Bad Sandy records her first EP at new Highland studio

Even though Sarah Rackliff has only recently introduced Birmingham to her onstage persona “Bad Sandy,” she’s been in the process of writing the songs for her soon-to-be released EP “Retrograde” for several years. 

The five songs — which she classifies as “sad songwriter-singer music” — that make up “Retrograde” are highly personal and based on past and present emotions, she said.

“In song writing, it’s a second chance to go back and process through things,” she said.

Rackliff, who grew up in Vermont, got her first look at a recording studio when she took songwriting courses at her high school. After graduating, she said she did six months of travel and wrote the five songs on her EP over the course of more than three years. 

“[Songwriting] lulled for a while,” she said. “But it was definitely still going on, it was always there, still bubbling around.”

Rackliff also plays guitar and the ukulele, but said she considers herself more of a songwriter and singer than a musician. When she played a Loft Show with Birmingham resident Brandon Snipes in February, she learned about his new Highland Park in-home professional recording studio, called Four Birds Studio, and later took him up on his offer to record her EP.

“The actual making of [Retrograde] was actually pretty fun and easy. The hardest part is the idea of having these personal songs to myself for all this time and then letting them go out into the world and letting other people hear them. It’s a very vulnerable position to be in,” she said.

In order to fund her album, Rackliff launched a Kickstarter and made a video of Bad Sandy encouraging people to donate funds for recording, mixing, mastering and distributing her first EP through CDs, tapes and online music streaming sites like Spotify and Bandcamp. 

She said she reached her goal two days after she started it, which was a huge surprise.

“It was really overwhelming, actually… recording is hard when you don’t have money,” she said. “Now that it’s happening,it’s very surreal.”

Rackliff said that her EP will most likely be available around town and online in mid-July.

Four Birds Studio specializes in singer-songwriters and is currently accepting new artists.  To learn about rates or more information, go to fourbirdsstudio.com.

The article will be updated with a link to Bad Sandy's music once it is available.