Sabrina Song Makes a Director’s Cut of Her Life on 'How’s It Going To End?'
words by Ethan Ayer, photos by Livy Wicks
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Sabrina Song didn’t mean to make an EP. Written between March and July of this year, the songs on her latest work, How’s It Going to End? “weren’t written with the intention of putting them on a project together,” the New York-based singer-songwriter explains over email. The five-track EP out Oct. 23 is — in her words — Sabrina’s way of “work[ing] through my thoughts about everything — my relationships, the future, my values. [It] gave me something to work towards when time felt like a black hole.”
Filled with these temporal ruminations both lyrically and sonically, the EP is a nuanced journey through perspective and self-doubt. Samples from Sabrina’s real-life — old voice memos, videos from holidays and birthdays, slamming down chairs in her childhood bedroom — are hidden throughout the project like a time capsule, manipulated to reflect her current state. Those personal allusions are perhaps most apparent on “Hindsight,” a two-minute musical epic, which finds Sabrina weighing her past decisions with her present. As a vocoded chorus of her voice crescendos, Song wonders “Are you worth the mention? / Giving you attention / In hindsight.” She’s describing a universal feeling of regret, but the production makes it feel monumental as the drums become exponentially more frantic and Sabrina’s chopped vocals whir around her poetry.
“I think my harping-on-the-past issue is perpetuated by social media. I don’t think we are supposed to be able to look back this much as humans,” Sabrina elaborates about the track. “I have thousands of pictures and videos on my phone from nearly every day of my adult life that distort my memories of how things actually were. Social media in particular makes me feel like I’m running out of time — seeing all the cool shit everyone is doing and wondering if I’m doing enough, not just with music but with my life. It’s a love-hate relationship.”
Citing artists like “Carole King, Mitski, [&] Billy Joel” as some of her musical influences, it’s not hard to see how Sabrina has such a perspective. “Say It Like That,” the first single from the project, is a glamorous mix of generations, with a four-on-the-floor click drum underscoring staccato piano chords and Song’s doubled voice. It’s pitched and sampled as a hook over syncopated ambiance, recalling the early UK garage and house music of Disclosure, but mixed with the timeless songwriting of her legendary influences. “If I’m gonna spill my guts / say it right back” she begs on the chorus. “The bulk of this song came together from start to finish in a few hours,” she explains about its songwriting process. “After having so much time to think about my priorities and what’s important to me, I had this feeling of urgency. There’s no reason to sidestep around how you feel — we all don’t have enough time for that.”
The rest of the songs on the EP, from the haunting gospel of “Temporary” to the cheeky film references on “Didn’t Say” all have a similar sense of this ticking tenacity, but as Sabrina implies with the title, the question of How’s It Going To End? is sometimes more important than the answer.
“Say It Like That” is out Oct. 2 with the full EP releasing on Oct. 23.
To keep up with Sabrina Song, find her on Instagram: @iamsabrinasong.
