An all girl band is an unfortunate rarity in up and coming music, but Minneapolis musicians Sick of Sarah are a sight for sore eyes with their feminine five-piece line up. With a few EP’s and a self-titled album under their belt, the band has already been hard at work, and currently are playing out anywhere and everywhere across the U.S. to share their songs. Musically cited influences such as The Bangles, Blink 182, and Tegan and Sara are prevalent, with hints of other female fronted bands such as No Doubt and Letters to Cleo. Sick of Sarah creates their pop/rock sound with the help of 3 guitars, and tight rhythm section supporting lead singer Abisha Uhl’s quippy lyrics, strong voice, and playful attitude.
What recordings can’t capture is the girl’s live set, which we had the chance to check out this past week at Schuba’s. On stage the band took a little time to warm up and move around, save for the ever present sway of guitarist Jessie Farmer, but eventually became a full motion of bouncing, hair tossing, and ecstatic expressions. We appreciated front woman Abisha’s confidence as she grabbed the mic, swaying, gyrating, and fist pumping her way through the set, but didn’t care too much for some of the banter between songs- at times the persona we saw bordered on pretentious, and that was a bit of a turn off. Nonetheless Uhl and the rest of the girls gave a great performance, to the pleasure of the many fans that turned out for the set. The band gets extra points for keeping their heads as they navigated through a few technical technical difficulties, with guitarist Katie Murphy delivering lead vocals for the band’s cover of “In Your Room” by The Bangles as they sorted tech problems out.
Sick of Sarah is a refreshing group to come across, not just for the healthy dose of girl power, but also for their uptempo tracks and “what you see is what you get” attitude. Definitely a band for those who like to have a good time and appreciate others acts like Tegan and Sara or No Doubt, Sick of Sarah is a group of ladies worth listening to.
The fine females behind Sick of Sarah were kind enough to sit down with Reviewsic in the Schuba’s greenroom this last week to talk shop about their favorite bands, that time they got stuck in Canada, and where they’d like to see themselves down the road.
Reviewsic: How did Sick of Sarah get its start?
Jessie: We formed back in April of 2005- it was me, Abisha, and our old drummer, and then a couple years back we decided that I should scootch on over from bass to play guitar, and then we got Jamie. Then our old drummer wanted to move to New York and we ended up with Jessica…and here we are.
Reviewsic: What about individually- how did you get started in music?
Katie: Well, I always liked music, loved it, started playing. I jumped into when I was 17 and never looked back.
Abisha: We all started really young. I mean, Jessie went to Arts high school and did all sorts of instruments. I started playing when I was 13.
Jamie: A few of us had family that was into music, got involved that way.
Jessica: I’ve been playing drums since I was really young. I did school band and drumline.
Reviewsic: What drew you to this particular genre/style of music?
Katie: I think when you get five people that listen to completely different styles of music; from completely different backgrounds this is what happens. Our influences are pretty much opposites. Jessie loves Joan Jett, and I listen to John Fogerhty, hell, I don’t even know Jamie’s influences.
Abisha: I think it’s definitely just what kind of comes out from all of us being together.
Reviewsic: What would you say your top three musical influences are then?
Abisha: I think we all have bands that we’re inspired by collectively, like Heart, The Bangles, we love Tegan and Sara- bands like that, you know?
Jamie: Metric, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Katie: Exactly, all those and so many more. Its really almost impossible to narrow it down because even just driving around, we’re listening to so much.
Reviewsic: How about on an individual level- what are a few of your favorite bands?
Jessie: Well, I don’t know…but I do love Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and I love the Sounds.
Abisha: I’m just going to pick a few random ones because this is a hard question, but: Life, Oasis, and I’m a sucker for Blink 182.
Jessica: I love Blink too. Foo Fighters and Sound Garden.
Jamie: I really love Sheryl Crow too, I think she’s amazing.
Katie: Well, Jewel made me play guitar. She doesn’t know that, but she did. C.C.R, and System of a Down.
Abisha: Chili peppers too, they rock.
Reviewsic: If you could book your “dream tour”, who would share the bill with you?
Abisha: We actually have discuss how it would be really cool to go on tour with No Doubt, The Sounds, Paramore, Metric is badass…Tegan and Sara would be amazing…
Katie: The Bangles wouldn’t be too upsetting either, though we do get to kind of do some shows with them coming up. When we get home on the 29th we get to open for them in Minneapolis, and again in St. Louis and Milwaukee.
Reviewsic: Comparing yourself as musicians at this point in your career to when you first began playing, what do you think has changed?
Jessie: I think we’ve really come into what we’re going to sound like. It definitely took us a few years to kind of get where we are musically, and kind of learn about each other’s different styles. I think our next record is going to be really big for us, because it will be like, “Okay, this is who we really are.”
Katie: It will be how we’ve matured. Because before it was a lot of sporadic influences getting together and trying to make something happen. Even Jessie switching over to guitar made a big change, just because we had to learn how to play guitar together, we’d never had to do that before.
Abisha: I think tour changes you a lot. Like from our first tour to when we started touring all the time we’ve learned so much. Just because you’re forced into a different situations every day, and it forces you to be better. You learn how to deal with things better and how to play through it all better.
Reviewsic: What goes into writing music for your band?
Abisha: We all kind of have a part. Sometimes someone will bring something to the table and then we’ll all join in and create our own parts, and other times we’ll make it up right when we’re there. It’s not always the same, for sure.
Reviewsic: If you were to work with anyone in the music business, who would it be and why?
Abisha: I think Rick Reuben would be awesome, just because he’s worked with so many people. It’d be cool to see what he would do with us.
Jessie: Butch Vig, he was in Garbage, and Butch Walker, also, he is an excellent producer. And I would love to work with Joan Jett.
Reviesic: What are a few of your favorite local bands?
Jessie: I’d say The Replacements, they’re a good Minneapolis band, and Soul Asylum, because they were really, really popular when I was young.
Katie: Miles Maddox are amazing, we’ve toured with them before.
Jamie: I’m really into my brother’s band right now. They’re called Four on the Floor. It’s one of those things where I’m at a show and it’s like, “I’m not just here because you’re my brother, I actually want to be here for this.”
Reviewsic: What would you say your best and worst band moment is so far into your career?
Jamie: Our old drummer’s last show was rough, just because there were technical difficulties like nothing else.
Katie: But the absolute worst situation was definitely when we got stuck in Canada. We were driving to do North by North East, a Canadian festival. We were supposed to play in Michigan the following day, and it was the worst snowstorm they’d seen in like twelve years. It should have taken us 2 hours to get to the border of the U.S. and instead it took us 7 hours to NOT get there. We got stuck in the middle of it, there were semis turned over in the road, and you couldn’t see anything but white.
Abisha: Jessie and I literally had to put our heads out the window to be able to see where the road was and give the driver directions.
Jamie: I think Katie ended up being the one to drive through like…5 hours of that too.
Katie: Yes, I did. And I peed my pants twice. It was really scary to drive through.
Abisha: Our best experience would probably have to be playing the Roxy with Susanna Hoffs. She came up and performed ‘In Your Room’ with us, which was amazing, and also it was just a really great show.
Reviewsic: Are there any particular cities or venues that you haven’t gotten to on this tour, or haven’t booked ever before are looking forward to getting to someday?
Jessie: Well I think we need to book Hawaii, just because I want to go there.
Abisha: We haven’t played in Florida yet, so we want to hit that market for sure. We have a bunch of fans there so we really should go. But if you play one show in Florida, you may as well your Florida, because its that big.
Katie: I just want to go back to the West Coast. The East Coast is great, but I’m really looking forward to the West Coast because we always end there and there’s just such awesome scenery when you’re driving up and down to all the cities. It’s just kind of like “can we hang out here for a while?”
Reviewsic: If you were to put together an album of strictly covers, what are 3-5 songs that would have to be featured on that cover album?
Katie: ‘In Your Room’ by the Bangles
Jessie: ‘Joey’ by Concrete Blonde
Jessica: ‘Got You Where I Want You’ by The Flys
Abisha: I would probably want to do an old song, like ‘December 1963′ by The Four Seasons
Katie: ‘Karma Police’ wouldn’t be a bad choice.
Reviewsic: When going on a tour like this, what are a few items that are essential to your survival?
Katie: Tons of socks. I’m a big fan of having clean socks- I brought probably seventeen pairs on this tour.
Jamie: Q-Tips and DVDs. Really thought, whatever I bring, by the end of the tour I have lost at least half of it. It ends up strewn across the country.
Katie: See, Jamie is the one that packs right before its time to leave and she ends up with like…a few DVDs, a t-shirt she borrowed from Abisha, and four Q-Tips.
Reviewsic: If Hollywood were to make a biopic of your band, who would be cast as each of you?
Abisha: I’m going to go with Denzel Washington.
Jessica: I’ll take Dre.
Jessie: I would want Pink to play me. Amy Smart will be Jaimie and Rachel McAdams can play Katie…there’s the whole crew.
Reviewsic: Where do you see yourselves in the next year?
Jessie: On the cover of Rolling Stone and hosting Saturday Night Live.
Abisha: Realistically, a good Europe tour and getting to Japan.
Katie: It could be the same deal as a tour here- 400 people show up, 40 people show up, it’s just about getting there and playing.
