Sydney Sprague
Leanna Firestone
SYDNEY SPRAGUE channels her sadness, anxiety, and existential dread through
driving guitars, shimmering melodies, and the deceptively sweet weapons of indie
pop-rock and keen observation.
Self-aware with a knowing injection of dark humor, her songs summon the best of 90s alt-
rock and classic power-pop without sacrificing a melancholy befitting of the end
times.
The Phoenix, Arizona singer/songwriter sharpened her creative voice across two radiant albums. Her sophomore record, somebody in hell loves you, is as devilishly saccharine as the title implies, boldly accessible and smart.
Take, for example, the summertime glimmer of the punchy “overkill” or the inescapable hook of the ode-to-
dreaming that is “smiley face.” There’s an audible recreation of panic in the escalating loudness of “terrible places.”
An ocean of clever nuance powers “god damn it, jane.” The diverse extremes anchoring somebody in hell
loves you are both fresh and familiar, like the most timeless of indie rock.
Sprague, once described as “the punk rock Kacey Musgraves,” first fell in love with the unapologetic guitar
-fueled pop of Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. Bands like All-American Rejects and Fall Out Boy followed. She next immersed herself in The National, and Death Cab For Cutie.
Refinery 29, UPROXX, Rock Sound, NPR, Guitar World, and American Songwriter were among the tastemaker outlets who lavished praise upon her 2021 debut, maybei will see you at the end of the world.
“Unfiltered lyrics meet ‘sad’ and ‘anxious’ sounding music,” Kerrang! observed. “[But] this record isn’t a
doom-laden diatribe; there’s an underlying tongue-in-cheek humor bubbling through.”
The candid, authentic emotions on maybe i will see you at the end of the world and somebody in hell loves you
are keys to her relatability. A grownup emo kid who loves pop-punk, indie rock, hooky radio hits, and everything between, Sydney shares the same struggles as her crowd. It’s a connection forged further on the road, like her tour
with Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional. Music helps Sydney Sprague get through it all, and her hope is thather songs will help folks to do the same.