Sabrina Carpenter: Alice in Wonderland

Somewhere under the golden rays of the California sun, the seedling of a pristine Himalayan Blue Poppy begins to sprout. The stem grows slender but sturdy. The roots branch out rapidly, deeper into the chalky soil. The petals bend and fold, thirsting for rain, sometimes dropping wistfully in utter silence. The aroma remains as sweet as ever, the striking, blue-hued foliage a glimpse of treasure under meticulous growth challenges. Confidence is a delicate flower and needs to be nourished as such. Sabrina Carpenter—actor, singer, and producer—is well aware of this. The 22 year-old’s career has blossomed quickly, seeing Carpenter traverse any and all artistic avenues that pique her interest.

It’s early afternoon in Atlanta when I connect with Carpenter over Zoom, as she offers her apologies for just waking up and “sounding like a man” after shooting all night for her new thriller-comedy film Emergency. “Last night, we were on set and they started playing ‘No Diggity’ at 3 am in the woods,” she exclaims enthusiastically, “and everyone just got up, and the music was blasting in the middle of the forest, and we all started singing. It was the greatest.” Then she jokes, “I’m not used to being a bat yet, but I’m adjusting.”



Despite her demanding schedule, the artist appears calm, collected, and confident, and I feel as if I am catching up with an old friend, rather than chatting with a superstar who fostered a large fan base via her breakout role ten years ago on Disney’s Girl Meets World. We heartily discuss her singing career, though she recoils at the mere mention of her performance on a Miley Cyrus singing competition at ten years old, rocking a fedora and a peace sign t-shirt. All of that is in the rearview mirror now, as Carpenter has moved full speed ahead since her Disney days, recently wrapping production for Tall Girl 2 in New Orleans, procuring a deal with Netflix to produce a musical rendition of Alice in Wonderland under her own production company—all while engineering a fifth studio album.

Since the pandemic, Carpenter has found herself back inside the intertwining worlds of cinema and music, a quarantine dually imbued with sentiment and solitude. The time to herself has led to an evolution in her lyrical abilities and formation of musical autonomy. “It gave me, as Sabrina, the opportunity to get a little bit closer with my own voice and myself,” she says. “Being alone in a room with a piano, and being able to send those ideas to my friends, and not having them being over-thought or touched too much was great. It gave me a little bit more time, whereas before I had to leave the studio with a full song done and nothing beforehand. I try not to go in with a specific mission of a thing I want to make, because it may take you down the wrong path and not allow you to be as creative as possible.”

Carpenter and I briefly mourn over the melancholia of our long-lost, quarantined 21st birthdays, in the absence of ritualistic booze-filled bar mania. “I got to learn my alcohol tolerance in the privacy of my own home, so that was great, because there’s no risk there!” she laughs optimistically. When asked what has memorably marked her growth in the past year, she replies, “I feel like I’m unlocking a lot of who I am currently, in the last year, especially. I feel like the 20’s, in my eyes, are such an exciting time, because I’m ready to feel as much as I can, and whether that be good or bad, it’s all useful.”

Carpenter’s embrace of the emotional spectrum is well-evidenced with her unwavering focus on music. She’ll soon yield her highly anticipated fifth studio album, which she likens to her “sonic universe” that she is currently molding. “This whole quarantine, it has been like, ‘well you know what, it doesn’t need to be perfect. I’m just going to put it out as is, c’est la vie, and see how it goes,’” she says, “because I’ll put something out, and be like, ‘Ah I wish I could change that, just a little bit.’ So I’m trying not to overthink it right now, but I am trying to make sure it tells the story I want to tell. So I’m taking my time with it.” In the midst of Carpenter’s careful songwriting process, she remains steadfast that she is perhaps the most inspired she’s ever been with “so much to cover and tackle.”



Drawing influences from the likes of Dominic Fike (she says his song “The Kiss of Venus” with Paul McCartney is one of her favorites), Julia Michaels, and timeless artists Sonny & Cher and Marvin Gaye, Carpenter is staying true to her roots, while also naturally shifting introspectively. “I think the fans are gonna be pleasantly surprised with the storytelling on this album compared to other albums,” she reflects. “This, more than ever, is very specific to me and my life and my stories. Before, the way I was writing songs was a little more for everyone else and a little less for myself. This one is more inward.”

“Skin,” Carpenter’s first single from the album, echoes nuances of the emotional turmoil Carpenter has faced in the heat of the public eye. The accompanying music video, shot in a vintage home with swoon-worthy love interest, Gavin Leatherwood, depicts the couple cursed by the environment around them collapsing—damned by earthquakes, rain, fog, and snow. The imagery seems to be synonymous with the buzzing media negativity Carpenter has received as of late. “‘Skin’ was a culmination of a lot of experiences that I had built up into,” she explains. “I remember trying to write around it, and trying to avoid it, and dance around the subject. I was trying to write anything but that. And then I think I wrote it, and I thought, ‘Maybe it lives out in the world, maybe it doesn’t.’ I felt it was the right time to do that song and express what I was feeling and going through. It was a different perspective than what a lot of other people were going through at the time, but it was my truth. I felt compelled to write exactly how I was feeling.”

Fame is certainly an aspect Carpenter has grown accustomed to over time, but one that has warranted her to learn that you reap what you sow. She attests that trust is not something she renounces with as much ease anymore. “When I was younger, I used to trust people so easily,” she affirms. “I thought people were so good, which is still true, and I still believe people are naturally good. But over time, I learned that some people don’t like you, don’t have a reason to like you, or feel threatened by you, which has been years and years of different experiences. That was always a really hard thing for me, because I really just always wanted to be friends with everyone. It’s been a rocky rollercoaster of learning people’s true colors and knowing what it takes to have that armor to protect yourself, while also being vulnerable in your art and letting people into your life.”