Sara Watkins on Her New Album Young In All The Wrong Ways

Sara Watkins is stepping away from the pack. After years of collaborative projects and being a band-member—most notably a front-woman in Platinum-selling, Grammy award-winning Nickel Creek—she is set to release her solo album, Young In All The Wrong Ways, on July 1.

The album has been garnering a lot of buzz, as the first single, “Move Me,” had NPR praising Watkins’ new sense of exploration within herself and her musical palette. On June 12, she performed at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival for the first time as a solo artist, debuting her new album to fans. Parade.com chatted with Sara, 35, about her upcoming album release, working sans-manager and being Young In All The Wrong Ways.

You’ve performed at Bonnaroo before with Nickel Creek, but this was your first time playing as a solo artist. How did it feel?

It felt great. I’ve gotten to be a part of a lot of different projects [at Bonnaroo]. I was here with Nickel Creek years ago, and then sang with the Decemberists as well as with my brother’s band, Fiction Family. I’ve done my own stuff before, but this [performance] was with a full band and I sort of debuted this new album material here, which is very exciting.

The new album drops on July 1. Are you happy with how it’s turned out? 

I’m really happy about it. It’s the first album of mine that’s been 100 percent original. There are a few co-writes on there, but I feel like all of the songs started with some very similar source material. It holds together in a way that my previous albums didn’t, and I’m really looking forward to seeing which songs become audience favorites. I haven’t tried out these songs live much with a full band. I’ve done some things solo but never with a band so we’ll be getting to know the [songs] that become fan favorites. You never really know which ones those are going to be.

For this album, you didn’t work with a manger or a record label.

I was just in-between, and there didn’t seem to be a reason to do it, because there’s never really been a reason to make a record in the past. It’s another example of the forward motion that I was feeling when I was writing a bunch of these songs.

The title of the album, Young In All The Wrong Ways, seems very raw and candid. What was the inspiration behind that?

I don’t know about you, but I felt that way at several stages in my life. When you graduate from some kind of thinking, or maybe it’s actually a graduation, or you’re moving on somehow, you look back and think, “Oh my gosh! A month ago… I would never do that again.” And I hope that I continue to feel that at the next stage [in my life], that I feel like I’ve graduated to something else. The album is really about those moments.

Is there any one track on the album that particularly resonates with you?

I think different songs, different days. They all feel very current to me in terms of my life. Sometimes it’s a line in a song that seems particularly relevant. I feel very involved in these songs.

How would you describe your musical focus, particularly in this album?

I come from an instrumentally focused field, bluegrass, but this album is less so. This album is more song-oriented and it’s a bit louder. I’m playing a lot more guitar these days. It’s more lyrically driven than my past projects.

You’re often compared to, or lumped in with, your brother due to all the work that you’ve done together. Are you trying to depart from that with your new solo album?

We’ve worked together quite a lot, but this [solo album] just seems like the right move. We’ve worked really closely, but diversity is really important to me. I think that if you’re in one band you should be in two, because you really learn from the other projects. Sean [Watkins] and I just did a project, and we worked very closely with a Watkins Family Hour tour and album that we did last summer. That was a really great experience, but [on this album] it was just great to work with other people. You get different things from musicians that you don’t often play with, and it’s nourishing in different ways.

Sara Watkins is on tour through December 2016, with two upcoming performances in Los Angeles, California.