Q&A: SEQUOIA Discusses Coming-of-Age Story In Luminous New Single, “Seventeen”
WRITTEN BY ANTHONY RATCHKOV
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
Photo by Sherri Branson
It was an unusually gloomy and cloudy day for late April in Orange County, California, at the time this interview took place. Luckily, residents of the area could find warmth and comfort in the music of their local rising star, SEQUOIA.
Her new single “Seventeen” is a pensive reflection on the experiences of growing older. The lyric “closer to twenty than I am to thirteen” serves as the backbone of this story that has resonated powerfully with SEQUOIA’s fanbase.
SEQUOIA weaves together influences like Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and Laufey, and what has blossomed from that is a sound that is airy, radiant, and teleportive.
Life on Jupiter had the pleasure of conversing with SEQUOIA to discuss “Seventeen,” Zuppa Toscana, and everything in between. Read the full discussion below.
LIFE ON JUPITER: Thank you so much for joining us today. Congratulations on the new release! “Seventeen” has been in the works for some time now. You first previewed it to fans on your YouTube channel 3 months ago. How does it feel that it’s finally out?
SEQUOIA: It feels amazing. I wrote that song at midnight on my seventeenth birthday and I’ve had so much love for it. It’s different from what I have out because, if you look at my discography, everything is mostly romance-centered. I was just in such a vulnerable state while writing it, and being able to share that with people who can relate just means the world to me. So I’m so excited that it’s out.
The response to “Seventeen” has been incredible. How does it make you feel when you see so many people online saying how much they personally relate to the song?
SEQUOIA: Honestly, I think that is something I will never get used to. I think that in the best way possible, it’s so strange. It’s like wow, people are taking my experiences and viewing them almost like a metaphor for their experiences. When I’m writing, sometimes I’ll put things in a metaphorical way, but in this case, this song is very straightforward; this is how I felt at seventeen. So the response that I’m getting is amazing, but I’ll never be able to fully comprehend that there are people out there who love my music, who listen to my music, listen to it every day. Maybe that’s just because I sit in my room and I write my music and I post about it, but at the end of the day, it’ll be a feeling that I’ll never get over because to me, I’m just me. I feel so incredibly grateful that I get to have an audience that really takes in my art and they can relate to it as well.
I love the story this song tells about growing older, but it also comes from a very vulnerable perspective. Was it challenging to be so vulnerable while creating this song?
SEQUOIA: In writing any song, I feel like I have to keep myself in that vulnerable state, but in this case, I found myself in a different space than the other songs I’ve written. When I wrote the lyric “closer to twenty than I am to thirteen,” specifically, I was like, Ooh, wait, this might be something. When I was writing that, I was just thinking there are so many great songs about being 17. You got “Dancing Queen” and all those songs, and I was like, What could I do? What could I do to participate in this trend? I was feeling so inspired by the experience of growing up and being 17 felt like such a big number. It was like, Wow, I can round up twenty. Vulnerability is a very important factor in my writing because I want to be able to connect with my audience. I try to pour myself into all of my music because I feel like that’s the best way for me to fully express how I’m feeling about everything. I try to put it into a more metaphorical way, but this song is what it is. I’m vulnerable, this is how I’m feeling. People might relate, people might not relate, but whatever it is, this is my art and I’m proud of it.
Tell us more about the dialogue sample at the beginning of the song. Where did that come from?
SEQUOIA: Yes, I love doing this, this is so much fun. I tell my manager and friends all the time that I wish I could break down every part of my song because everything has a meaning. The voice memo in the beginning is my grandpa. We’re at one of my dad’s birthday dinners and he’s told me that story many times before, but that specific time, I just wanted to make sure I was recording it just because we talk about it all the time and I don’t see my grandpa as often as I wish I could. So it was just something really sweet and sentimental for me to have. I always knew that I wanted that specific story in a song, but it’s like, Hmm, what kind of song? I believe I was 13 or 14 when I recorded that on my phone, which is crazy. That same year I recorded that voice memo was the very first year I recorded any music or played a show. My grandpa telling me this story was like a reminder of what I am doing. It’s just something that I wanted to include in my music because he's always been such an inspiration for me.
You mentioned when making your previous single that it was the first time you researched jazz chords. Was there something new to take on in making “Seventeen”?
SEQUOIA: Gosh, taking on a new kind of topic, I guess. A lot of my discography is a lot about love, and I’m not complaining about that because I am a very loving person. I have so much love for everything that surrounds me, and I feel like that is so important for me to pour into my music. Writing “Seventeen” was a different experience for me because I was writing about something that happens to everybody, but the way I felt when it was happening to me was something that I wanted to capture in my music.
Your artist name is just your first name, but do you feel that over time, through your discography, you’ve filled SEQUOIA with new meaning?
SEQUOIA: That’s a good question. Honestly, in a way, yes, with branding. I brand myself as a very floral, nature, outside kind of person. SEQUOIA has just always been me. I’ve always known that when I get famous, I’m just going to be called SEQUOIA with big letters on a marquee. The only way it’s developed over time, with adding to my discography, was with branding. I’m now just really getting into all of that and figuring out what enhances me as a person because I have so many ideas that are constantly changing, but I truly believe that every single part of me, my discography, my name, my stage presence, my bad, everything about me is just what makes me.
You wore a flower crown in your first live performance and now you were wearing one for the “Seventeen” cover art, so it’s like this full circle moment.
SEQUOIA: Yes, that video of me singing in the flower crown was my very first performance; it was the third-grade talent show. I was singing “Home/Dirty Paws” by the Gardiner Sisters (which is a cover of “Home” by Edward Sharpe &The Magnificent Zeros), and I’ve always loved that moment for me. I loved the outfit, I loved the flower crown. I’ve always loved flower crowns. So I kind of reached into my childhood and pulled out parts of me from then. I felt like, Wow, that’s a big part of me, so I just made sure I included it in the now and who I am as an artist.
You’ve mentioned in the past that you love to cook, so if you could cook one dish to describe your music, what would it be?
SEQUOIA: It would definitely be Toscana soup. I love Zuppa Toscana soup. It needs to be cooked in a very specific way, though, no Olive Garden, get that out of here. I’m talking about bacon, Italian sausage, extra chili flakes, extra kale, and a ton of onions in there, too. It’s so sweet with a loaf of sourdough. It’s a beautiful meal. It’s delicious, it’s nutritious. The process of making it up to the process of devouring it is magical.
You previewed that some official merch is coming soon. What else is next in the SEQUOIA world?
SEQUOIA: Yes, there is merch coming. I’m really excited for that. I have more music coming sooner than you guys know. This next song, it might be the one for me because I typically don’t do this too much, but I’ve been really bumping that song in my car. If I had to hint at it with its elements, I’d say, imagine if Olivia Dean met Sabrina Carpenter, they ate some grapes, and they went through a stage where they couldn’t get somebody out of their mind. Let’s just say that.