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Dead Sara

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When we spoke with Dead Sara's Emily Armstrong, it was the afternoon of their album release and she and the rest of the band were driving from New Mexico to Texas, on the road to their next show, which is what the next six months looks like for them. The band formed when Armstrong and guitarist Siouxsie Medley met as teens. The two "went though many players" as they figured out their sound. Armstrong had been working on it for years -- she first picked up a guitar when she was eleven. Her mom, whose influence on her included playing 60s and 70s music around the house, got her something a little nicer for her birthday, and then she "spent a lot of time learning everything I could [while] listening to a lot of late '90s radio."

"As soon as I started playing I started writing. I think the first song I wrote was about a bird. And then when I got dumped," of course, for the first time." Now, they figure things out in the rehersal room. We use "two mics, write something on the spot and hit record and see what fits. We work together and everyone comes up with their parts."

And with enough of that, they ended up with their debut album, which leads them back to the road, as Emily describes it "being out different places with my friends, playing music. It doesn't get any better than that."