“Sara Skinner rocks YouTube”
Exclusive Interview by Michael Aaron Gallagher of StayFamous.Net
Sara Skinner
With a voice that is powerful, haunting and angelic, Sara Skinner is one of the most intriguing singer-songwriters on YouTube today. The 19 year-old alternative, pop-rock recording artist from Texarkana, Texas is quickly building a global fan following and even getting radio airplay for her music.
“I always liked writing songs when I was a kid but I didn’t like to ever do it in front of anybody,” Sara said in a recent interview with StayFamous.Net.
When her parents recognized her gift for writing and performing, they encouraged her to enter talent shows. In 2009, she got her first big break, when her song was voted into the Top 10 nationwide in a songwriting contest for K-LOVE radio.
“That was really the first time I started doing any original music in front of people,” she said.
After receiving such a positive response from listeners, she continued to upload more music videos to YouTube. In the span of a year, she has garnered more than 1 Million plays for her breathtaking covers of songs like “Diet Mountain Dew” by Lana Del Rey, “Listen” by Beyonce, “The A Team” by Ed Sheeran, “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys and “Try” by Pink.
Recognizing the power of social media, she also began connecting with fans through Facebook and Twitter and building a street team to promote her music.
“Twitter has really brought me a lot of exposure,” Sara said.
She now has more than 36,000 Twitter followers, whom she regularly interacts with. In fact, many fans are surprised when she follows them back, re-tweets them, answers their questions and shares new material with them.
Sara Skinner signs autographs for her fans.
She may be popular now, but like many girls, there was a time when she faced the pressures of high school, something she has written about in her very personal and emotional song “Break.”
“It’s about my experience in high school with being bullied by mean girls,” Sara explained.
Although it is hard to imagine that someone as beautiful and talented as Sara ever faced the challenges of bullying when she was younger, she was able to use those feelings to pen one of her most popular songs.
Over the past few months, The Beach 96.5 FM in Corpus Christi, Texas added “Break” to their playlist and she was chosen as a featured artist on the radio show “Next in the Biz with Megan and Liz.” Her self-produced music video for the song was also selected by RockOnTheAir.com as the “Video of the Month.”
Even though she has not signed with a major record label yet, Sara isn’t letting that stop her from achieving her dreams. She has aggressively sought out opportunities in the music business and built new relationships with writers and producers.
“Avril Lavigne is my favorite artists and I sent an email to her very first producer and co-writer,” Sara said. “That is something that I’m really proud of, because he wanted to work with me, and we ended up doing four songs together.”
The resulting tracks, along with several more from her first EP are being held until she has the opportunity to release them.
“I’m working on getting signed by a label and hopefully we can release those songs the right way,” she said.
In the mean time, Sara is putting her creativity and marketing skills to good use by building her own “brand” and creating her own promotional materials.
“I really just look at all the other people who are pretty successful right now that are at the next step that I want to be at,” Sara said. Using their marketing materials as a guide, she then models the intros to her videos and other promotional campaigns after what is proven to work.
But in the end, what sets her apart from many other aspiring singers on YouTube is her originality and her desire to put her own spin on the songs she sings. With each new song, she is learning, growing and taking her music to a new level.
For the fans who have supported her music along the way Sara says, “I love them! Thank you for supporting me from the beginning. And to the new fans, you guys rock too!”
Sara Skinner rocks YouTube (Exclusive Interview)
Copyright 2013 by Michael Aaron Gallagher
Photographs courtesy of Sara Skinner
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