3. Sarah Jaffe
Hometown: Denton, Texas
Album: Suburban Nature
For Fans Of: Rachael Yamagata, Sam Phillips, Katie Herzig
Photo by Melanie Gomez
“I love Texas,” says Sarah Jaffe, “but it’s pretty ‘it what it is.’” The 23-year-old singer/songwriter (whose last name rhymes with “taffy”) is at a mall in her hometown, on break from touring and killing time before she catches a movie. “I grew up in a place that was pretty much boring. It was brown and flat, but I think that humbleness is very attractive.”
Jaffe is a lot like her home state: Wide-open, humble and matter-of-fact, she crafts beautiful, raw songs that “are what they are” in the very best way. Playing like wise, witty diary entries marked with teardrops, growing pains and effusive honesty, her debut album Suburban Nature (out now) ebbs and flows on a sea of candid relationship narratives. “Love is interesting, because when two people come together that way, it can be really hostile and beautiful at the same time,” she says of the inspiration for the album’s 13 songs, some of which were written before Jaffe graduated from high school.
The key to avoiding anxiety over performing such personal songs is confidence, a trait Jaffe easily exudes in conversation but that melts into a bewitching vulnerability in her music. “I’ve never written to impress, I’ve always written out of honesty,” she says. “I hope people will appreciate that honesty and relate it to themselves if they can.”
For entire interview:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2010/12/10-best-new-solo-artists-of-2010.html?p=4
Sarah Jaffe’s “Clementine” also lands on Paste’s Top 50 Songs of 2010:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2010/12/the-50-best-songs-of-2010.html
SARAH JAFFE – SUBURBAN NATURE (KR49/186535004925/FM) available now!
Fontana Daily 