While most high school seniors struggle with finishing their last year, Sarah DeFors, 17, a young singer-songwriter from Windsor, California is creating an adult-contemporary album with Transformer Studios in Los Angeles, California.
Her love for music started at a young age, she learned to play the piano at 3 and violin at 4, but around 11 or 12 she became ill with a blood infection and did not go to school for a year and a half. DeFors put music on hold so she could get well.
After taking time off sick she soon returned to singing, taught herself to play the guitar and relearned the piano while writing songs every week.
At 15, two producers saw DeFors perform at an open mic-night and invited her to a songwriting expo in Durango, Colorado where she submitted a country song to be picked for showcases. She was one of 40 picked to do showcases and was asked to distribute with a Nashville publisher in Tennessee.
She worked with different people to discover what kind of artist she wanted to be. She was also performing shows for St. Frances Yacht Club, house parties and charity events.
DeFors later met Devin Buttner, a partner at the Los Angeles Social Media Marketing Company, who has worked with other music label companies and his partner Dean Dichoso, a professional musician who also worked with labels.
For two days a month for 11 months DeFors would travel eight hours to Los Angeles to work on her debut album with Buttner and Dichoso.
DeFors has started a page on Kickstarter.com, a fundraising vehicle where she created a campaign to help her with the costs of travel, printing CD’s, packaging and distribution costs. Anyone can go on to donate money or watch the video clip of her incredible voice of her day-to-day life working on the album, made by Dima Otvertchenko,. Her Kickstarter page can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1182098255/sarah-defors-debut-ep
If she does not raise her goal on Kickstarter, she won’t be able to receive money already donated and will push back the release date of her album. If money is not raised she will switch to Indiegogo.com where she will get the money donated to help release her album sooner.
“Sarah’s passion exceeds her age,” Buttner said. “She writes songs with a youthful innocence that connects with audience across multiple genres. It has been a great pleasure to see Sarah grow while working on these songs. She is definitely an artist to watch out for.”
DeFors advice to those who want to pursue a music career is “Just go for it, you can’t get anywhere or be the exception to the rule without putting in the work.” DeFors is living proof that with dedication and hard work she has gone far and only will go further with her dreams.
