For the past 15 years, singer-songwriter and self-confessed “sad girl” Sydney Sprague cut her teeth playing to people who didn’t even know she was there. With a guitar in tow, the Phoenix native traipsed around Arizona’s bars and restaurants, providing some light entertainment to first dates, business meetings and nights away from the kids. Sydney was given her first six-string at the age of 11, and not long after that she was writing her own songs, influenced by “powerpop emo females” such as Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. “I started playing and my parents kind of pushed me into doing open mics like a year or so later. I was terrified,” remembers Sydney today, joining Kerrang! over Zoom from her home in the American South, smirking at memories of her Kelly C...
