Everything All at Once: Sydney Sprague Prepares Peak Experience
Beauty In The Breakdown
On The Line: Sydney Sprague on Chaos, Clarity, and New Album Peak Experience
As part of our On The Line series, Sydney Sprague unpacks the chaos, clarity, and catharsis fueling her forthcoming third album. The Phoenix-based songwriter—known for her candid lyrics and sharp, guitar-driven sound—will release Peak Experience on September 26, 2025. Following the acclaim of her 2020 debut Maybe I Will See You at the End of the World and 2023’s Somebody In Hell Loves You, Sprague’s latest project marks both a reclamation and a reinvention.
Written and recorded in her home studio after parting ways with her label, the record circles what she calls the feeling of “everything all at once”—anxious, obsessive, cathartic, and unrelentingly real. Across eight tracks, Peak Experience explores themes of anxiety, obsession, and release, pairing raw vulnerability with soaring, hook-heavy arrangements.
Singles like “Fair Field” (a fever-dream spiral of dread and playfulness), “As Scared As Can Be,” and “Flat Circle” (a meditation on regret and parallel lives) showcase Sprague’s knack for turning turmoil into clarity. The haunting “Long Island” distills heartbreak into a sharp, two-minute plea for release.
With Peak Experience, Sprague continues carving out a sound that’s deeply personal yet universally resonant—an artist hitting her stride while pushing into uncharted territory. We’re excited to hear what’s next, and grateful she joined us for this installment of On The Line.
Good Call: Hi, thanks for doing this. What's your hometown and where are you currently based?
Sydney Sprague: I was born in Austin, TX, but I’ve been living in Phoenix, AZ, for about the last 15ish years.
GC: Who was the first person that got you into music? Are you still in touch with them?
SS: I would credit my parents for that. They aren’t musicians but they saw my interest in music and supplied me with my first guitar. They’ve always been really huge supporters. I do still keep in touch with them haha
GC: Do you remember the first song or album that had a big impact on you?
SS: I think it’s a toss-up between two albums, Avril Lavigne’s Let Go and Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway. I was just so obsessed—I had the chord books for both and I learned to play guitar from playing all those songs.
“Just because I want it doesn’t make it mine. I’ve got the feeling you’d look the other way. I can’t say it, ’cause my tongue’s too tied. Blink twice if you even know what I’m saying.” - “Flat Circle” from Peak Experience
GC: Who created the cover art for Peak Experience? It reminded us of Dessie Jackson’s—have you seen her work? We think you’d like it!
SS: That was Sébastien and me! I knew I wanted the visual to be a cow in a tornado, and he had the idea to make the set out of miniatures. We built the set together in my living room, and he took the photo. I didn’t know about Dessie Jackson, but I just went down a rabbit hole checking it out, and I’m in love!
GC: Your videos are always great. Are you the one directing and producing them?
SS: Thank you!! I have a small hand in kind of co-directing some of them, but for Peak Experience my guitar player, Sébastien Deramat, has directed and produced all of the videos. He is insanely talented at everything he touches, and it’s really fun to get to work with him through the whole process—making the songs themselves and then creating the visuals for them. I’m very lucky!
GC: What’s been the biggest non-music inspiration for you lately?
SS: I’ve been playing a lot of video games lately, which is kind of new for me. I feel like it’s been good for me to have an activity that demands 100% of my attention—it stops me from thinking about the horrors temporarily, and it helps my anxiety, I think. One of the songs on Peak Experience (“Critical Damage”) is loosely inspired by the game Children of Morta.
GC: We love all the new singles... “Flat Circle” has been on repeat! “Blink Twice If You Even Know What I’m Saying”!How has the reaction been?
SS: Thank you so much!! :) The reaction has been really good so far! I think every artist feels like their newest thing is their best thing, so I’m probably biased, but I think this is definitely my favorite set of songs I’ve ever made, and I’m really excited for people to hear them.
GC: What does touring look like after the record comes out?
SS: I’m going on a U.S. headline tour around the Midwest and East Coast in October with Gabrielle Grace, which is going to be a blast. I’ve got lots of fun things planned. After that, I’m heading to the U.K. (for the first time!) in February, supporting Pool Kids!
GC: What would be the perfect tour package for a Sydney Sprague tour?
SS: Honestly, I think this upcoming headline package (me + Gabrielle Grace) is pretty ideal for me! I love a two-band bill, and I love being on the road with friends. That’s about all I could ask for.
GC: Can you tell us a little bit about the title Peak Experience and what inspired it?
SS: Yea! Last year we were on tour somewhere in the Midwest, and we woke up to tornado sirens. We were under a tornado warning for much of our drive that day, passing through big open cow fields, and started talking about the classic image of a cow in a tornado—how that’s actually just the most insane thing that could happen to a living being. Like, no context or understanding, just being lifted off the ground and thrown around in the air. It would be so terrifying, but the adrenaline rush would be unreal. My friend and guitar player Sébastien said it would be a peak experience, and the idea that a “peak experience” isn’t necessarily only a good thing really stuck with me. It feels like a metaphor for the last couple of years of my life, and it’s also a nice memory of something I love most: having long, weird talks with my best friends on tour. I thought it fit nicely.
“I feel like I already have my dream collaborator in Sébastien Deramat. But we’ve been really obsessed with the music videos Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia have been making, like the video for Tailor Swif by A$AP Rocky and the Manchild (Sabrina Carpenter) video.
GC: Are there any non-music artists you'd like to collaborate with on something, like merch or art?
SS: I feel like I already have my dream collaborator in Sébastien Deramat. But we’ve been really obsessed with the music videos Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia have been making, like the video for Tailor Swif by A$AP Rocky and the Manchild (Sabrina Carpenter) video. I love the chaotic fever-dream feelings of them and the whole aesthetic is just very striking.
GC: What's been the best thing that's happened to you since you started releasing music?
SS: That’s kind of a hard question because I feel like releasing music is the best part of releasing music if that makes sense haha. But the opportunity to tour has been incredible. The moment that always immediately stands out in my memories, is getting to tour with The Front Bottoms (my first tour ever) and going out on stage to sing “Twin Size Mattress” with them. That was absolute euphoria.
GC. “Releasing music is the best part of releasing music” is great! That makes a lot of sense.
GC: Are there any non-music artists you'd like to collaborate with on something, like merch or art?
SS: I feel like I already have my dream collaborator in Sébastien Deramat. But we’ve been really obsessed with the music videos Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia have been making, like the video for Tailor Swif by ASAP Rocky and the Machild (Sabrina Carpenter) video. I love the chaotic, fever-dream feelings of them and the whole aesthetic is just very striking.
GC: How would you define success?
SS: I don’t know. haha. The goalpost is always moving. I think any kind of stability would feel like success, but ultimately just making things I like with my friends and having other people resonate with it feels like success to me.
GC: What are the biggest challenges for artists in 2025?
SS: Oof, it’s just all so hard. The financial aspect of it is crazy. It’s very expensive and, at least at my level, it’s a fight to break even. It’s always a puzzle of figuring out what side gigs and odd jobs can pay enough to cover both the cost of living and the expenses of making, releasing, and touring music—while still allowing you the spare time and flexibility to actually do those things. You can’t be in it for the money or expect to make a living. You really have to love it.
It’s also just an insane time to try to promote new music. There’s so much noise, and constant bad news coming out every day. Attention is hard to come by, and you have to learn how to play by the algorithms—but they’re constantly changing. It’s just a lot.
GC: Have you had an “it happened for a reason” moment recently? Something that was challenging at the time, but led to an unexpected positive outcome?
SS: I don’t know if this is exactly the kind of thing you’re asking about, but I had a very stars-aligning moment a couple weeks ago that I can’t stop thinking about. Last summer, my cat Patches—who was my absolute best friend in the world—passed away. It’s been really hard and I miss him miserably, so on the one-year anniversary of his death I decided to get a tattoo of him. I posted on Instagram asking for recommendations for an artist, and I was randomly recommended to someone I didn’t know at all.
I pulled up to their studio and, coincidentally, it was the very same room in the very same building my partner Chuck and I used to rent as a recording studio five years ago. As we were talking, something clicked, and Venus (the tattoo artist) realized that when they moved in, there was a photo of a cat hanging above the front door. The owner of the building had told them it was “Chuck’s cat.” They never took it down and said he was the guardian angel of the building. We walked into the hallway, and it was a photo of Patches we had somehow accidentally left behind.
I’ve never really been a big believer in ghosts or signs or any of that stuff, but there’s just no way that wasn’t Patches saying hi. I still have chills about it.
GC: No way!!! That’s crazy! Chills!
GC: Can you share one of your lyrics that sums up your current state of mind or feels representative of you?
SS: “I’m so small and as scared as can be” sums it up, I think :)
Follow Sydney Sprague on IG at @sydneysprague
