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Here at Impact 89FM, our staff has the opportunity to interview a lot of bands, artists and other musicians. We're excited to be highlighting those conversations and exclusive live performances.
Hello, my name is Mike Merucci. I am the host of the afterglow and an editorial assistant here at
Impact 89 FM and today I have Sara Tea with me who I just released her songs for discarded souls EP
Thanks so much for being with me today. Hey Mike, thank you for having me fellow Michigan Berk.
Yeah, you are you are current Michigan and as if I'm correct you were heavily involved in the
the independent scenes of Denver, LA, Chicago,
and you've lived various other places.
So would you be able to take us through your geographic
Odyssey across the United States
and essentially what brought you to Michigan?
- Absolutely, I think as a kid,
I moved probably 10 times before I even turned 18.
So I am hesitant to share at times
when I meet somebody new, especially Michigan,
that I'm from somewhere else,
because I do have a deep love for Michigan,
and I do have a deep love for the places that I live.
And because I've moved so often,
like there's great value to me
in building those relationships.
So the sort of the short answer I give is,
I spent my high school years in Princeton, New Jersey,
and my mom did her best to get me to that education system,
and I got a really good education there.
And from there is when I headed to Denver.
And that was the longest I lived anywhere,
which was 10 years long.
And before that, like my mom was a widow,
and she was working at universities,
and she's also developing her private practice.
So we spent time in many different areas,
like from New Mexico to North Carolina.
And then I had a short stint from our second and third grade
in Ann Arbor.
So after my Denver job for 10 years and building community and creating businesses and throwing
events, I ended up finding my way to LA for a different chapter. And amidst that, there's been
like breaks and pauses and some of those are due to family. What the most recent one is due to
health and this is pre-COVID. And I discovered and realized like I wouldn't be able to sustain myself
in the way that I was living due to this diagnosis, which I eventually got and it took a very long
time to get. And it's sort of packed with a couple different things. And it's something called
dysautonomia, which makes it very difficult to stand for long periods. And you know, I can do this
chat and it seems like I can put it together, but after this I may need to go lay down. So
it's interesting to come back to Michigan because I've got to get to know my roots better.
Like my grandma was, or my great grandmother was a finished immigrant that settled in the
Su-Saint-Marie area. My grandma grew up in Sugar Island in the 30s and then my mom was born in
Southfield. So it's been really interesting to sort of get to know my past around here and figure out,
where my grandpa worked, what factory, and when they left, when that factory closed down, you know,
and also just getting to know like the history of my grandparents. Like I found out that he used
to host events too. He was also a DJ, you know, he wasn't beat matching in the 40s, but he was,
you know, because I'm a DJ as well. So it's kind of an interesting to find my way back here and
get to know some of the people I knew in that my earlier years, like I had like an interview
pop rock band in the early 2000s and so there was sort of like a Tweet in the rock movement here
back then. So I'm you know we're grown now and getting to see you know who's still dedicated to
the music and you know what people are up to in the area and some of my collection is due to
Michigan. There's a record store called People's Records and so I get to go visit them and
these were the people that used to pick up the phone and call me and tell me they had some great
you know, bitch right techno for me and play it to me over the phone. It was that
a lot of cuts. So it's it's kind of cool to, you know, bring the full circle back
because Michigan is really the land of music enthusiasts. I was actually just
talking to my mom about this this morning who went to the arc and and Arbor and
you know, I think sometimes people don't realize the value of what you have
right down the street. But I consider that in many other locations here as like
like some of the best in the world,
especially their relationship to sound systems
and just like integrity of the artist.
So it's been, you know, that's what brought me back here.
To be honest, it's been harrowing and painful,
but there's a point where you learn you have to put it
back into your art and music or creativity
because you can't post about it on Twitter anymore.
So that's what brought me back to the music
because I was like, okay,
there's only so many times I can talk about this,
the amount of pain that I've experienced
and essentially like losing my life and independence
and coming to a place that I love
and getting nurtured here.
You have to like find your own way
and make the best of it, you know?
- Yeah, as you were touching on,
when you go to all these different places
and live in all these different places,
you're exposed to different scenes
and different images, different sounds,
and with all the different experiences you've had to,
these places like really affected how you view music and how you make music and
essentially how you live your life through that music.
Absolutely, you know, and I think the relationship that I think sometimes people miss or those who
haven't moved a lot is I see folks sort of abandoning the place that made them, right? And so they'll
leave a town and oh there's nothing here, there's that, the experience is certain scene and then
and then they'll sort of trash it and leave it.
And I can't discourage that more.
I mean, I feel like there's so much to get from each chapter.
There is the reality of acknowledging certain worlds,
like why I may have to leave certain areas.
Like for instance, there was somewhere I lived once
and I noticed people were not being responsible
with like the balance of sobriety and health.
And to me, that's a reason to leave.
is that the whole town? No, you know, it's like there's chapters for your life, there's appreciating
the lineage of the area. It's also just recognizing when a space isn't, you know, appreciating you
as much and finding the next chapter, but not abandoning it and leaving it for the next. So
I absolutely have a deep love. And if you looked at my, you know, Google Maps saved area and you
pull the map back and you see all the dots of the saved places, I think I've also learned since my
time here and befriending more librarians like I'm just someone who loves to collect and understand
and get to know the world that we're in and try to appreciate it to the best of my ability.
You know, especially during bleak times because I think in a very short attention span
eras, we can go for the thrill, but there's the simplicity of other things that can be in the
environments here in, you know.
Yeah, I definitely agree.
And I know this wasn't one of your center points there, but shout out to libraries because
yes, these. Well, it's interesting because last week I surprised that the Ann Arbor library ended up
featuring this album, which I did not expect. And I did a longer form interview with them that's
coming out in February and I was like, oh wow, this is what it's like to be with around people
who really care about your work. I think when I was in my room by myself and to be able to put
it out and you just want to connect. So librarians are my people. If I had the Samina and focus to
go to schooling the way they did, but I need as many librarians in my life as possible.
because they're the backbone.
Well, if you're the same self-industinous library,
we should be sure to say hello to my mom.
Oh, really? No way.
Oh my god, I love the library.
I used to be used to work there.
Oh, I love that. I love that.
You know, and each town sort of develops
their own relationship to expression.
Like my closest library right now is I,
you know, like the Chelsea or the Dexter one.
And each one has their different relationship
with the Ann Arbor library has, you know, like,
recording supplies you can rent.
And I ended up using those too, like,
and some of the demos of this original,
this recording in the first phase.
- Awesome, 'cause library is, especially in my hometown,
it's kind of like a town center.
It's where truly everybody of any ilk comes together
and it's, especially in a small town
Michigan many, many small towns. And so it's just interesting how these libraries take on
such an interesting centerpiece there. Well, there's something called the third place, which you
may know, but and I'll do my best to describe it, but it's essentially like we need gathering spots.
There aren't necessarily places where you go drink or have to purchase things where you can
can just gather.
And as parts of America were sort of reposition due to cars
and whatnot and consumerism, we have sometimes lost those
places to just gather and be.
So that's--
I realize as I've gone older, a deep passion of mine.
So while I may have thrown a dance party
or maybe I own to business or I put on a show,
I've been learning what the deeper themes of my interest
are, which is those places to gather, to heal, to just be.
And there's something very radical in that space where sometimes just being able to be with our thoughts is the radical act to not to feel safe and to not have to like participate in a particular way just to be there. So, yeah, libraries are definitely a spot like that, you know.
And absolutely with.
the term the opera house as the center of the city of the opera house is the city.
Suppose that kind of ties in with like you were mentioning in Denver, you had your no bullshit dance
party dance atron. You would go more in depth about exactly what that was and how it was like a
centerpiece of the independent scene there. Yeah, you know, I was when I first moved to Denver,
I knew maybe one or two people. So it was really a blank slate for me. I just turned 21 and I was very
much in the observer mode outside looking in, which with my music too and this EP, there's a lot
of that wanting to connect and gather with those who are sort of on the outside and knowing and
sort of encouraging that there is a space for that. So I entered the scene and I was someone who
who love music like you.
So I would go to whatever event and whatever I could
for dancing music or whether at the time,
everything from like swing music to industrial to house,
to drum and bass,
or to at the time like Britpop was really popular.
And so I'd be going out four to five days a week,
you know, in the joy of music and dancing
and I observed in those spaces a hierarchy,
which to me felt really absurd.
So at the top were the DJs, other promoters,
and then around them were the circle
who either dated or they approved of.
And then it was almost if the minions were the ones
who were ignored.
Now are they truly minions?
Absolutely not.
But I observed this dynamic and it got under my skin.
And did I have any connections?
Did I know people?
Did, you know, I guess,
We could say nowadays they have any cloud zero, but I had a deep desire of collection. So at the time
I was collecting and it was sort of an obscure era of an electroclash like hadn't quite had a name
and even to search for a lecture at the time was very difficult. The section was not built up.
I was collecting freestyle. I was collecting Miami based. So I was collecting my collection at the time
And I was working with somebody who had a free weekend open,
a warehouse that he had, which was sort of a tongue-in-cheek place called the Hips-Due Halfway House.
And it was sort of poking fun at the people and he's like, "Oh, I have a weekend, do you want it?"
And so quickly, I was, first of all, yes. And secondly, let's do it. Like, I wanted to create
something that was a space sort of pushing back at this. And so, you know, for anyone listening,
there is something really simple with the power of intent.
And all I literally did was a flyer that had the intention, right, on the flyer, let's
say, no bullshed dance party, no BS dance party, if you got edit that out.
And I basically said like, I think it was a Mary J quote, like leave your attitude at
the door, right?
And maybe one more thing at the door of the venue, it's so simple.
And in that first event, once again, it was timing and relationships and the underground
in a moment in time and that 200 people showed up.
I didn't know who they were.
And so there was just a wave of people craving that space.
And it was also a wave of new music because as much as I love those nights that I used
to go to, like the German base nights, the house heads, the Brit pop, whether people
were mixing or playing their 45s, there was an attitude and an error.
of gatekeeping that I had no interest in. And so this sort of, you know, provided a space of,
you know, in a sense chaos against that mindset, which as you probably know, still exists in many
spaces to this day. And, you know, as I've gotten older, I can look back and be like, oh, that's my work.
My work is that. So it is the music. It is the DJing, but it really is sort of the message and the
language that goes along with it, which is, you know, especially after these past couple of years,
and like with the title of the EP songs were discarded souls, it's like, to me there's an intent
of just acknowledging and saying that there is space in this world for those who have been pushed
to the edges and ethers, and while I was embraced after having quote-unquote success in those spaces,
to me it was never about abandoning the folks who were there for me through it all, because,
you know, there's a lot of pain in this world, right? And I feel like I relate to that. And
so it's actually been interesting because you know, when I created this event and I created
these spaces, you know, I was accepted, right? And when I had my health, I lost a lot of people.
And so that's where a lot of this music comes from. Because oh, I didn't realize who was attracted
to me due to a plus one or perhaps getting attention from, you know, press or whatnot,
like I didn't know who was there for the temporary. Now luckily I was built to be without,
like as a child, like I really did my own thing. I was used to being ignored, like you cannot.
I'm just stubborn. And so a lot of this music and returning to it, especially at my age,
was like a stubborn, like declaring of being allowed to take up space because I think continuing to
exist really is a revolutionary act. And that's where one of my stickers come in, which I should
send you when it says living as revenge on it, you know, because like you might as well.
You never know what the next day brings and just do it just to bother people.
Keep going just for revenge. So yeah.
So you'd say the your whole new EP is about getting revenge by simply existing.
You know, I think it's a slice of it. I ended up doing five songs and some of the slices are about
the pain of my health and the isolation that came with I had a couple additional setbacks.
While trying to find my diagnosis, I ended up in the hospital for a very long time due to a
burst appendix that if I had expressed the pain that I was experiencing, I would not have almost
died. And so there's a lot of layers in here of the repressed pain and the repression of my power
and the repression of like navigating the music world and other spaces as a woman and sort of
having to tap dance through that.
And so it sort of begins with being 28
and leaving the first song is sort of leaving behind
what a relationship that I guess would have been fine,
but there would have been no growth.
And then taking the leap and moving to LA
and going into the cesspool,
which by the way, the earth and the ground of the area
is very sacred.
It's the people who come to take from it.
And that's the truth of any area.
It's the people who try to take from,
to steal from Motown, who were the ones making the copies
of those Motown records on the side and selling them.
And it's not the core and heart of these places
that are corrupt.
So I moved my way a few corrupt systems, which
exist everywhere.
And to get to the other side and feel what love looks like
here on Earth.
And then also just saying and feeling all the things
I couldn't and then ending with the song that I think brought us together, which was 93 weeks and that's where I'm heading and so, you know, I debated at the end because I find a lot of peace and
Ambia and drone and that expression, but because for many years, additionally, you know, by 2030, I just kind of saw what it took to be in a band anymore, which I had been in
five or six at that point and I was like, I don't need this. My ego was a big enough to keep pushing.
But this EP was a chance to sort of reclaim those lost errors. The errors of me writing a song,
the error of me becoming a producer, which I produced on my own. And then leading me to now,
which is I want to go deeper into composing, to sort of reclaim the time lost to a challenging
industry, not just for women, but you know, because recording studios were very difficult. I tried
to learn the craft back then for YouTube. It was very gate-kept, but for all of us, you know,
it's changed. The landscape has changed for education and learning yourself. So
it's wrapping it all up and getting it out and immediately felt better, not matter no matter
what happens with it. My thoughts were lighter just putting it out because I was like, I didn't
realize the pieces of me that were sort of held in limbo because while I didn't need to put on my
music, there is a relationality of expression and coping and processing. What you're going through,
that's necessary through art. And I think a lot of us abandoned pieces of ourselves along the way
for survival, you know, who has the time, right? But I think I encourage, and a part of why I was
excited to put this out because I can continue the conversation of like, okay, what have we left
aside that society told us we shouldn't return to that has no worth or prop, you know, because the
first question always is when you create art, oh, you know, how you're going to sell it and it's
kind of a sickness. And so to me that yeah, it is a radical act to keep creating at any age because
it's not necessarily the norm, you know? I truly believe in protecting that. And in doing that,
you know, hopefully encourage others to keep going too, you know.
Yeah, this, this EP definitely feels like it belongs to the Midwest to me. When I listened to it a
few times, the sounds gave to me was just reminding me of the rust belt itself, just this kind of
have the rust belt. It's a hard place to describe because there's so much beauty in the rust belt and
along the shores, the great lakes, but it's, it has a lot of missing pieces to it or things that have
been forgotten and sometimes it's hard to look directly at it and then like I was reading a few
days ago about like, forget the exact term for it, but it was like Destecration porn or something
like that, how people will come to say Detroit and see all these abandoned destroyed buildings
and they'll just take pictures and be like, oh, this is so terrible, so awful. But then if you talk
to actual residents of Detroit and people around the Rust Belt, they have a certain pride in the
place and obviously you have a pride in where you come from and where you live. And like I was
I'm usually saying here this EP just reminds me very much of Rust Belt pride Midwest pride and
just the entire soul of the Midwest which is kind of living through that rust but still being proud of
the absolutely and I think if it's hard to explain and unless you drive through it or potentially
let's say you know if you create art about it and so I've been a lot of me driving around here
I spent a lot of time alone.
Previous to the two years, I was prepared for these past few years of isolation because I was already alone.
And there is a freedom that kind of clears your head when you begin to drive or look around.
And when you mention Detroit, I do have a fierce protection of the area and of sort of the dismissal that can come easily or any additional people.
additional people trying to come in to abuse and use and consume it.
And the example that sticks with me from my pride in history is,
so we are like the uppercut and so a finish folk.
And then we move for theirself.
And they're a little cold and stubborn.
We have something called Sisu, which is you just keep going.
There's a deeper ex, but there's a deeper description to it.
But that's sort of the gist of it.
And from, there's actually a population for Michigan
when the factories close down,
that move down to this area called Lake Worth and Florida.
Now, so in that population in Florida,
as you may know, the coastlines can get hyperdeveloped,
or maybe not, but they get developed.
And this one little town in Lake Worth,
which happens to have a large finish population
for years, kept resisting development.
So people will talk smack about this area.
They'll say all these things and this and that.
And there is a sweetness and charm to integrity being held
and saying no to the development
and saying no to being used again
and taking a long-ass time to find our own DM way.
So folks don't steal from us again.
So that's a sense of integrity that I see in this area,
but I did not know about, you know,
because while my family was from this area,
you know, to survive, my mom was a widow,
we went to college towns to, you know, to earn a living.
And then as I spent more time in this area,
I understand a deeper sense of integrity and the hard work
and also just the no bias mentality here
that, you know, they don't wanna be sold anything.
You got to mean what you say and walk quietly and do it well.
And do I love that?
It's completely, I love that so much.
It's healed a piece of myself that you don't know
that you're researching for, especially in America.
Like sometimes we are disconnected from our roots.
It can become a conglomerate of mush of who we are
and what we aren't.
So I love this as a time to start to understand
who we are, where we came from and what it means.
and the Midwest has really healed a piece of me.
And I just love driving around here honestly
to like, I'll drive Northwest any direction
and just go for a drive and kind of get to know the history,
whether it's like the closed fender factories
and lancing, please correct me if I'm wrong.
I do have memory loss from what I do
or driving different directions to look at the old signage
that the verna's signs on the side of the buildings.
And when they get painted over, I flip the lid.
Like there was one in an argument.
they paint it over after it's seen it since 1987.
I was like, how dare you?
This is our history.
So I have a deep love for maintaining it.
And I think if we keep preserve it long enough,
it will be preserved by the next generation.
We're seeing that with the crafts, too,
people are starting to preserve the things
that we thought we lost, whether it's sign painting,
that's something I've been working on.
And it's a trade, 'cause I'm artist as well.
And I love the impact of words.
And so once you start following that hashtag on Instagram,
or liking the algorithm,
you'll start seeing a world of sign painters
who are preserving the craft now.
And I see that for a lot of stuff.
I do see hope in it all.
And so creating this music is definitely preserving
that hope in myself and others.
- Yeah, I'll say with the way the world has been progressing,
It seems like more and more of a corporate hellscape
with each passing year, but then again,
sometimes I'll look at the internet
and I see all these new communities that have come about
because of the simple existence of the internet
and how it has become a global village.
And so if not for the internet,
I wouldn't have found out about certain music scenes
and such, and then still looming over that is, you know,
all these massive entities that we can't truly understand
or even know their plans.
- Mm-hmm.
- And that's a bit of a terrifying thing,
but it's still, how do you see the future
progressing with both these,
I guess small scenes in the internet
that preserve these kinds of culture
and these forms of art, but, you know,
like I said, looming on the horizon
is the never-ending capitalist hellscape.
So.
- Well, what I've been excited most about
in the new intergenerational communication
that wasn't happening when I was younger.
There was a divide, especially between women.
But now I'm seeing the conversations between,
let's say a six year old union worker
and a 20 year old punk rock kid who has ADD
and doesn't know what to do with our life.
And if they begin talking online and getting the advice from, you know, my uncle was an
electrician and, you know, worked hard, thought it'd pay off.
And then you learn at the end, maybe it doesn't.
You know, you got to keep working if I see the relationship between the generations starting to talk.
And I think that was the divide that got people so scared with some of these new apps.
And so if we can find, you know, and buy a new app on many TikTok, you know,
So if we can find these ways to, you know, not give
herself over to the algorithm to keep, you know, it's
essentially media literacy with understanding the
algorithm is doing its job. So yes, of course, we're
seeing more coral thick stuff, but but they're attracting
the amount of time we're looking at that thing and where
our eyes are falling on it. So the more time you spend on it,
the more time they'll show it to you. So I think that
balance with recognizing that these systems are
monitoring how we use our time and energy and knowing that we are the product, right?
But then additionally, for the time before these worlds get co-opted, if we can use the
tools, you know, quickly and definitely, and then knowing when to turn the phone off.
And I'm someone who's had it spend a lot of time in bed.
And since I put this, this EP out, I've definitely been monitoring my time and making sure
I develop my hand skills, my motor skills, returning at times to the history of the DIY
methods of distributing flyers isn't over.
And I think a blending and meshing of both of those worlds is really important to me.
Pounding the pavement is just as important as having the option for a virtual meeting
because in that virtual meeting are going to be people like me on the days who can't get
out of bed.
It's going to have to be crafty.
The sentiment I've been hearing back, which shifted my perspective because people can
get caught in intellectualish and doomsday, especially in the scenes, let's say, that we're
interested, noise and drone.
For me, I like doom too, actually like doom metal.
We can highly expose ourselves and educate ourselves, but then we can also get caught
and hopelessness and and a key piece that I've taken away also is like hopelessness is also a key
rule of white white supremacy and and to keep us sort of disconnected and so I think the deeper we
can build communities in new ways intergenerational ones to your other people's stories and not just the
older telling the younger what to do but I've learned so much from the younger and older and my
own age. And so I think if we can view it as a tool and really know that they are praying upon
our, you know, brain happiness, serotonin structure to keep us addicted and make radical choices
to close it down and then use it when we can and close it down and combine the, you know,
in person when we can and when we feel safe and then use the internet in the other ways. But I
I think I do see the combining, because I do love physical skills of like working with your hands and then putting my damn phone down and not touching it at all, you know, it's gonna take it's gonna take practice. It's not easy. I don't think it's easy, you know, I fall and pray to both. So.
I don't know if you hear the train blurry by now.
Another beauty of the Midwest here, the very rusty train tracks, but I love walking on them.
But I suppose I will ask you one more question before we go here.
Is there anything in particular, or I suppose, what would be the most important aspects that you would want listeners to take away from your new EP?
away from your new EP.
- You know, I think music gives us a chance
to authentically feel the things that aren't safe.
And so you can come with a critical ear,
but understand how many obstacles it can take
and many musicians and artists
just to wake up every day.
And so, to me, it's almost less about the music,
but that we kind of, I really do believe we all kind of have to keep going.
So it impact wise, I hope this creates a world in the space where people can just be
to sit back and feel and feel like they're experiencing something real, you know.
And beyond that, it's not up to me, you know.
Because listen, I don't, I know I can already do better, believe it or not.
but there's a point in creativity where you just have to let go
and express it.
And so I think the joy is learning and hearing and letting others tell me what it means to them,
you know, but I hope for a moment they can feel surrounded by something real
and someone who kept going and it gives them a sense of comfort or hope in that.
Awesome. Thank you.
Yeah.
Those still listening, I absolutely recommend this EP.
I will be playing the final track, 93 weeks on the after well.
She goes from 10 p.m. to midnight on Sundays.
I'll have that within our system soon enough, I believe.
But once again, thank you so much for joining me.
I feel like it was a good talk. I really enjoyed this.
Thank you for coming on.
Thanks for making the space for musicians like me.
Absolutely.