“Lazy, sexy, comfort” is how Sabrina Claudio sums up her personal style, which is characterized by slip dresses, bodycon silhouettes, plunging necklines, nude colors and soft textures; but she could almost describe her music the same way—the chilled-out melodies, sensual lyrics, relaxing sounds and all.
Except, there’s nothing “lazy” about Claudio’s approach to music. The 21-year-old and self-dubbed "go-getter" started posting YouTube covers at age 14 to kickstart her singing career after her pursuits in dance and modeling fell flat. Two and a half years ago, she moved from her native Miami to Los Angeles to work on music full-time. She officially released her debut EP, Confidently Lost, this March and followed up with a sophomore project, About Time, last month after crafting it for over a year.
“I work on my own music every day,” Claudio says in our interview. So laziness is out of the question when it comes to her work ethic. But her cool, sultry vibe is intriguingly nonchalant, and it it permeates her sound, visuals and fashion sense.
Claudio’s breathy vocals and tingly riffs are a perfect match for the soulful groove of her laid-back beats, and shine in hits like “Confidently Lost,” “Unravel Me” and “Belong to You.” It's obvious she listened to R&B growing up (she listening to Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, Usher, T-Pain and her dad's old-school favorites), but she also notes jazz and Bossa Nova as musical influences, which are obvious on songs like “Wait” and “Used To.” Her exposure to Latin music in Miami, like salsa and merengue, impacted her, too. "When I find people who are musically influenced by that, we kind of just feed off of each other," she adds. The result is an alluring fusion of sounds.
In addition to her loyal online fanbase, Claudio’s fellow breakout stars like Khalid, Daniel Casear, and 6lack, whom she’s opening for in her first-ever tour, are already giving her praise. It’s only a matter of time until everyone else follows suit.
Claudio says she's received "nothing but positive feedback" since releasing About Time in in October.
“I don't typically look at charts or any of that kind of stuff, but my team does. They’re watching it and they're super proud of it, so that makes me even more satisfied. Also, the fan base is growing. The fans that I had before are so proud and happy that the project’s out. That’s always rewarding.”
She shot up to viral fame over the past two years, but she isn't surprised by her success.
“I feel like I always imagined it happening and I knew I would get to that point just because I'm always working. I'm a go-getter so it's going to happen regardless, but I didn't expect it to happen as fast as it did. Now that everything's happening so quickly, I'm just trying to take it all in and not get lost in any of it. It was bound to happen. I was not going to let it not happen.”
Claudio started uploading covers to YouTube at 14, and Instagram and Twitter at around 17, but she was always writing original music. In 2015, she stopped singing other people’s songs and started releasing her own.
“I was like, ‘You know what, I don't want to be known for the covers anymore, I have original music out, I want to be known as an artist, as an individual.’ Ever since then I haven't really been posting covers like that. That's really what started my following; I started on YouTube, but I think because on Twitter, the videos are a lot shorter and people's attention spans aren't [very long]. Twitter really helped me out with the following.”
Luckily, fans of her covers also became fans of her original work, which was her plan from the start.
“Having original music out was the best part. I didn't even know what to expect from it. I knew that I had some sort of a following, that they were loyal to my YouTube page and my covers, so I figured they would be loyal to my original music. The fact that it grew so rapidly was something that just wasn't in my brain, but it happened and I'm still trying to understand how.
“I was just trying to get myself out there. I figured I'd get whatever following I could and by the time I was ready to put something out, at least somebody was going to hear it. You’ve got to do what you've got to do.”
The focus of About Time is literally what the title suggests.
“The project is called About Time is because I was subconsciously writing every song conceptually having to do with time, somehow. During that time frame, that whole year of writing, I was worried about time, for some reason. It translated through the music and I didn't realize that was what the project was about until after I finished putting the songs together. I was confused. I was like, ‘It's just a group of songs.’ I didn't really go into any of the sessions thinking of a specific concept for the project. It just subconsciously happened and I realized it after the whole project was put together.
"A lot of people think that it's called About Time because it's ‘about time’ that I put more music out. It's not really about that."
Her writing process is very collaborative, but she keeps a tight circle.
“For this project, actually, I wrote most of the songs on my own, but there was one writer that I wrote three songs with that wrote the whole first project with me. I'm not even going to lie, I go in a room and I let the producers guide. Obviously there's always a foundation. They know my sound, they know what I want, but I like to be in a room where nobody's overthinking and everybody's free to do what they're good at.
"My circle is tight because I don't trust a lot of people, and a lot of people don't really understand. When I find that group of people that do understand, it's like they're stuck with me for the rest of their life.”
Her parents introduced her to music, even though they don’t work in the industry—they have medical careers.
“They're into music because they love it, not because they play it. They're in the medical field, but they love music. My dad is the reason why I do R&B. I listened to nothing else. Literally, nothing else.”
However, they didn’t pressure Sabrina to follow their career path.
“My family is actually super supportive. I am not a school kind of girl, period. I knew that was never what I wanted to do. Before I was singing, I was dancing and modeling, or trying to at least. I was always in some sort of art, so it was going to be that. They knew it was never going to be anything else. When I decided that music is what I want to do for the rest of my life, they were supportive. They didn't pressure me to do anything else.”
Claudio didn’t even know she could sing well until she saw the reactions online.
“I didn't always sound like this. I've matured, but before that, singing wasn't something that I was thinking would happen or that I would get into. After that first cover, it was like, ‘Done. That's it.’”
Flowers are a recurring motif in Claudio’s latest project. They appear in her artwork, visuals and lyrics.
“Flowers are just a natural thing in my life. I gravitate towards them so much, just in every video that I do, every visual, for some reason, flowers are incorporated. I don't know why. I felt like it was the best description visually to describe the project as well, for the cover art with the dry dead roses and me holding the live roses, having to do with time. Everything eventually comes together.”
Yes, she filmed her “Unravel Me” music video with live butterflies.
“I'm not a bug person, but something about butterflies I can handle because they're kind of cute. It was a tough shoot. They were flying everywhere, my manager was with a net around trying to catch them all.
“All those shots in the video are the few good ones that we got. I definitely didn't want fake butterflies. You can tell. It was fun. It was something totally different.”
Nothing compares to seeing her fans sing her songs in person.
“Just getting on stage and seeing people sing your lyrics and sing the songs that you wrote is a completely different experience. You're in the studio and you write songs and you're like, ‘Oh I'm so proud of this, I can't wait for people to hear it.’ You see online that people are hearing it, but then you physically see them in person, they know all the words and they relate to it—you can't describe the feeling. Honestly.”
She barely listens to other artists while working on her own music.
“I work on my own music every day. I'm pretty much always working on it so it's like, after I get out the studio, I just want silence. I get annoyed with sound, so I don't give anybody else the time of day, unfortunately. I will get out of that very soon. I'm just in project release mode right now.”
Claudio's credits her stylist, Kristine Urzua, for her "Lazy Sexy Cool" aesthetic. They've been working together for almost a year and opt for under-the-radar brands like Keepsake the Label and The Line by K. (They also don't shy away from affordable labels; Claudio has worn Zara and Aldo in a music video.)
“I'm not a fashion person, but I would describe my style as very neutral. I love a good silk slip. I wear one in almost every video. I like to go simple, but neutral colors. It is what it is. Luckily I have a stylist so I don't have to worry about it. It's real stressful.
“There's always some sort of mood board for anything that we do. Any event, any show, any photo shoot. Literally, I just tell her what I want and she just makes it happen. It's the weirdest thing."
She has a similar minimalist philosophy when it comes to makeup, which usually consists of a bold lip and hardly anything else. Her voluminous brunette curls are the main event.
“I don't do well with keeping up with my face throughout the day. The less I have to do, the better. Also, I just don't know how to do makeup. If I did, I'd be doing my eyebrows every day, girl. It's a whole thing."
Expect a lot more from Claudio in near future.
“I think I'm going to go back to working on music for the album that I want to release next year. Maybe I’ll have my own headlining tour, and then whatever else comes with my music being out. I never know, so many things happen so quickly, it's almost impossible to predict what's going to happen. For me, another project and headlining tour are goals. Life goals.”
Stream Sabrina Claudio's About Time below.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
