AC Sapphire Shares New Single 'Desert Car'

Portland-based artist AC Sapphire will release her debut full-length album Desert Car on May 8 (pre-order). The album follows up AC Sapphire's acclaimed EP, Omni Present which is out now. Today she has shared the album's title track with American Songwriter and the track will be available on all streaming services this Friday.

About the song AC Sapphire says:

"I wrote 'Desert Car' while I was on a big Tom Petty bender. We actually did a version that we didn't end up using on the record, where I tried a talking bit at the end of the song...I felt inspired by how Tom Petty is so well-spoken and yet eloquently cool at the same time.

On my way driving across the country to move to Joshua tree from Philadelphia, my Toyota Dolphin RV broke down in a heap of smoke with most of my earthly possessions inside, with in the first three days of being in the desert I bought my 1992 Buick Roadmaster station Wagon from someone named Rocky off of Craigslist. That car became iconic in my own life - I knew it was marking a transformative time and it just felt song worthy. I thought about how there are a lot of songs written about pick up trucks but I had never heard the one about a Buick Roadmaster Station Wagon! To be honest this song kind of started off as a joke with my friends, until suddenly they started requesting it often and I decided to take it more seriously and let my wild romantic side take the song to its destination. I wrote "Desert Car" to bring the listener into my real world, and yet also have a sense of the wonder that desert brought to me, and allow me to live in my imagination and fantasy world.

AC Sapphire is currently on tour supporting Lauren Ruth Ward and Valley Queen. The tour will include shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia and more. All upcoming shows are listed below.

The Mojave is a desolate dreamscape, a vista of mind-bending scenery that seems to transform with every sand-swept step. There's something exquisitely wild about it, tinged with a hint of danger. The same can be said for the music of longtime desert denizen AC Sapphire. It has the same surreal qualities, the same sense of constant metamorphosis, the same expansiveness and emotional evocation, the same sense of wonder and revelation, and the same wild and perilous spirit. Her cosmic sound blends disparate elements into an ethereal folk rock while her strong voice shakes listeners awake as she spins her passionate, dust-blasted tales. All these qualities can be heard on Omni Present out now and Desert Car.

Sapphire's life began in Eastern Pennsylvania where her household overflowed with eight home-schooled children. When she was 14, she was given a singing part in a Shakespeare production. "I had no idea I was even able to sing and then I found my purpose," she explains. "My father, an antique dealer, had this really beat up guitar with one string. I would just play that one string and pretend I was shredding. Eventually, my dad helped me ad the other five. I started writing songs right away. By the time I was 17 I was gigging."

Sapphire soon teamed up with two of her siblings to form Sisters3, finding regional success. Then her younger sister quit the group. For AC, it was devastating. She needed a change and knew just where to find it. For years, she had been selling pizza at music festivals around the country. "I worked for a company of outsiders, artists, and travelers," she explains. "Every year after working at Coachella I would spend two weeks in Joshua Tree. I was entranced by the desert. I wanted to live there." She followed that Siren's song west to her new home. "The desert changed me. There's mental clarity because you can see everything. There's room. There's space."

This freedom and awe influenced songs like Omni Present's "Desert Stars," about the death of a friend and mourning the inability to share the marvels of the sandy wilds, and "Rock and Roll Van," a more lighthearted fantasy about escaping the 110-degree heat via musical road trip. A different California landscape inspired Desert Car's "Stick and Poke Tattoo," a story of one of Sapphire's real body decorations set against the backdrop of a brief affair with an Irish blacksmith and the crashing waves of the Big Sur coastline. "The Thrift Store Song" features Particle Kid and details what Sapphire describes as the best feeling in the world, "going to the thrift store and finding something that fits you perfectly."

Despite her affinity for the arid expanse, Sapphire eventually decided to move on. These days she can be found in Portland, Oregon where she has put together a new band while also singing harmony and recording with Kyle Craft. Sapphire feels strongly about championing women in the music industry. She has volunteered as a vocal coach for the Portland Rock & Roll Camp for Girls and plans to raise money for the organization throughout her tour.

AC Sapphire Tour Dates:

03.12 - Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriets +
03.13 - San Diego CA @ Casbah *
03.23 - Vancouver, WA @ Biltmore *
03.24 - Portland OR @ Doug Fir Lounge *
03.27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court *
03.29 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge *
03.31 - Kansas City. MO @ The Riot Room *
04.01 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry *
04.02 - Milwaukee, WI @ Back Room Collectiveo *
04.03 - Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen *
04.05 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Heaths Cottage.
04.08 - New York, NY @ Pianos
04.10 - Philadelphia, PA @ Ardmore Music Hall
04.12 - Asheville, NC @ One World Brewing
04.14 - Nashville, TN @ The Basement
04.16 - Shreveport LA @ Ki Mexico
04.17 - Houston, TX @ The Rustic *
04.18 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk *
04.19 - Dallas, TX @ Three Links *
04.22 - Albuquerque NM @, Launchpad *
04.23 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel *
04.24 - Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon *
04.30 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Lille Aeske
05.02 - Bodega Bay, CA @ Bodega Day festival
05.07 - Portland, OR @ The Laurelthirst Public House

* with Lauren Ruth Ward & Valley Queen Solo
+ with Feisty Heart

Photo credit: Carly Valentine

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