SARAH BROWN | MUSIC FEATURE
Born and bred in Cardiff, Sarah Brown’s vocal talent has been well known in the local music scene for a few years now, but with her debut single Nobody’s Home, she is now getting national recognition with regular airplay on BBC Radio Wales as well as several TV appearances. Like so many aspiring singers, Sarah earliest musical endeavours were played out in front of the family.
“I must have been five or six. My cousins and I would put on shows and make the whole family watch. We’d pretend my nan’s umbrella stand was a microphone and take it in turns to sing songs. I always sang Tomorrow from Annie. I just wanted to be her.”
With such a powerful voice, comparisons will always be made to the big hitters of the game, but Sarah’s influences run deep. “I love big, big voices so I’ve grown up studying all the divas like Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Etta James and Christina Aguilera. When it comes to the music I like and I’m inspired by, there’s such a variety. I love current chart music, but I’m also such a 90s r’n’b girl too.”
Indeed it was a 90s r’n’b favourite that got this Cardiff songstress her first break. Her ukulele cover of Blackstreet’s No Diggity has over 200,000 hits on Facebook, but was that the catalyst for embarking on a career in music?
“Deep down I’ve always wanted to be in music but I’ve had a constant battle between having a ‘real’ job and chasing the dream. I’d trained as an accountant, and I was running companies but the music never went away. Posting that video opened up some opportunities for me that I didn’t realise were there at the time. It all snowballed and within a year I’d quit my job and I was gigging full time.”
So after taking the leap, 2017 has seen Sarah release her first single Nobody’s Home, which deals with a broken relationship and like so many other songwriters she finds solace in her writing. “I tend to write best when something has affected me emotionally. I pretend that no one will ever hear it and I just write like I’m writing in a diary. It makes me feel so much better and when it becomes a proper song and someone hears it and says it helped them – well, that’s just turning a negative situation into a positive one and I love to do that.”
As is the way in the fame game though, with more recognition comes more media interest, something which Sarah is embracing. “I’m so grateful for all the media support I’ve had. I love how many new people are finding me and my song because of it. The comments I’ve had have been so lovely, I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction to my first single.”
So what does 2018 look like in Sarah Brown’s world then? “More music. I have the second single coming in February and then the launch show and more music and videos along the way. I can’t wait!”
words CHRIS ANDREWS