Sarah Peacock: From Church Choir to Synth Pop

By Lloyd McDonald (he/him) | Photos Courtesy Anna Haas

For Sarah Peacock, music has been in her blood since she was a young child. Her grandmother taught her how to play the piano when Sarah was just 5 years old. When she was a little bit older, she joined her conservative church’s choir and began honing her singing talent. By the time she was 12, she had received a second-hand guitar and began writing music. She played it until her fingers bled, let them heal, and then would come back to play some more. During this time and because of her upbringing, she was heavily influenced by Amy Grant. After graduating high school, she enrolled in Belmont to study music. In 2005, after she graduated, she hit the road on her own as an independent musician playing her own style of americana and folk music with rock influences.

Sarah’s career, like most, has had several highs and lows. She signed a record contract in 2005 keeping most of her early music fairly obscure. This forced her to acquire fans the old-fashioned way — one tour stop at a time. And one by one, that’s exactly what she did.

This may have looked like a setback at first, but it forced her to learn the music business and truly understand how it worked. Instead of being an artist who had early success with a lot of their career dictated to them by those who better understand the business side of things, Sarah has had much more freedom in her career.

Resilience and Reinvention

While touring in 2016, her tour bus caught on fire. “This fire left me stranded in California contemplating whether it was worth it to continue in the music business or if I should begin pursuing other interests,” recalled Sarah. She said this was a very lonely time in her career. 

While she was considering her options, her fans ended up making the decision for her. “They rallied to my support and helped me keep my career going!” exclaimed Peacock. “I wrote my next album, ‘Burn the Witch,’ which was completely crowdfunded by my fans.”

“Realizing how much my fans really loved my work encouraged me to be much more vulnerable, and while I never made an official ‘coming out’ statement, I allowed my fans to see a much more authentic version of myself,” she continued. “It was at this point that I realized performing and being authentic with my music was much more important than just acting in ways that made people feel comfortable,” Sarah said. “This album allowed me to create an authentic version of myself that I personally still find more acceptable.”

Adapting and Thriving

By the time 2020 came around, she was working on additional pieces of music, when — like the rest of us — she had to pivot her career to fit with the new and still evolving landscape that COVID had given us.

She built a studio in her home just outside of Nashville where she started reimagining some of her previous songs, remixing them to have a more synth-pop feel, and releasing some singles.

While the world began getting back to normal, Sarah gave birth to her daughter. As a new mom in a world that still was not completely reopened from the pandemic, she began applying her knowledge of the music business to produce music for other artists. 

She describes her life now as a time when she has more control over what she does. “I don’t have to continuously go on solo tours to support myself as much as I did previously. Instead, I can do projects that interest me more and help other artists hone their craft as well.” She added, “I still perform shows and do the things other artists do. I am just able to be a little more selective about how I do them.”

Sarah is currently working on more music that should be coming out in the next several months.

If you’d like more information on Sarah Peacock, visit SarahPeacockMusic.com. Her music is available on all streaming platforms.