Julep (Acoustic)

Sage Suede – Julep (Acoustic)

I recorded Julep as an acoustic song. It wasn’t something that I chose to continue working on afterwards, even though my original intention was to create it in a more completed version with a backing track. You can see the video for Julep below and on my YouTube channel.

Always Making Progress on My Music

I am still evolving a lot as an artist and even as this was recorded a few days ago, my sound has changed a lot. Recently, this is mostly evident in the way I sing. If you’ve been following me, you may have noticed my name changed from AJ Bluejay to Sage Suede. This was for a variety of reasons but mostly I feel like I’m a different person and the music I had released to date as AJ Bluejay was too soft to really represent who I am. I was in a sad place when I wrote a lot of those songs and most of them are too sad for me to even perform. Sage Suede has a stronger presence, will feature better production quality and better embodies who I am as a person.

Why Sage Suede?

I Love Herbal Medicine

I chose the name Sage, because I have been strongly influenced by herbal medicine. Whenever I get sick, I turn to my trusty Herbal Remedies dictionary by Asa Hershoff, N.D. and Andrea Rotelli, N.D.. It has herbs listed by ailment, so I can look up whatever I, or a friend, is afflicted with. Then I can find herbs that may help. I’ve cured a lot of my ailments this way, but I don’t necessarily recommend it. Herbs tend to be a little safer than pharmaceuticals, depending on which herb, but you should still take note of side effects and any inherent risks.

I Enjoy Studying Magic & Spirituality

I also like the name Sage because it is a voice of someone that people look to for guidance and I would like to influence people to make healthy life choices. A sage is also a spiritual leader and is associated with magical circles. In addition, Sage is used in cleansing rituals and it’s just generally a positive thing.

So Why Are You Suede? Isn’t That a Fabric?

I like fashion and thought suede was good as a descriptive term because my voice can be soft, but also tough like leather. I know that I have a little bit of roughness vocally and that’s something that I embrace and often emphasize in my music. The biggest downside is my search rankings and I really hope I start showing up on search engines above a bunch of average looking boots (please hear my prayers Alfabet, Gods of SEO)… update: idk if saying it as a prayer worked but my SEO is great now.

Sage Suede – Julep

This song was partially about a girl I dated. She was pretty but we weren’t actually compatible in the end. I wish that things had panned out a little differently, so that we could have had a fighting chance, but it was never really there. We happened to hang out on a very beautiful day at the reservoir. I don’t feel like she ever really gave me a chance but that isn’t important. This is just a song with some general feelings I had at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2lSxNCZtc

Julep, come quick
had an ankle bracelet
sun-kissed freckles
brown eyes bespeckled

short hair, you don’t care
about the way they speak
you know you’re beautiful
and they can be so mean

take my troubles dump them in the sea

Julep, shorten
the path to my serenity
the happy is inside of me

I complain, when it rains
I down black coffee while you read
your mysteries

boiled that tiger down
into a tea

your cosmic ray
brightens black celophane
their plastic pop
glowed when you sang

you had a way
to kill the hurt in me
with rose gold lips
you have me happily

You said touch builds desire
memory of foam
you taught me that troubles are
where you let them roam

your specialty was speaking low
softer than the lake
I saw you late last Friday night
I felt adrenaline

Julep, come quick
had an ankle bracelet
sun-kissed freckles
brown eyes bespeckled

short hair, you don’t care
about the way they speak
you know you’re beautiful
and they can be so mean

mesmerized by your thighs
tight leggings

Julep, shorten
the path to my serenity
the happy is inside of me

I complain, when it rains
I down black coffee while you read
your mysteries

let’s stay home
we’ll have peaches and cream

I recorded Bird Girl in the studio at Northeastern University this week.

Finishing Up College & Rushing on DIAMONDBACK Demo

My last semester at Northeastern University is this spring and I am rushing to finish DIAMONDBACK Demo, while I still have free access to the recording studio in the library. I feel like I’m constantly interacting with people that want to tear me down, but then again it’s basically been that way my entire life, so I’m glad I have lived in Boston. I needed the strength and aggression that Bostonians have to make it through conflicts in my life. As someone that grew up in Austin, I used to be a little too passive and that is a better way to treat others, but I needed to have that aggression as well. Tbh, I was probably a little too aggressive leaving Boston.

I Have Been Writing Music For a Long Time

I have been writing acoustic songs since high school, but no one has heard them because I have a high standard of quality. I also dabbled in beat production starting in middle school and took a free audio engineering course at Austin Community College in high school. I have performed in two musical revues for more singing experience through NUStage and did musical theater in high school, solely to improve my singing voice. I didn’t actually enjoy the music in musicals and I consider it to be way too cheesy, in a way that is practically unreal. However, I dedicated my time to it and grew vocally from my experiences.

Sage Suede is an Original Musician

Ultimately, my style is my own and I refuse to be an archetype, to copy blindly, or sacrifice my creativity and personality to fit into a genre. My music can’t exist without creativity and although it could become a business some day, I don’t ever want to make music that isn’t true to who I am. That will take a bit of learning on my part, because most of my early songs are way too sad, but I will start to express happier aspects of my reality.

A long time coming

I have had a passion for music since I was a child. I used to always be shy and scared as a performer, so I found the judgments of others difficult to cope with. In spite of that, I have performed throughout my life at concerts, on stages, for memorial services, etc. and it’s become more natural to me. I am done living in the shadow of a mediocre music industry and I’m not letting people step on me anymore. My music is gonna be released one way or another and I hope to entertain by being genuine, incorporating a wide-variety of my personal musical influences and to pull it all together in a way that allows people to see themselves as individuals, independent of societal definitions of happiness. I am making music to express myself, not to be someone else’s definition of ideal and as I grow, I want my fans to grow with me.

A lot of you are good friends of mine and I just want you to know that I really appreciate your interest in my music. Please share.

I still have a very long road ahead of me and I need all the help I can get!

Written by sagesuede