" I’ve always had a love of music. It was something I think I was born with."
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decade ago, Chicago-native Sara Niemietz moved to California in search of creative opportunities. Since then, she has quickly risen to mass stardom, performing for international audiences in venues large and small. She has also acted and/or performed in a variety of film and TV venues, released four albums, and appeared in Times Square before a crowd of 50,000. In 2016, Niemietz played to a huge audience in Radio City Music Hall with Postmodern Jukebox. Last July, she released her Travel Light album, a soul-filled repertoire of jazzy precision, R & B grooves, and inspirational ballads. Niemietz delivers her beautifully intoned songs with a hint of raw emotion reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin. A number of Travel Light songs were born while she was on tour in Europe and North America with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. Niemietz’s heartfelt songs and highly interactive approach to social media have garnered over nineteen million views and over a hundred fourteen thousand followers and subscribers across various new media platforms. During her European tour, she performed in over thirty countries. Her current 2018 tour crisscrosses America with venues large and small from LA and San Francisco to Orlando. Hollywood Weekly: Thank you for taking the time for this interview. There’s something in every artist that initially drives them to succeed creatively. What drove you to become a recording artist? Sara Niemietz: I’ve always had a love of music. It was something I think I was born with. It was instilled and encouraged from a young age. My dad sang in rock n’ roll bands in Chicago and my mom sang in the choir at church. So I grew up surrounded by music. We would sing on road trips and on the way to daycare. It always just seemed like a natural part of my life. The big aha moment was when I went to see BJ Thomas with my parents. It was my first concert. Before I got there, I had memorized most of his songs. When we arrived, I was singing along in the front row along with him. He saw me and invited me to come on stage with him. That was a big moment for me, singing on stage in front of all those people.
SN: Good question. Around ten years ago, I really fell in love with the great American songbook. The first music I was exposed to came out in the 60s and 70s, the Oldies, those singer-songwriters. The Rock of that era was what I grew up loving initially—the Beatles and Joni Mitchell. Then when my family and I moved to LA, there were different jazz clubs you could sit in with, but you had to know this music. I realized that you could connect with more musicians, get up and sing, and be a part of that dialog. I developed a great love for how well written the music was and just this idea of standards. You could go anywhere, recall a song, and people would just improvise. I really fell in love with jazz. So that started to influence me. I’ve also started writing a lot in the last ten years, to fuse together all these different influences. HW: How do you create a new song? and how do you then refine it? SN: There are a number of different processes. Usually, I’ll start an idea on my own, sitting in front of a microphone with my computer. I’ll start tracking vocal ideas, parts, and harmonies, then I’ll start singing to that. Or sometimes, I’ll sit down with a guitar and just start singing. But usually, it comes from the melody, with the lyrics along with it or right behind it. Sometimes I‘ll work with W.G. Snuffy Walden to write a song. We’ve been working together for so long, we’ve developed this great shorthand of communicating. But usually it starts with me singing, and the words will follow and I’ll just chase it. and then Sara Niemietz in Germany tour Photo by Dani Lehmann
Hollywood Weekly: Some recording artists retain a certain style; others reinvent themselves over time. How has your singing style evolved over the last decade? HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY • 19
