Sarah McTaggart of Transviolet: How Deconstructing Her Upbringing and Trusting Her Gut Fueled an Independent Music Career

As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Sarah McTaggart.

Sarah McTaggart is the Lead Singer and Songwriter of Indie Pop band, Transviolet. Their debut single, Girls Your Age, went viral after being tweeted by Katy Perry and Harry Styles, opening many doors for the band, including tours with Twenty One Pilots, LANY, and Joywave. After touring with Mother Mother last fall, the band is releasing their 3rd album, BODY, and headlining the US in spring 2023.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Thanks for having me! My parents were evangelical pastors, so I had a pretty extreme Christian upbringing including homeschooling, private schools and Christian summer camps. I was very sheltered- I wasn’t allowed to listen to most pop music as a kid, but I’d eat up whatever I could get my hands on. For whatever reason my parents made exceptions for random songs like California Girls by the Beach Boys and Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus and I’d play them over and over again haha.

I loved singing and songwriting. Everytime people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d say “an artist.” My mother claims I started writing songs when I was 3. The first time I ever performed in public was in church. I was 8, and I sang this song called “People Get Ready Jesus is Coming”, because it was the early 90s and evangelicals were thoroughly obsessed with the rapture. As a teen, I deconstructed and found my own version of spirituality, but for better or worse, Christianity had a big impact on me.

People always ask me where I’m from and it’s complicated- we moved around a lot- a few suburbs in Arizona and all over Central California. I was never in one place for more than a few years. I became a social chameleon, able to blend in wherever I landed. One thing I learned from moving around so much is that you could become whoever you pretended to be. I’d try on a new personality in each new town.

Just before my freshman year of highschool, my dad had a debilitating stroke, which brought us to live in the Cayman Islands with family. In a case of very unfortunate timing, about 10 months later, a category 5 hurricane hit the island, destroying my school and my parents’ business. Our lives were in upheaval, and in the chaos I was able to convince my parents to let me live with a friend back in California. Looking back, it’s pretty crazy that they let me move out at 16, but they did. I got into all kinds of trouble and I’m lucky I made it out alive.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

Since we moved around so much, I felt extremely isolated and lonely. Everytime I’d settle in and make friends, we’d leave. Music was my only constant. I started writing poems (very sad, cringey ones lol) when I was 15. While we were displaced in Florida after the hurricane, my parents bought me a $180 used Yamaha acoustic guitar. I was obsessed with it. I started learning covers, and writing my own songs on it. At 17, I started playing open mics. I was going to college for media arts and animation, but after encouragement from friends, I dropped out to pursue music seriously.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Releasing Girls Your Age was such a whirlwind. It was such a struggle to get everyone at our label on board because the song was so unconventional for pop at the time, but once it was released, all this crazy shit started happening. Katy Perry tweeted it as her song on the day, then Harry Styles tweeted the lyrics. It shot up to number one at Hype Machine and landed on the Spotify Viral 50 playlist. All of our socials were flooded with Katy Perry and Harry Styles fans, and all the sudden we had all these opportunities we couldn’t have ever imagined. We were performing on late night shows and going on tour with these massive artists. I was getting put in the studio with legendary producers and found myself at parties shaking hands with celebrities and social media moguls. It was pretty wild.

It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

We signed a really gnarly contract with people that didn’t know wtf they were doing. It was a nightmare. It’s funny now because of how absurd it all was. Like I remember these old dudes trying to tell me I should dress up like a sexy army girl and never wear pants because I had nice legs hahahaha. The relationship ended so poorly, that that’s all I’m legally allowed to say about it now. The lesson I learned was to trust my gut. I saw the red flags in the beginning, but I was so desperate for it to be the real thing, I ignored the warning signs.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My older cousins, Brett McTaggart and William Verhoeven taught me how to play guitar and record myself. Without their help, none of this would have happened, because I never would have put those recordings online, and Mikepan, my bandmate, never would have found me. We never would have started making music together, and that music we made wouldn’t have ever caught the attention of labels and gotten us signed.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Appreciate the journey.” I think in this industry especially, it’s easy to get caught up in what’s next, and you can miss all the amazing things along the way. There’s always something bigger- bigger streaming numbers, bigger shows, bigger collaborations, awards and accolades. I’ve had so many amazing experiences, but what’s sad is I can’t remember a lot of the ones in the beginning because I was so anxious about what was around the corner. Now, I try really hard to just soak in all the good stuff, to really be in the moment and appreciate all it has to offer.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m really excited to share this newest album, BODY. I’ve been really into somatic healing, which inspired my creative process on it. Each song was inspired by a feeling in my body, and like a body, each song is connected and flows into the next. Instead of being cerebral about it, and intellectualizing how I felt and what I wanted to say, I’d get into the studio and really let my body lead the way. For instance, Destroy Destroy Destroy started as a fiery feeling in my solar plexus- a twisted hurt that transformed into rage, then into this beautiful release- a calm, centered power that no one could take away from me.

The second to last song on the album is called Supernatural and it’s coming out Dec 16th. It started as this light, floaty feeling in my third eye, like when you feel that bubbly, dizzy, in love feeling when you really connect with someone. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it!

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

1. Life imitates art. Music and art inspire us to imagine ourselves in a new way. This is how we shape the world around us. We need lots of different kinds of people sharing their art so the world we shape works for everyone.
2. Representation Matters. When we see ourselves in art, music and media, we feel less alone, and it gives us hope. It inspires us to keep going, even when it feels impossible, because someone just like us got through it.
3. Art and music is how we share our stories. When we share our stories, we bridge the gap of our differences and build compassion. Music has a special way of cutting through people’s biases, and helping us see that we are more alike than different.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Learn how to be a beginner. It’s okay to suck- the learning process is messy! I was so scared of being a “bad singer” or “bad pianist” that I didn’t ask for help or find mentors for a long time. I wish I would have earlier. It’s made me so much more confident as a musician.
2. “Industry Standard” is nonsense. If it works for you great, but if it doesn’t, you have every right to tell them no thanks. I made some really bad business decisions in the beginning because everyone was telling me it was industry standard. It was the industry standard, but the industry is fucked. We need more people pushing back on their exploitative practices.
3. Go into every room believing everyone will love you; it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. In the beginning I’d get really intimidated when meeting people I perceived as more important than me. I felt like I had something to prove, and I would shrink myself or avoid the interaction all together, and I missed out on opportunities to build relationships and make friends with people I probably had a lot in common with. Now, I’m just fully myself and people can take it or leave it. It doesn’t do me any favors to believe people won’t love me. It’s a much more useful thought to believe everyone will love me (why wouldn’t they?! lol)
4. Learn when to say no. You have to create your own boundaries. When I started out I would I got so burnt so often out because I was saying yes to everything. It’s true, you should definitely take every opportunity you can in the beginning, but you need to understand the last part of that sentence- “every opportunity YOU CAN”. Only you can determine where your head is at, and when you need to take a break. In this industry, no one is ever going to ask you if you are taking on too much, they’ll wring you out until there is nothing left if you let them.
5. You are human. Even the most prolific writers and seasoned performers have off days- you will too. It doesn’t mean you “lost it” or that you aren’t great at what you do. I still really struggle with this one. I’m a perfectionist, so I want every performance, every writing session, to be successful. But, I’m in the process of healing, and reframing what success means to me. Nowadays, it means I tried my best and I had fun. It means I am compassionate with myself when I make mistakes or feel off my game. That’s success to me. Ironically, I feel like my performance in every area has gotten so much better after taking that pressure off. I let it be whatever it’s going to be that day and it’s freed me up. I’m less in my head and more open to what’s around me, and I think other people can feel that energy. Whether I’m in the studio or on a stage, my main objective is to get free, and in doing so I permit others to get free too.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Take care of yourself first. Make sure you are eating and sleeping and being a human. Schedule time to play and be with friends. Go outside. Take walks. Meditate. Swim in the ocean. Find a hobby outside of music. Make friends outside of the industry.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

So much good can come from sitting with yourself in silence and breathing. Slowing down and facing what you’re running from, facing your discomforts and fears, understanding where they come from- if we each did that we could avoid a lot of unnecessary suffering. If I could flip a switch and make therapy available to everyone, I would. We are all traumatized in one way or another, and we need help. Being a human is hard. If we each took responsibility for healing our own trauma, the world would be a much better place.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I’d have brunch with Doja Cat. I think we’d be bffs. She seems fun af.

How can our readers follow you online?

@transviolet on instagram

@transvioletband on twitter

@transvioletofficial on tiktok

transviolet.com

Transviolet on Patreon

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This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!