Localized: Sarah Anne DeGraw

SLUG: Who and what are your biggest inspirations, musical and otherwise?
DeGraw: My biggest inspirations in life are people who are holding onto an old feeling. Outlaws of the 21st century who know that there are some who are still awake. Music is life for me, and I am fortunate to have those people in my life. Dreamers. One person with a vision is more powerful than an army of individuals without. My musical influences lately have been an assortment of rock n’ roll, blues, soul and so on: Led Zeppelin, Sixto Rodriguez, Etta James, Pink Floyd, Sam Cooke, to name a few. I’ve been loving the old sounds and songs, and I’m trying to let them influence me.

SLUG: Has Utah always been your home? If so, what keeps you here—and if not, what brought you here?
DeGraw: I suppose Utah has always been home ground. There are few places that I feel very familiar with in this state still, but this has been the playground consistently for me over the years of travel. The music and those I’ve come to love—they keep me here. The SLC music scene is filled with talented people everywhere. It’s just the community part of this scene that needs work. People will go to the cinema to watch what someone four states away has made because they’re “qualified,” but if folks would only walk out their front door, they could see “qualified” makers doing the same thing right in front of them. But, I’ll stay a while.

SLUG: How has the reception been to your music?
DeGraw: People seem to like it. So I’ll keep on keeping on.

SLUG: What other local bands are you a fan of?
DeGraw: Salt Lake City truly has so many revolutionary local bands, and I haven’t even heard all of them. To name a few: Crook & the Bluff, Johnny Betts, Red Dog Revival, The Weekenders, Candy’s River House, UFO TV, Night Marcher, The Arvos, Baker Street Blues Band, Talia Keys, Green River Blues, Pidgeon.

SLUG: You have a compelling live presence. What aspects of live music and performance do you love most? What have been some of your most memorable performances?
DeGraw: Live performance is an art in and of itself, and I’m currently arranging that performance to be more impactful. As a solo performer, I like to reach individuals in a crowd and to leave a venue knowing that I’d touched someone in a real way. My most recent memorable performance was with my friend Michael Sasich at the State Room. We opened for Jackie Greene and played to a sold-out house that welcomed us with open arms. Mike and I only had two-and-a-half practices together before the show, but luckily, he’s a wizard on the guitar and fun to hang out with, so in the end, it sounded great and we had a good time. Another was for a Prince tribute show at Urban Lounge back in May. I’ll never forget it. I was playing drums in Crook & the Bluff, and my bandmates at the time rallied when I asked them to play the show. None of us had any idea what we were getting ourselves into with Prince tunes, but it was a killer show. Kevin, Ryan, Katie, Chris, Tyler, Brice and Kirk—cheers to you.

SLUG: In addition to what you have on your website, SoundCloud and YouTube presences, can fans expect any new releases from you in the near future?
DeGraw: Certainly! The record is glistening on the horizon. With the changes in the past couple of years and the transition into a new sound, I’m giving the music breathing room and even my own perception of it. I want to create space and let the music say what it needs before I make the record. Most of the videos on YouTube are from the very early days and the transition is very obvious.

SLUG: What’s next for you?
DeGraw: Next, more music. The music never stops. Cheers.

Degraw confidently holds space with her remarkable fervor and soulfulness. Should you find yourself yearning to perpetuate the spine-chilling, vital strangeness of one season fading into another, step into DeGraw’s whirlpool of musical enchantment and eccentricity at anytime on sarahannedegraw.wixsite.com/sarahannedegraw and in person at the Urban Lounge on Nov. 16.