. Right.
I remember one time saying to you, I liked it
that you were keeping the dressing room pretty empty and
pretty quiet, and I thought that was really smart. But
I said, are you doing that to preserve your voice
(14:49):
or because you want to be in your thoughts or whatever?
And you said something that was really interesting. You said, well,
if I'm having conversations with people in the dressing room,
there might be unfinished conversations or thoughts that I then
carry on stage with me. Yeah. I want to be
as much of a blank canvas when I get on
stage as possible. There's obviously going to be things happen
(15:09):
in your life off stage, which is why I admire
performers so much, for all the crazy conditions they might
be going through, and then they still are able to
just like ignore it all input on a show, and
I think it's something that I'm still learning how to do.
But if I can kind of minimize the noise as
much as I can before I get on stage, even
if it's just an hour, I think that's what I
(15:30):
started to do, as I would start to ask my
band and my crew just for an hour before I
went on stage to be able to be with myself,
you know, if I need to listen to music, or
if I need to just rest my voice as much
as possible and not be mid conversation, mid thought with
people when I'm going on stage. I think it's really
helpful for me. I know, you write a lot, and
(15:53):
I'm just curious, like, where do you draw inspiration. It
totally depends on where I'm at in my life. I
think I've always always, always pulled from my real life experiences, though,
even if it means it's kind of like, you know,
a song that not everybody can relate to, like sue me.
To me, those are the songs that have translated the
best to the people that have been listening because it
(16:14):
feels really real and it feels super close to me
and they feel like they're getting a part of me
that they don't see all the time because I'm kind
of digging into I'm tapping into a part of myself
that maybe I don't share all the time that I'm
able to kind of feel more comfortable to share in
my music. How old were you when you wrote SUMEI?
I think I had just turned eighteen, And I mean
(16:39):
people know that you really were sued, and I know
you can't really talk about the details of it nervous laughter. Yeah,
but what I thought was so great is you took
that horribly old, overdone cliche turning lemons into lemonade kind
of thing. But that's really what that song was, right.
It was able to kind of, you know, be formed
(16:59):
into something that sounds like a breakup song, but in
any sense of at the end of a relationship, that
way that you feel when you know they see you
doing well and they're upset about it. I thought that
(17:28):
that was a really powerful way to stand up for yourself.
And no matter the outcome of the lawsuit, you were saying,
I'm coming out victorious because I'm I'm gonna say that
it's me. I did it. I did everything, And I
think that that song was, like you said, a huge
one for me, no matter what happened to the song,
because it just felt like I was able to really
(17:49):
bring that situation that was kind of a negative situation
and bring it full circle to a place where now
I'm on stage and I hear people singing it back
to me, and I'm like, oh, I can't even remember
when I got sued, you know, by those people that
I don't talk to or care about it anymore. When
you're able to kind of use songs as a time
capsule for a specific moment, I think that's the most
(18:10):
beautiful thing because you carry it with you forever. I've
never been good at keeping a diary, so I think
that's why I write songs and release them publicly. Even
though the circumstances are always different, we're all going through
similar situations. I mean, heartbreak, loss or joy, the honeymoon, stage,
all of those things. Everyone's experiencing something at some point,
(18:33):
and I think it's really great because then people who
love your music, fans, or even people who aren't who
just happened to hear it, it's that really great feeling
of it's almost cathartic to sing along absolutely, which is
something I was going to ask you about do you
feel what you've sort of answered it. I guess for you,
writing is cathartic, yes, I mean writing and therapy are
(18:53):
that through the perfect combination of why I am still
able to wake up in the morning and do what
I do. It's true, it's almost like I'm able to
really understand what I'm feeling. It's like when I see
it and when I hear it, it's different than when
it's all just stuck in my head. When I get
it out into the world, and especially when I sing it,
it all makes a lot more sense to me, and
(19:15):
it's kind of guiding me throughout my life. It's the
thing that's been able to keep me going. And songs
too that are older that I go back and listen
to them, I'm like, huh, that's how I was able
to get through that situation. So yeah, the most therapeutic
thing I can think of in my life. That's really
interesting that writing it and then performing it clarifies the situation.
(19:36):
Sometimes by the time I perform songs, they have a
completely different meaning. I'll write the song about something, and
then a year later it's about something or someone completely different,
and it still applies because you know, these patterns repeat
themselves sometimes, and yeah, I think that that's also really incredible.
I know something about patterns repeating themselves. But wait a
(19:57):
minute that I'm going to save that for my therapy
session this week. All right, let's just keep going so
you don't just sing. You've also been acting in TV shows,
in movies like the Netflix film Work and the Disney
musical drama Clouds was really a sweet movie. Yeah, And
the best compliment I can give you is that I
really lost you in the movie, Like I just stopped
(20:19):
thinking about you. Hey, you know, I really felt like
that character you were was so not Sabrina. Oh wow,
that means the world to me. And I thought it
was beautiful and I love that you're singing. Also, it
wasn't your Sabrina Carpenter singing. It was a different voice. Yeah,
totally different. I thought it was beautiful. That actually like
makes me so excited that you, more than anybody, like
(20:40):
recognize that and paid attention to it because I know
that you know when you're singing through the lens of
a different character like I was. Also, you know, Sammy
Brown's a real person in life, and that's the person
I was playing in clouds. She's a real person. Her
voice and her tone completely different from mine. Completely, style
of music, the way that she sings, the way that
she is on stage is super different from me. Yeah,
super different. And you can really hear the difference in
(21:02):
the style in that song Blueberries Dandy Lions are going
to see it's muscle landed to feed Tree stand so
tall and there and hear I stan without of care.
I love the ability to really give someone else their voice.
(21:22):
So I'm really glad that you that you notice that. No,
I loved it, and I also then I watched I
was just going to watch a little bit of work
it because I thought it's not really my movie, it's
not my demographic and then I just got caught up
in it, so I had to watch it and see
what was going to happen. But I love that they
were so diverse. Oh yeah, completely different roles. I'm just
like dipping all my toes and all that's streaming services. Yeah,
(21:45):
and I'm writing my album. So I'm like, I'm doing
all the things right now. When is that album going
to come out? I can't tell you, okay, but um,
but I mean, you know, my fans they think that
I forget about music, when in reality, it's like I
can't forget about it. I am constantly writing. I think
I am a little bit more quiet about my process.
(22:07):
I hate promising things and then not to live ring
on time, but I also want to be able to
give them just the best of what I'm able to
give them. Right well, I can't wait to hear it.
And I love you, and I'm so glad that we
did meet when you were twelve. I love you so dearly.
And this has been really such a pleasure to talk
to you today, and it's been a pleasure to know
(22:28):
you for these past ten years, and it'll be a
pleasure to keep knowing you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to
the future. Stay right there. If you're like Sabrina and
want some more vocal techniques to help you relax your voice,
I've got just the tip for you right after this.
(22:56):
Now you've heard me say how important I think movement
could be to loosen up your body and your voice
while vocalizing. Sometimes it's as simple as singing an exercise
with a bouncy, loose feeling. So instead of singing an
exercise like this, B B B baby, you'd sing it
like this, baby baby, baby, baby be If you're still
(23:23):
feeling a little tight er tense, try moving your body around.
Put your arms out in front of you, kind of
like a zombie, and then bounce them and your head
to the rhythm as you sing. Basses and baritones start
on a sea below middle C, sing to the lowest
note you can go to comfortably, and then to the
highest note you can sing without straining. Sopranos and elto's
(24:17):
start on a B flat below middle C. Same thing.
Sing to the lowest note you can go do comfortably,
and to the highest note you can sing without straining.
(25:02):
And that's it. Go have some fun, bounce around, loosen up.
If you want to share it, I'd love to see
a video of you doing any of the exercises. Use
the hashtag Backstage Pass pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or
wherever you like to post. I can't wait to see
them happy singing everyone maybe may Backstage Pass with Eric
(25:34):
Vitro is written and hosted by me Eric Vitro and
produced by Morgan Jaffee. Katherine Girardou is our showrunner. Emily
Rosstek is our associate producer, Kate Parkinson Morgan as our editor.
The show is mixed and mastered by Ben Holliday. Additional
engineering help is from Jacob Gorski, Martin Gonzalez and kay
(25:55):
Wayne Mia Lobell as our executive producer. Our development team
Lital Mulad and Justine Lange helped create the show. Thanks
also to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame, John Schnarz, Carl Migliori,
Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano, Daniella Lakan
in Royston Baserve. The original theme music is by Jacob
(26:17):
and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group. We record at
Resonate Studios. Fred Talson does our videography and the photography
is by Ken Sawyer. A very special thanks to Michael
Lewis for his inspiration and the best guidance anyone could
ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro as a production
of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show, please remember
(26:39):
to share, rate and review it. I mean that really share,
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and others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus
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(27:02):
Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts. So many people will ask me, like,
who's your mentor like, who's like someone in the industry
that you really like? Look, and there's all these like
amazing people in the industry, and I'm like, I'm always
saying you because you're one of the few people that, like,
(27:24):
I feel like has looked out for me over the
years as a person and as a performer and as
everything in between. And you do that with a thousand
people like you're so you amaze me. But anyways, yeah,
that'll be fifty dollars that Yeah, maybe a hundred
Pushkin. In my hometown Pennsylvania. I would always go to
this restaurant and it was this way just named Patty,
and she was very sweet. I was six years old
and I remember she was like, it's my birthday and
I was like, I'll sing you happy birthday, and I
sang her Happy birthday. And then she would bring me
around to tables every time we would go eat and
(00:36):
be like is this person's birthday? Like we do you
see them every birthday? And I was like sure. And
then like people would like give me money and I'd
be like thank you. My parents were like you can't
take that, Sabrina, what are you doing? You're six? And
I was like, I'm trying to build a career. What
do you mean. I gotta start somewhere. That's the ambitious
Sabrina Carpenter that I know and love, and she did
(00:57):
turn those childhood dreams into a real career. She started
multiple movies and TV shows, including Girl Meets World. She
even played the lead in Broadways Mean Girls. You might
know from her popular songs on My Way, Skin and
Thumbs and so keep Death Dumb. The fact that I
(01:28):
knew at such a young age like this is what
I want to do for the rest of my life,
and then I've been able to do it, Like I
just don't know what else I would ever want to do,
and so I am very grateful and very lucky. Do
you remember what age where you actually thought this is
what I want to do. I was six. It was
so vivid. I remember watching the pilot episode of Hannah Montana.
(01:50):
You know, it was Disney's first sort of like show
about a pop star, like a singer, and I was
just like, oh my gosh, like I want to do that.
And so I think after that it kind of was
essentially just like my goal and I just would always
draw little pictures of myself like performing for arenas, And
I was very much like a person that liked to
down my manifestations and goals and write songs about wanting
(02:12):
to do that and just always putting it out into
the universe. So I think the universe listened slightly. I'm
still listening, but I mean it's it's very powerful that
kind of stuff. This is backstage pass and I'm Eric Betrow.
I'm a vocal coach to some pretty successful singers on
this show. I talked to my students about their lives,
(02:33):
their biggest insecurities, and how they keep building their careers.
People think the great singers only rely on their natural talents,
but finding your voice takes a lot of work. Together
will explore what it really takes to make it big.
Do you remember one of the first songs you would
(02:54):
sing when you were younger, like a go to song?
My mom and dad had such a different music taste.
My mom was Edda James and Patsy Klein and Maretha Franklin,
and my dad was like Rush and Ozzie Osbourne and
Paul McCartney, So they were they were very diverse. But
I think one of the first songs I ever learned
(03:16):
was Crazy by Patsy Klein. I was like six or seven,
and did you sing it a lot? I sang it
a lot, and it would be that kind of song.
It would be that or like a Christina agulara song
that I would take into like auditions because everyone's always like, hey,
do you sing by the way, and then expecting me
to sing a Disney song or something, and I'd be like,
it's like what you probably thought, like, why is she
(03:37):
a grown man in a small small body? Well, I
think I did think that I think you sang at last,
and I was or maybe crazy, and I was like, God,
she's twelve years old and she's singing this song. Yeah,
I've known you since I was twelve. It's amazing to me.
I mean, if that time flew by. It's been such
a roller coaster, and I feel like you've you've seen
(03:58):
me in such interesting like phases of my life now,
which is wild, and I'm very grateful for it. You know,
when I met you, you were a bit of a mystery.
I've told you this before. You were such a combination
of so many different things. You looked so young. I
could barely see your face because you had all this blond,
curly hair. But then when you started talking, you were
very confident and kind of growing up. But then the
(04:20):
next minute you would laugh, and I go, oh, yeah,
she is really young. Then the next minute you'd say
something very bold. And I remember when Bill, your managers, said, so,
how is the session with Sabrina? What do you think?
I was like, I have no idea whatsoever. I don't know.
Let me do another lesson with her, then I'll tell you.
Oh my gosh, you were so many elements and what's
been so great through the years is see all of
(04:42):
those different elements progress a person almost into a person.
But also I think that's what makes you so charismatic
on stage. I think that when people have a lot
of different elements to them, they are much more watchable
and interesting on stage. So it's a big compliment from you, well,
twelve years old, I mean, it's amazing, but you're only
(05:03):
twenty two, so you're saying only, well, it is only
you've done a lot. I started at an age where
I was fearless and I was so excited and curious that,
like I would go into these rooms with these adults
that normally now that I go into and I'm terrified
and I'm like, I gotta do a good job. They
expect a lot from me. I'm twenty two, and back
(05:24):
then I was ten, and I was like, I'm cute,
doesn't matter what happens, like they're gonna like me. And
I think that that's something that I'm very grateful that
I got to do. I got to experience those things
at a time where I wasn't overthinking and I wasn't
boxing myself into what I thought I should be or
what I thought other people think I should be. I
had not really thought about that. I mean, I do
think about young kids when I work with them, that
(05:46):
they're just not jaded. They don't know how hard or
how difficult things are going to be. But you saying
you were fearless at that age, that's a really great observation. Yeah,
I think I see it now, and it's only because
I know what I'm capable of now. I think back then,
you're sort of still learning what you're capable of. You're
not even thinking about limitations. You're just doing it because
(06:09):
you're like, this is fun. I love making people smile,
I love making people laugh. And then as you get older,
you start to see like, oh, people expect certain things
from me. I am a brand, I'm a corporation, which
is not true, but you start to get those things
in your head as you hear people say them. But
you know, I always try to remind people, try to
(06:30):
reconnect with that feeling, try to reconnect with that person
that you were, and that'll free you from all of that.
People say so much like you need to go back
to your roots and remind yourself why you did this
in the first place. And for me, it's always very
comforting to go back to the basics of like, oh,
I just I love singing, I love performing being on
(06:51):
a stage, I feel the most comfortable and that's why
I do and that's why I continue to do it. Yeah,
would you say that that is the most helpful thing
with you having anxiety or whenever you do have anxiety,
or is there any other tips you have. I'm still
navigating it, to be quite honest, so I don't really
have like the go to this is what I do
(07:11):
to cure it. I think it's always different. I think
sometimes you just need to listen to yourself because you
will be able to tell what you need, whether that's
space and time to yourself, whether that's just a big
deep breath and to relax your shoulders, drop your jaw
and bend forward and hang loose like a rag doll.
Like I don't my favorite genuinely though, like I do
(07:34):
that I shake everything out. I just like I get
it all out of my system. That's sometimes what I
need and other times, like I need to go on
a walk, and other times I need to like call
a friend and you know, decompress it. Just it always depends.
But when it's like crunch time and you're about to
go on stage. I think the deep breath is the
biggest A deep breath inside exactly. Let's talk a little
(07:59):
bit about preparation, like prepping your voice for a tour,
because that is a big thing. It takes a lot
of stamina. It's gonna be hard to just get on
stage and be able to have the control and breath
and long capacity to be able to be bopping all
over the place and singing and have control. And you're
(08:19):
talking before the show. We've talked about this so many times,
you know, meet and greets and how much that can
take your voice away depending on how many people you're
meeting before a show, and trying to preserve that in
the smartest way possible. So I think for me, it's
a combination of working out. Maybe it's doing my warm
ups like on the treadmill, just so I'm moving and
singing at the same time. Obviously, it's singing and warming
(08:42):
up every single day, practicing the songs, getting them in
your body. I think we underestimate like repetition as far
as like the more that you get a song in
your system and your voice is comfortable with singing that
and it's in your body, and it's in your bones,
you don't have to think about it so much. Then
the rest kind of comes naturally, which is why we
do like sing these songs over and over again. I
(09:05):
want to get into a little bit how we did
prep for a big show. Yeah, you only got a
few performance this because that gosh darn pandemic closed everything down,
which was devastating. But did you feel like your prep
for Mean Girls on Broadway felt different than prepping for
(09:25):
a tour? And how was it different? Immensely different in
a great way. I felt like I was ready for
the Olympics. I was in dance rehearsals, I was in
scene rehearsals, I was in vocal rehearsals every single day.
It was the craziest schedule, but I was constantly working
out my voice and really working on my mixed register
that I don't use a lot when I'm singing these
(09:47):
pop songs, because these songs were in a very different
place for me that I normally used my voice. It
was a lot more enunciated, it was a lot more open.
There was a lot more theatrics and personality in some
of these songs than I would ever have to use
on a record where I'm close to a microphone in
the studio and I'm whispering something and you can kind
of take it easy. Yeah, well, it's interesting. I think
(10:08):
for people listening if they don't really know a lot
about voices and singing, they might go, what is she
talking about with the mix? And you know a lot
of pop singers, especially when you write your own music,
you can kind of tailor the music around your voice,
so you can be in your lower chess voice or
your upper head voice, you know, falsetto sound, and you
don't really have to blend them together because you're working
(10:30):
around it the way you write the music. Whereas in
Mean Girls you had to sound like you were belting,
but you couldn't really belt that high in full chess
voice every single night. Yeah, eight shows a week, especially
the notes that were really high. So I remember being
it concerned and excited all at the same time when
you told me you were going to do it, because
I thought, well, we've got to make sure to do
(10:51):
it right in order to maintain your voice so you
never lose it, but also to work at it. So
how exciting that you're going to work at this part
of your voice, which you never really had to do before,
and now you're going to walk away with a new
skill and using your voice definitely, And it was so
exciting to see how much it did grow stronger over
that time period. And I was hitting notes that maybe
(11:14):
before I would have taken quite a bit more effort
because I knew exactly where to place them. I got
to step into shoes that I don't necessarily get to
be in all the time, and really stretch myself and
push myself in a way that I don't always get
to do when I'm just you know, writing songs for
Sabrina um my alter ego, right exactly. One of the
(11:34):
exercises we did to blend the voices was sliding up
and down. I love my slides and now and you
told me once that was your favorite. Can you give
the audience an example of what a slide would sound like?
And I love the woozy woozy Like doing slides automatically
(11:55):
like releases a lot of tension because like in that
short time span, you're using a pretty wide part of
your register. So yeah, I'm always doing that. Well, I
love that you said the woozy woozy, do that again,
so people whoozoo love that because I feel like that
really grounds people and it calms them because you're you're
not trying for a specific no, you're not holding a note,
(12:18):
or you're just letting go. You're loosening up and letting
it flow. My other favorite thing is when we're doing
warm ups and you're like, just lose all feeling in
your mouth and just do whatever exercise we're doing. Is
if like your tongue is numb and you're just like
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That to me
calms down all my face muscles, which are always so
tense when I'm nervous, and I think like a huge
(12:40):
part is relaxing your jaw and dropping it and not
like being like smiley and tense when you're trying to
hit these notes, because they'll come out a lot more
forest and maybe pitchy, Whereas when you're relaxed and you're
just able to kind of let it float freely, it's amazing. Well,
I always tell people they can think that before they
get on stage. But let's say it hits you durn
(13:02):
a song. You can always trigger it in your mind
by oh, I'm starting to feel tense and tight or whatever,
just start loosening up your mouth right in the middle
of the song. You know, it's not one of those things.
Oh well, now I'm you know, too far in. Yeah, exactly,
I'm down that road. I can't turn back. You can
always feel that sigh, that feeling of loosening your mouth, relaxing,
(13:24):
and like you said, dropping your jaw, which I think
is so important when everything is getting tense. Now, don't
go anywhere. When we come back. Sabrina talks about another
helpful vocal practice, one that kind of confuses people. My
fans always ask me why all of a sudden I'm
a different person, and why I don't sound like myself
(13:44):
or why I suddenly sound so much calmer. Thanks for
listening to Backstage Pass. Let's get back to my conversation
with Sabrina Carpenter. I wanted her to talk about what
a concert day looks like for her. I mean, for me,
(14:06):
it starts with being able to like wake up my
voice early in the morning, lots of hydration, and then
doing my warm ups and preserving my voice. I'm always
talking up here like this. My fans always ask me
why all the sudden, I'm a different person, and why
I don't sound like myself or why I suddenly sound
so much calmer, and why they can't hear anything I'm saying.
And I was like, it's because I want to sound
(14:28):
good on stage tonight, you know. So yeah, I mean
it's doing whatever it takes to take care of my
voice before the show and preserve it as much as possible. Right.
I remember one time saying to you, I liked it
that you were keeping the dressing room pretty empty and
pretty quiet, and I thought that was really smart. But
I said, are you doing that to preserve your voice
(14:49):
or because you want to be in your thoughts or whatever?
And you said something that was really interesting. You said, well,
if I'm having conversations with people in the dressing room,
there might be unfinished conversations or thoughts that I then
carry on stage with me. Yeah. I want to be
as much of a blank canvas when I get on
stage as possible. There's obviously going to be things happen
(15:09):
in your life off stage, which is why I admire
performers so much, for all the crazy conditions they might
be going through, and then they still are able to
just like ignore it all input on a show, and
I think it's something that I'm still learning how to do.
But if I can kind of minimize the noise as
much as I can before I get on stage, even
if it's just an hour, I think that's what I
(15:30):
started to do, as I would start to ask my
band and my crew just for an hour before I
went on stage to be able to be with myself,
you know, if I need to listen to music, or
if I need to just rest my voice as much
as possible and not be mid conversation, mid thought with
people when I'm going on stage. I think it's really
helpful for me. I know, you write a lot, and
(15:53):
I'm just curious, like, where do you draw inspiration. It
totally depends on where I'm at in my life. I
think I've always always, always pulled from my real life experiences, though,
even if it means it's kind of like, you know,
a song that not everybody can relate to, like sue me.
To me, those are the songs that have translated the
best to the people that have been listening because it
(16:14):
feels really real and it feels super close to me
and they feel like they're getting a part of me
that they don't see all the time because I'm kind
of digging into I'm tapping into a part of myself
that maybe I don't share all the time that I'm
able to kind of feel more comfortable to share in
my music. How old were you when you wrote SUMEI?
I think I had just turned eighteen, And I mean
(16:39):
people know that you really were sued, and I know
you can't really talk about the details of it nervous laughter. Yeah,
but what I thought was so great is you took
that horribly old, overdone cliche turning lemons into lemonade kind
of thing. But that's really what that song was, right.
It was able to kind of, you know, be formed
(16:59):
into something that sounds like a breakup song, but in
any sense of at the end of a relationship, that
way that you feel when you know they see you
doing well and they're upset about it. I thought that
(17:28):
that was a really powerful way to stand up for yourself.
And no matter the outcome of the lawsuit, you were saying,
I'm coming out victorious because I'm I'm gonna say that
it's me. I did it. I did everything, And I
think that that song was, like you said, a huge
one for me, no matter what happened to the song,
because it just felt like I was able to really
(17:49):
bring that situation that was kind of a negative situation
and bring it full circle to a place where now
I'm on stage and I hear people singing it back
to me, and I'm like, oh, I can't even remember
when I got sued, you know, by those people that
I don't talk to or care about it anymore. When
you're able to kind of use songs as a time
capsule for a specific moment, I think that's the most
(18:10):
beautiful thing because you carry it with you forever. I've
never been good at keeping a diary, so I think
that's why I write songs and release them publicly. Even
though the circumstances are always different, we're all going through
similar situations. I mean, heartbreak, loss or joy, the honeymoon, stage,
all of those things. Everyone's experiencing something at some point,
(18:33):
and I think it's really great because then people who
love your music, fans, or even people who aren't who
just happened to hear it, it's that really great feeling
of it's almost cathartic to sing along absolutely, which is
something I was going to ask you about do you
feel what you've sort of answered it. I guess for you,
writing is cathartic, yes, I mean writing and therapy are
(18:53):
that through the perfect combination of why I am still
able to wake up in the morning and do what
I do. It's true, it's almost like I'm able to
really understand what I'm feeling. It's like when I see
it and when I hear it, it's different than when
it's all just stuck in my head. When I get
it out into the world, and especially when I sing it,
it all makes a lot more sense to me, and
(19:15):
it's kind of guiding me throughout my life. It's the
thing that's been able to keep me going. And songs
too that are older that I go back and listen
to them, I'm like, huh, that's how I was able
to get through that situation. So yeah, the most therapeutic
thing I can think of in my life. That's really
interesting that writing it and then performing it clarifies the situation.
(19:36):
Sometimes by the time I perform songs, they have a
completely different meaning. I'll write the song about something, and
then a year later it's about something or someone completely different,
and it still applies because you know, these patterns repeat
themselves sometimes, and yeah, I think that that's also really incredible.
I know something about patterns repeating themselves. But wait a
(19:57):
minute that I'm going to save that for my therapy
session this week. All right, let's just keep going so
you don't just sing. You've also been acting in TV shows,
in movies like the Netflix film Work and the Disney
musical drama Clouds was really a sweet movie. Yeah, And
the best compliment I can give you is that I
really lost you in the movie, Like I just stopped
(20:19):
thinking about you. Hey, you know, I really felt like
that character you were was so not Sabrina. Oh wow,
that means the world to me. And I thought it
was beautiful and I love that you're singing. Also, it
wasn't your Sabrina Carpenter singing. It was a different voice. Yeah,
totally different. I thought it was beautiful. That actually like
makes me so excited that you, more than anybody, like
(20:40):
recognize that and paid attention to it because I know
that you know when you're singing through the lens of
a different character like I was. Also, you know, Sammy
Brown's a real person in life, and that's the person
I was playing in clouds. She's a real person. Her
voice and her tone completely different from mine. Completely, style
of music, the way that she sings, the way that
she is on stage is super different from me. Yeah,
super different. And you can really hear the difference in
(21:02):
the style in that song Blueberries Dandy Lions are going
to see it's muscle landed to feed Tree stand so
tall and there and hear I stan without of care.
I love the ability to really give someone else their voice.
(21:22):
So I'm really glad that you that you notice that. No,
I loved it, and I also then I watched I
was just going to watch a little bit of work
it because I thought it's not really my movie, it's
not my demographic and then I just got caught up
in it, so I had to watch it and see
what was going to happen. But I love that they
were so diverse. Oh yeah, completely different roles. I'm just
like dipping all my toes and all that's streaming services. Yeah,
(21:45):
and I'm writing my album. So I'm like, I'm doing
all the things right now. When is that album going
to come out? I can't tell you, okay, but um,
but I mean, you know, my fans they think that
I forget about music, when in reality, it's like I
can't forget about it. I am constantly writing. I think
I am a little bit more quiet about my process.
(22:07):
I hate promising things and then not to live ring
on time, but I also want to be able to
give them just the best of what I'm able to
give them. Right well, I can't wait to hear it.
And I love you, and I'm so glad that we
did meet when you were twelve. I love you so dearly.
And this has been really such a pleasure to talk
to you today, and it's been a pleasure to know
(22:28):
you for these past ten years, and it'll be a
pleasure to keep knowing you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to
the future. Stay right there. If you're like Sabrina and
want some more vocal techniques to help you relax your voice,
I've got just the tip for you right after this.
(22:56):
Now you've heard me say how important I think movement
could be to loosen up your body and your voice
while vocalizing. Sometimes it's as simple as singing an exercise
with a bouncy, loose feeling. So instead of singing an
exercise like this, B B B baby, you'd sing it
like this, baby baby, baby, baby be If you're still
(23:23):
feeling a little tight er tense, try moving your body around.
Put your arms out in front of you, kind of
like a zombie, and then bounce them and your head
to the rhythm as you sing. Basses and baritones start
on a sea below middle C, sing to the lowest
note you can go to comfortably, and then to the
highest note you can sing without straining. Sopranos and elto's
(24:17):
start on a B flat below middle C. Same thing.
Sing to the lowest note you can go do comfortably,
and to the highest note you can sing without straining.
(25:02):
And that's it. Go have some fun, bounce around, loosen up.
If you want to share it, I'd love to see
a video of you doing any of the exercises. Use
the hashtag Backstage Pass pod on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or
wherever you like to post. I can't wait to see
them happy singing everyone maybe may Backstage Pass with Eric
(25:34):
Vitro is written and hosted by me Eric Vitro and
produced by Morgan Jaffee. Katherine Girardou is our showrunner. Emily
Rosstek is our associate producer, Kate Parkinson Morgan as our editor.
The show is mixed and mastered by Ben Holliday. Additional
engineering help is from Jacob Gorski, Martin Gonzalez and kay
(25:55):
Wayne Mia Lobell as our executive producer. Our development team
Lital Mulad and Justine Lange helped create the show. Thanks
also to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame, John Schnarz, Carl Migliori,
Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano, Daniella Lakan
in Royston Baserve. The original theme music is by Jacob
(26:17):
and Sita Steele for Premier Music Group. We record at
Resonate Studios. Fred Talson does our videography and the photography
is by Ken Sawyer. A very special thanks to Michael
Lewis for his inspiration and the best guidance anyone could
ask for. Backstage passed with Eric Vitro as a production
of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show, please remember
(26:39):
to share, rate and review it. I mean that really share,
rate it, review it, and if you love the show
and others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus
Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content
and uninterrupted listening for four ninety nine a month. Look
for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts subscriptions. To find more
(27:02):
Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts. So many people will ask me, like,
who's your mentor like, who's like someone in the industry
that you really like? Look, and there's all these like
amazing people in the industry, and I'm like, I'm always
saying you because you're one of the few people that, like,
(27:24):
I feel like has looked out for me over the
years as a person and as a performer and as
everything in between. And you do that with a thousand
people like you're so you amaze me. But anyways, yeah,
that'll be fifty dollars that Yeah, maybe a hundred
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