Teen Carpenter continues her evolution as a singer
As with many teenagers who have found fame and success at an early age, Sabrina Carpenter often seems nothing like a teenager.
But the 18-year-old in her does break through the poise occasionally, including when the conversation with Postmedia turns to the unique food offerings at the Calgary Stampede. Carpenter will be making her Coca-Cola Stage debut on Sunday, so we thought we’d tempt her with the unusual
culinary treats available on the midway.
Is she an adventurous eater? “You know what, my sister is an adventurous eater,” she offers with a giggle. “Does that answer your question?”
So no, Carpenter does not seem particularly interested in deepfried Canadian pickle balls, whatever they are. Presumably, the crispy chicken feet on a stick would also hold very little appeal. (“When it comes to, like, legs or things that used to be alive ... I don’t know,” she says.) She just seems plain creeped out by the idea of rabbit pizza, but the Unicorn White Hot Chocolate might be OK (“As long as no unicorns were harmed in the making of it,” she says).
How about the World’s Hot- test Pizza, which is infused with something dauntingly referred to as Carolina reaper peppers?
“That’s good,” she says. “That opens your sinuses. I’ll try that.”
A little bit of an adventurous spirit, and a whole lot of pragmatism, are probably good qualities to have when negotiating the strange world of teen stardom. As both an actress and singer, the Pennsylvania native first began to gain traction more than five years ago when she both snagged third place in “The Next Miley Cyrus” singing contest and landed a dramatic guest spot on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her star quickly rose in both worlds.
As an actress she may still be best known for playing sarcastic badgirl sidekick Maya on the Disney sitcom Girl Meets World. In 2014, Disney’s Hollywood Records released her debut EP, Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying. Her first fulllength record, Eyes Wide Open, followed a year later and a sophomore release, Evolution, the year after that.
It’s an appropriate title for the latter disc. It found the singer collaborating with artists such as Steve Mac, Priscilla Renea and British super-producer Rob Persaud. But she also took more control with the album, co-writing nine of the 10 songs and pushing the sound towards a more sophisticated strain of dance-pop.
“You learn so much as you go along,” she says. “Working with different people is all about experience and it’s all about learning and keeping an open mind about everything. I co-wrote half of my first album. But with Evolution I kind of took the steering wheel, which was a really nice feeling because people let me. It was nice to be able to tell my stories, sing every melody that I wanted to sing and make songs that I myself would want to listen to and have people relate to that.”
Since the album’s release, Carpenter has toured throughout Europe, Japan, Brazil and the U.S. She seems refreshingly unfazed by any notion that she might be judged more by her youth and Disney-kid past then her merits as an artist.
“I look at it as a head start, if anything,” she says. “I look at it as I’ve got more time than anybody else.”