Electropop’s Sarah Walk Celebrates Queer Identity With “What Do I Want?” (premiere)

Pop singer-songwriter Sarah Walk takes a bold step in affirming her queer identity on her upcoming sophomore album, Another Me. Her latest record tackles the difficult issues that all women face in patriarchal societies that entitle males to power, silencing women’s voices and marginalizing all but the most privileged among them. As an outsider, Walk made this album to address “being marginalized, being a woman, learning how to set boundaries without apology and being confident without feeling guilty for it. Learning how to love wholly without expectation.”

That confidence is evident and infectious on Walk‘s latest single “What Do I Want?”, which sees her move from her previous more piano-based music to synthesizer-infused electropop. The melodic hook on “What Do I Want?” moves the song into the anthemic, while the song remains searingly personal. Walk‘s voice is a marvel, rich in tone, ethereal when it needs to be. This Berklee College of Music graduate is masterful at composing empowering earworms, and this song continues that tradition.

From one queer Sarah to another: you got it, girl. Another Me releases 28 August via One Little Indian Records.

Walk tells PopMatters more about her impetus for creating this stellar single:

“‘What Do I Want?’ started as a love letter to my songwriting and turned into something else entirely, which happens a lot. I try to let the song lead me. It touches on my never-ending nostalgia, difficulty with decision making, and paralyzing anxiety over making the wrong choice. There have been times where I’ve been so overwhelmed by what to do that I’m unable to make a decision until someone else makes a choice for me. I think part of that comes from being a woman; we’ve been conditioned to doubt our capability, afraid of confidence coming off as arrogance. A lot of this album touches on the challenges that stem from marginalization and learning how to exist in this world without apology or guilt.

I initially had made a demo of this on the piano, but when we went in to record it, we knew it wouldn’t fit with the rest of the album stylistically. We decided to start from scratch, changing the key, so it felt unfamiliar and starting with that pulsing synth bassline. I wanted the song to feel chaotic and distracting, like a panic attack trying to be tamed into focus.