Disney to Coachella, the journey for Sabrina Carpenter has seen her drop her defence mechanisms to embrace a carefully-crafted pop persona who is propelling her music to the next level, exemplified in her new song, Espresso.

The summer tune, packed with elements of retro-funk, is bursting with energy, like in Miley Cyrus’s Flowers or Lizzo’s About Damn Time. Inject into that a sense of humour: “Say you can’t sleep, baby I know, that’s me, espresso,” sings Carpenter.

“Weirdly enough, I ended up writing this song in France, and I think that that probably had a little bit of inspiration to how the song ended up feeling. It just had that excitement and that energy of almost kind of travelling the world. We wrote it in France and I remember it being a very, very quick process.There was something really exciting about the fact that there was so much personality throughout the entire song, because those are the ones that are really, really fun to sing live with a crowd. Those are the ones that people… when they don’t know my music or who I am or anything, they can just tune in to a single song and kind of leave with a better idea of my sense of humour,” said the 24-year-old singer from Pennsylvania to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
Apple Music is constantly encouraging artistes to record or rework their music in the immersive Spatial Audio format while Zane Lowe continues to attract listeners from across the globe.

Finding her ‘headspace’

A few months before Espresso’s release, Carpenter was in the news for the video to her song Feather, which ended up ruffling a few feathers in some American churches because of the level of symbolism. With Espresso though she plays it cool with a fun song.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gone into writing an upbeat, confident record being like, ‘I really want to write an upbeat, confident record.’ I have to be in that headspace and I have to be in that mood. And this was one of those times in my life where it was just like, I just thought I was the s**t in the moment. And I think you don’t always feel that way, so you kind of have to capture those moments that you do because that’s how you find those little…. For me, equating it to caffeine and that addiction was really fun and I definitely have a caffeine addiction as it is. So it really ends up being a full circle for me,” she told Apple Music 1.

Her rise to fame happened in the early 2010s because of her appearance on Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World, a spinoff series of the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World. By the time she was 14, Hollywood Records came knocking at her door (later she moved to Island Records) and she has already headlined four tours, including stops in Europe and Asia.

Sabrina started her career as an actor on the Disney Channel

“I was heartbroken two years ago. I was in a really, really different mental place. For me, that was truly my first heartbreak. And so I think when you’re going through something like that, you question everything about yourself and you take it really personal. So those instincts, like the trust in yourself, just the ability to move throughout a room without questioning if other people’s opinions are more important than your own. And it just comes with time and it comes with ease. I think there’s a big difference between two years ago and now, but I’m just having fun now, which I think is the biggest difference,” Carpenter told Zane Lowe.

Of course, her crowning glory at the moment is her appearance at Coachella music festival, which has as headline acts Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat and Tyler, the Creator as well as feature a reunion concert from No Doubt. Yet, there is reason to be upset: She missed Chapel’s gig because it clashes with her concert. At least she was excited to see Lana and Kevin Abstract. “I just have a lot of really close friends that are all playing, which I think is really special.”

Presently, she is focussing on being 24 and whatever it brings. “I want to maintain the sense of myself that really feels whole on my own. And I think that when you’re searching for someone else or something else to make you feel whole, then you have more work to do. I mean, it’s easier said than done. I’m also 24, so I don’t think I have it all figured out by any means. I think it’s also giving myself the grace to know that I don’t have it all figured out, but allowing myself to enjoy the moments that I can kind of float through the mess-ups if you will, and not take it so seriously and not kind of let it weigh me down,” she told Apple Music 1.