Through āSmoke and Fireā: The Inspiration Behind Sabrina Carpenterās New Song
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Sabrina Carpenter (@sabrinacarpenter) picked up a microphone long before she stood in front of a camera. āMusic is me,ā she says. āActing is anybody else in the world that Iām playing.ā
The 16-year-old singer, best known as Maya Hart on the Disney Channelās Girl Meets World, first discovered her now concurrent loves of music and performance while growing up in Pennsylvania, in a town āwhere there are cows in the middle of the road,ā she says. The two careers have since kept her busy. She is currently set to begin her third season on Girl Meets World at the same time she releases her as-yet-titled second album.
After her first record, Eyes Wide Open, dropped in 2015, Sabrina found herself back in the studio with an excess of new experiences under her belt that she was ready to share. The first one, which turned into the single āSmoke and Fire,ā was about a breakup with her boyfriend, which had happened five days earlier.
āI hadnāt written for, I want to say, eight months since the first album released, and I just had a lot of stories building up,ā she says. āI kind of write wherever I go. So even when Iām not in a professional session, Iām always writing down things in my phone and in my notes on stuff that inspired me and stuff that I see in everyday life.ā
For the music video to āSmoke and Fire,ā Sabrina wanted to tell a story. But she was surprised when director Jessie Hill presented her with a ballet-related concept. āThe song is called āSmoke and Fire,ā so I was expecting to be, like, burning stuff up,ā she says. However, she soon warmed up to the idea of a less fiery narrative. āWe went with this innocent love story almost being told through a memory, and then the reality of where itās at now. Itās kind of a video that shows you that youāre really not alone. And the song does that same thing.ā
Though acting is still a big part of Sabrinaās life, music remains her first passion. Itās a place she can share messages with her audience in different, more personal ways. āI think music is universal. It can relate to everybody, every type of human. And thereās no law [or] books that say what type of music you have to listen to. Itās just whatever you want. And I think thatās why Iāve always been drawn to it, because itās just been something that can be mine personally, but also everybody elseās at the same time.ā
