“Music is like you touch the pulse of the world. Music is always happening, and sometimes you get to touch it for a while, and when you do you know that everything’s connected to everything else.” 

- Kim Edwards

A striking multi-instrumentalist with rare musical talent, Sarah Levins’ vision for music transcends individual songs, inviting listeners into a world of delicate emotions and raw vulnerability. With a background in operatic classical voice and training in piano, guitar, and vocals, music has been the thread connecting many of Sarah Levins’ milestones. 

Sarah is an emerging independent singer-songwriter, artist, and producer from Eora/Sydney who is part of a vibrant, tight-knit creative community. As a newly released artist, she has spent the last few years moving from the periphery to the forefront of the music scene; her first single, ‘Arms Length,’ was released in 2022. Since then, her debut EP, ‘North Birds’ (2023), and new single ‘Eye Spy’ (2024), have received widespread acclaim and landed her on the support set lists of many Australian greats. 

Sarah reflects, “It’s been a real learning curve - I’ve had the benefit and wisdom of a few years of working, a degree, and playing music for a long time. That was really useful in helping me understand that this is what I wanted beyond anything.” The hindsight of leaving music for a moment to pursue International Relations gave her the drive to return and figure out a way to make it work. 

Having played piano growing up, guitar was the last instrument to join Sarah’s repertoire—yet it became the catalyst for her renewed devotion to songwriting after her partner, Jerome Blazé, bought her one off Facebook Marketplace. Sarah found herself becoming familiar with an instrument where “the chords kind of reveal themselves to you in a way,” deepening her love for “writing as a form of expression.” She adds, “I had this real gut feeling that I needed to keep going,” and has since produced tracks aired on Triple J, Double J, and FBi Radio. 

Sarah credits her initial classical degree with setting in motion the process of discovering her voice and passion for writing. These formal foundations underpin the connections and threads she would come to find in her music, despite the change in genre. As a self-proclaimed "drama queen," Sarah interlaces theatricality and drama throughout her songs, a nod to her childhood in performing arts, her personality, and the musical styles she grew up with.

Crafting music in her own sonic space, Sarah is known for her genuine, raw, and emotional lyrics, which evoke a deeply reciprocated response from listeners who immerse themselves in the tenderness of her tracks. Writing emotionally rich lyrics that confront themes of love, loss, and the unstoppable passage of time, she emphasises “being true at the core of [her music].” 

The vulnerability in her songwriting and performances is something Sarah approaches with intention. “Being vulnerable is hard at times, but it's so important… a small price to pay in the scheme of things,” she reflects. She consistently chooses to write with honesty and openness, aiming to create music that mirrors the songs that have supported and resonated with her throughout her life. Acknowledging the impact and relationship she has with her audience, Sarah views their response and reception as part of an ongoing conversation—one that encourages her to continue being vulnerable, even as her sensitive nature grapples with “what being that vulnerable does to you.” 

Sarah draws inspiration from Somali-Indonesian artist Maina Doe, quoting her as an encapsulation of this motive:

“In a cruel, morally entangled, false-reality selling world, exposing yourself for who you actually are is an act of surrender, resistance and deep learning. expose yourself. in whatever way you're ready for. Then expose the world”

The process of surrendering yourself in your lyrics is an act of deep learning, as you realise it becomes less about you and rather about vocalising unsung universal experiences so that people can feel seen, heard and understood in a time where reality appears morally reprehensible. The ability to make a difference through songwriting is a gratifying process for Sarah as she appreciates her music practice is  “a massive privilege. Even within my small community, the ability to work on music and make it, I wake up feeling grateful for it, everyday”. 

In her music practice, Sarah relishes the “joy of the process” rather than focusing solely on the final product, taking her time with songwriting, instrumental selections, and collaborations. For her, the music-writing process unfolds in two distinct ways: in spontaneous creative bursts, where a song materialises in half an hour, or as puzzle pieces that come together years later. The “woowah” moments, where songs appear in mere minutes, embody the “very mystical, magical aspect of it that keeps [her] coming back for more.” Yet, it’s often the puzzle-piece process that defines her songwriting. Sarah describes it as “this weird dialogue with yourself, where you’ll have an idea or the start of a song… and two years later, you’ll come back around to it—a full-circle moment.”

Over the last few years, Sarah has refined her songwriting practice with each release. The leap from her debut single, ‘Arms Length,’ to her follow-up track, ‘Butterfly,’ highlights her ability to explore and adapt to new energies, embracing experimentation beyond her usual indie alt-folk genre. She attributes this creative evolution to her collaborative process, noting, “It’s a product of the way that we work… that’s all based in the living room. We’ll get people or friends in specially for a recording, and the collaboration of that process is massively influential. It’s just expanded the palette that I was working with.”

Sarah’s debut EP, ‘North Birds,’ was released independently in 2023, capturing a soaring sense of belonging. The title subtly references how Sarah and her partner collaborated on the project. “There were two of us sitting on our living room floor, writing it from scratch… it’s an 'us against the world' kind of thing,” she reflects, crediting Jerome for his role in the journey. 

The pair have cultivated an intertwined creative practice, co-producing, collaborating, and featuring on each other’s music. This partnership offers a vital support system in an industry often unforgiving to emerging artists. Sarah feels fortunate to pursue this venture alongside him, fostering a space for continuous musical growth and learning.

Collaboration is a pivotal part of Sarah’s project, not only with Jerome but also with others from the Eora/Sydney community and beyond, such as James Tarbotton, Ned Olive, and filmmaker Jacinthe Lau, with whom she collaborated on her ‘Are You Having Fun?’ music video. Sarah appreciates the benefits and insights gained from engaging with another artist’s way of thinking, seeing it as an invitation to access a small corner of their world. This is evident in her communal music-making process, where she cherishes genuine connections and remains musically receptive to her environment. 

One of Sarah’s key lessons, which we could all learn from, is “to be proactive about going out and meeting people… in real life is always where the most genuine connections [are].” Eora/Sydney serves as a vital backdrop for her work, not only for its creative community but also for its physical landscape. The geography and hues of the afternoon light seep into her songs, inspiring her deeply. Sarah asserts, “Capturing that sense of place is so important to music… as much as you can capture that sense of place in music, the better the listening experience is and the more it feels like the vision is being realised.” 

She notes the “very bright light in the afternoon [that] filters through the trees” as a particularly unique element of Sydney’s beauty, a testament to her patience and attentiveness to her surroundings. “That imagery and way of thinking about the world is massively influential in the way I write. Sydney is just so naturally beautiful.” Her immediate environment, along with the people within it, grounds her sense of belonging. 

Sarah reflects that “even though my name is on the project and… it’s very much my view of the world, the project doesn’t feel like it can be separated from that [collaboration].” Building the foundations of her process around collaboration and community, this ethos is evident not only in how her music comes to life but also in how she invites the audience into her world with lines like, “Did you want to try a couple of lives on with me?”.

“We really thrive in community and we thrive in having someone to have ideas to bounce off…I am very inspired by the people who surround me”. 

Fresh off the press this month, Sarah has released the first Chapter of her new musical venture; ‘Eye Spy’; an introduction to a new musical and visual era and manifestation of a “brand new way of thinking about music”. ‘Eye Spy’ is co-produced by Sarah Levins and Jerome Blazé and features Strings by James Tarbotton, Drums by Bonnie Stewart, Bass by Josh Spolc, Keys, synth and BVs by Jerome Blazé with Mastering by Andrei Eremin. ‘Eye Spy’, similar to much of Sarah's discography, was made entirely in the living room crafted from the heart of “where all the music comes from and where all the sounds that I wanted in the music were”. ‘Eye Spy’ is intrinsically interwoven to the spaces from which it was birthed as Sarah incorporated local ambience and outdoor noise such as cars, birds and sound samples from their surroundings. Alongside a captivating music video, co-directed by Sarah and James Tarbotton, ‘Eye Spy’ is the first release of a string of releases, visuals and gigs drawing from a key concept focussing on cycles, circles and the cyclical nature of time, that will be gradually revealed in chapters over the course of the next year.