Sarah Kinsley is Delivering A Lover-Girl’s Movie Soundtrack on New EP

For lovers of alt-pop, dreamy cinematic hooks, and unabashed yearning, Sarah Kinsley’s new EP Fleeting offers five tracks of cathartic, melodic dance pop that explores themes of desire, vulnerability, and the impermanence of time.

Sarah Kinsley, recognisable as the songstress behind viral songs like The King or the tunes behind your favourite TikTok edit, first drew in fans with her electric hooks, hypnotic vocal talent, and ethereal presence. Now, following her 2024 debut LP Escaper, she is back with a project that marks a new chapter in her music. After teasing fans with new singles Fleeting and Lonely Touch last year, she has announced her biggest headlining tour yet and her brand new EP out February 13. Describing the project as her “sonic expression of yearning, ” the news comes just in time for the season of (unrequited) love.

Known for her vocal artistry and atmospheric sound, Fleeting will show listeners that her lyrical talent has grown since she first popped up on your FYP and has entered a new phase of life. Ahead of its release, Kinsley answered questions about her musical influences, her classical musical background, and spoke about the emotional inspirations behind some of her most vulnerable lyrics to date.

As a California native who cut her teeth by moving to New York City, Kinsley described how this EP came to life in the busy electric nights of Manhattan. These songs were born within “a visual world of city silhouettes, ”cathartic nights out with friends, and discovering herself within the quiet moments found in a big city. Influenced by her life in NYC and its ever-changing atmosphere, her signature cinematic sound is elevated by a conscious departure from her previous writing and penning some of her most authentic and honest lyrics. In her new music, she found “being super honest about what I feel or what I want or what I desire is actually much more freeing and much more powerful” than choosing to hide behind ambiguity.

As her most emotionally raw and creatively honest chapter in her music, she worked with collaborator and producer Jake Aron to create an immersive musical experience for these songs. Particularly noted in the EP’s opening track Lonely Touch, they layer an array of instruments and sounds, creating ”production that could kind of surround you” and a sonic impact that matches the lyricism. Their ambition was to create the “sonic representation of what [she] felt in that song…this unrelenting desire, this yearning that you actually can’t separate yourself from. ”

With musical builds that match the emotional weight of her writing, her music is characterised by intricate musical production and its cinematic flair.

Much like her previous work, her new project features her signature “maximalist” production and draws inspiration from unlikely places. During the writing process of this project, she recalled listening to favourites that ranged from film scores like Phantom Thread and classical composers like Rokmanenov, to indie darlings Cocteau Twins and 80s legends New Order. These eclectic influences are only a few of the puzzle pieces that shape her sound. When asked what helped develop her music and production style, Kinsley also cites a taste for the classics and an education in music theory from Columbia University.

Informed by an impressive classical background, Kinsley describes her creative process as balancing her musical intuition with her training. She characterises its influence as “this real wolf inside you that you’re fighting” when finding your unique voice in writing. Although grateful for growing up in a musical atmosphere, the environment can be intense; “like a sort of counter voice, which is sometimes really interesting and sometimes maybe just like an intrusive thought. ” However, her education also exposed her to tools that helped shape her unique synth-type sounds and production style. Her viral use of a contact microphone in her music and live performances was actually born out of a class at Columbia. Introduced by a professor who was a “life-changing force” in regards to production and engineering, she crafted her own contact mic in her dorm with discs and cords after learning about the tool in a Sound Design class. As her door to experimental vocal techniques like throat singing, it “opened a very big door of music making”, increasing the level of experimentation in her production.

With many modern alt-pop artists developing their first tracks in their dorm rooms, Sarah Kinsley breaks lo-fi bedroom pop conventions by creating power ballads filled with maximalist, intricate layered production. The technical skill, experimental production, and classical inspirations all come through in the cinematic moments she is able to create in her music. She is more than happy with her music being labelled as “cinematic pop, ” stating that “the first bridge between my classical world and becoming a more alternative or like pop artist was literally through film score… the more modern, applicable version of what classical music was becoming. ”

With a sound so big, Kinsley’s emotionally charged songs come to life best at her live shows. What was once born out of a college dorm now fills entire venues with fans excited to connect with her. Soon to be headed out on a new headlining tour, Sarah was able to give fans a sneak peek at her new music during a series of small, secret, pop-up shows last month in NYC and LA. Reflecting on the experience of playing her new songs live for the first time, she also spoke about how influential her live shows are to her artistry. She describes her live shows as sacred, almost spiritual experiences where she and her audience can transcend time and just be in the moment. These moments of catharsis with her fans give her a new understanding of her music, how “locking eyes with someone who comes to the show, and understanding that we are having the same experience, somehow feels very timeless… like warped by time. ”

Although you can’t catch her on tour until March, her new songs drop on 13 February. With music shaped by vulnerability, desire, and a passion for creating “music that scores your life”, Fleeting is sure to resonate with yearners everywhere.