Stephen Sanchez at the Fine Line in Minneapolis on Sunday, Feb. 26
with Kings Elliot

Doors 6 p.m. | Show 7 p.m. | All Ages

MORE INFORMATION

STEPHEN SANCHEZ at the 7th St Entry on February 26, 2023 has been moved to the Fine Line. All tickets purchased for the Entry show will be honored.

Prefer a refund? Just reach out to your point of purchase. Bought tickets from AXS online or via phone? Sign into your account to request a refund via the AXS app, or request a refund via the AXS Request Form. Refund requests for this show can be made through December 31, 2022.

Stephen Sanchez

With a dusty baritone as bright as an eternally lit jukebox and tattooed fingers around the fretboard of a rare guitar, Stephen Sanchez tunes into longing and love with the acuity of a tried-and-tested troubadour—yet he’s only 19-years-old.

Transcending eras, he writes the kind of songs that can play just as well from your parent’s vintage record player as they could from the main stages of festivals a la Bonnaroo. However, that’s the magic of his sound, and it’s why he’s tallied hundreds of millions of streams, wowed late-night television, and found his way into the hearts of countless fans worldwide. It’s also front-and-center on his 2022 EP, Easy On My Eyes [Mercury Records/Republic Records].

“Love is a scary thing, man,” he observes. “On the EP, there are a lot of themes about being afraid of love, but also trusting love. That’s the underlying theme of the project. Love can be wonderful, yet it’s awful. It’s never perfect, even though it’s something we all strive for. There’s a balance in the music. For me, all of the pain humanizes love in a big way.”

He possesses an understanding of emotion that belies his age and reflects his tastes. The Northern California native absorbed endless inspiration from his grandparents’ old vinyl, spinning Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Platters, and The Ink Spots over and over again. As the story goes, he initially stirred up early buzz with his very first upload “Lady By The Sea,” going viral on social media and establishing rapport with audiences. Not long after, his original breakout “Until I Found You” properly introduced a spirited signature style. Anchored by a dreamy croon and breezy guitar wrapped in silky harmonies, it tallied over 235 million Spotify streams between the original, piano version, and duet with gold-certified pop singer and songwriter Em Beihold. Meanwhile, it cracked the Billboard Hot 100 chart as his monthly listenership on Spotify exploded to the tune of 16 million. He also recently delivered jaw-dropping renditions of “Until I Found You” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

As the song took off, life twisted and turned for Stephen. Beyond relationship ups and downs, he suffered from muscle dysphonia, losing the use of his voice temporarily. “It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever been through,” he admits. “I was sick, and I couldn’t even sing for a few months. I was so discouraged. My mental health declined. Since I was also fresh out of a breakup, it was hell for five months.”

In between, he personally penned each and every track for Easy On My Eyes. Regaining his vocals, he once again recorded with Ian Fitchuk [Kacey Musgraves, James Bay] and Konrad Snyder [Madi Diaz, Rainbow Kitten Surprise] in Nashville, TN. Impressively, Stephen cut everything in one-take performances—a decidedly old school approach befitting of the music.

“You’re capturing three minutes of emotion,” he goes on. “It allows me to really tap into it and give my heart and head a chance to remember to feel. I’m more mindful of how I sing the notes. It brought a lot of character out of the takes. I’m going to continue to record like that, because it feels too good.”

The single “See The Light” pairs his lithe delivery with rustic acoustic guitar as a luminous refrain practically levitates over handclaps. “When you’re in a season of singleness, it’s very easy to get lonely,” he says. “So, you entertain shallow relationships, because you want to feel great quickly. ‘See The Light’ is about a hookup scenario where you accidentally fall in love with the other person. You realize, ‘Oh, I actually want a real relationship, because you remind me of what somebody else used to feel like’.”

Through lilting intonation on “Hey Girl,” he doesn’t hold back as he sings, “Hey girl with your head in the clouds, I want to love you.” The song itself details, “meeting somebody for the first time and really knowing you like them, what you want from them, and where your intentions lie,” as he puts it.

Guitar upholds “Mountain Peaks” where he faces the anxiety of a new romance. “You see all of these things about another person, and you’re afraid to fall in love,” he elaborates. “It taps into the fear in relationships.”

Elsewhere, the lush “Easy On My Eyes” doubles as what he calls, “a prayer or a plea to God or the universe to not show me all of these beautiful moments because I’ll never get to experience what they feel like again.”

“Please Don’t Go Home Yet” grasps the memory of a fleeting moment of elation as it slips back into the ether as softly as the strains of his voice over understated strings. “I tried to pursue this girl, but she wasn’t ready for a relationship,” he recalls. “She agreed to have dinner with me one evening. We ended up kissing and had a great night. I knew it would be over in a moment, and I’d never get to do it again though. The song is about really wanting to hold on to love.”

He initially generated enthusiasm for “Because of You” on social media, and it serves as a full circle piece for the EP. “It really shows hope for a new chapter in life,” he notes. “At the same time, it taps into the idea of meeting somebody sometimes who makes you feel more like yourself.”

Like any troubadour worth his salt, Stephen won’t tell you how to think at the end of the day, but he will undoubtedly make you feel. “I hope you feel whatever you need to,” he affirms. “I went through a lot to get here, and I’m just telling you the story. That’s all.”

Kings Elliot

Introducing herself to the world with a rarely-seen example of complete, raw honesty, the visual for Kings Elliot's debut single 'I'm Getting Tired Of Me' acts as an emotional punch in the gut. A stark piece of candid black and white footage, captured as the half-British, half-Swiss singer had a crippling panic attack whilst shooting what she had intended to be the 'proper' video for the track, it's an uncomfortable image that belies the sweet sounds that surrounded it.

In truth, however, it's a duality that sits at the heart of everything she creates. On one hand, Kings Elliot is a wildly ambitious artist, who strives to create unique soundscapes for her confessional songs; on the other, she's a young woman who has had to learn to embrace her struggles, who -- having been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder -- has fought internal demons her entire life in order to get to this point, and for whom music is not only a want but a need.

"Every song I write is about my internal struggles, because I have a very difficult relationship with myself," she explains. "I've never been able to navigate my way through my emotional world. It's something that's consumed me and held me back throughout my life, so my songs mostly revolve around that and its effects on my relationships and the world around me."

If tenacity and perseverance are things Kings Elliot has had to embrace more than most, then the songs that make up debut EP Chaos In My Court -- released track-by-track since that debut last year -- are testament to the importance of both strength and vulnerability.

Musically, the singer draws inspiration from the wistfully melancholic melodies of the '40s and '50s, realising that a version of this soothing world was where she needed her own often fraught and turmoil-laden lyrical sentiments to live, turning them into devastating songs that sound uniquely current, yet timeless.

"I love when songs feel beautifully tragic with an eeriness, like in vintage Disney movies," she says. "All my songs have a tinge of that magical world where there's something so sad, yet so compelling. Wrapping up something devastating in a warm blanket of sound makes it all feel a little better."

'Dancing Alone,' which details the tricky task of navigating a relationship whilst having Borderline, and cinematic follow-up 'Bitter Tonic' -- which fills its lyrics with courtly metaphors for struggle and spawned the EP's title -- are keen examples of this: tracks that explore dark and difficult emotions with a sweetness of melodic touch. 'Call Me A Dreamer' and 'The Outsider' complete Kings' debut EP -- the former, a song to her 'well' self to remind her that the rollercoaster is still continuing; the latter a yearning lament of someone who wants nothing more than to belong somewhere.

Though Kings Elliot might always consider herself an outsider to some degree, now she has an outlet through which to channel her hopes and fears, with an ever-growing audience and a debut release that acts as an empathetic, important opening statement for an artist destined to mean much to many people.

"I always wrote songs out of a need to understand and work through my own mind," she explains. "I always did it for me, but the biggest surprise I got from releasing music was seeing and hearing from people who felt the same way, who were able to use my songs to give a voice to their own emotions. It's incredible to discover that secrets I used to think were so shameful are held and shared by so many others. So now I want to write for them too."