SARAH LILY
My name is Sarah Lily Edmunds. I grew up singing in church choirs in rustic Eastern, PA. Towards the end of high school I felt a strong desire to sing and compose my own stories, which led to writing one of my first songs, “Ruby Lou”. Never having had lessons or training of any sort, I just loved spending hours alone in my childhood bedroom with my thoughts and guitar. “Ruby Lou'' is about the pain of losing closeness with a high-school friend who I had spent every waking minute with during pivotal transitional years. I wrote it as a graduation present knowing that college and life goals would greatly alter our shared routine. The years preceding graduation we’d witnessed 100% of each other. A bond closer than sisterhood - something I’ve learned was a unique part of innocent, childhood friendships.
Since then I have continued to use music to hold parts of me. Some songs hold a part of me that is overflowing and needs an escape. Some songs hold a part of me that is weak and needs a safe place to grow, or an idea I’m too scared to otherwise embrace. Some just hold a memory I’m scared I won’t remember as precisely as I’d like to. They are my little time capsules that take weight off my heart when needed.
MUSIC
“Or do I?” is a coming of age album.
It’s the winding road to finding one’s footing in a huge, confusing world. I was lucky enough to serendipitously find the most wonderful team of musicians to puzzle this vision together. This album was co-produced by Anthony Pieruccini and myself, and was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Mike Bardzik at Noisy Little Critter Studio in Pennsylvania.
The more I listen to it, the more I understand how special it is to have these years in a 9-song package I can open whenever I’m craving reflection. Each of these songs so precisely describes a moment during a time when it felt like I changed every hour. Every experience shaped me somehow. I felt like a piece of spaghetti throwing myself at every wall, desperate to stick.
This album poses many questions and harnesses very few answers, how I think most of us feel in the early years.