The words I like girls” are the first thing you’ll hear when Sidley’s debut album Interior Person opens.
The song is an unassuming anthem, a future standard for an evolving culture. It’s also a fun and funny ice-breaker that you’ll sing along with.
“I Like Girls” is a peek into what plays out as a meticulously crafted debut album featuring Sidley’s beautifully trained voice taking confident ownership of songs written for her to sing by some of the most important women in her life… continued here.
These other “girls” include fellow musicians Inara George, Alex Lilly, and Sidley’s “Top One” favorite musician of all-time, her wife, Barbara Gruska.
“Inara and Alex and Barbara wrote songs that are all very personal to my story – they literally are my story – and from my lesbian perspective, which I appreciate so much,” Sidley says. In addition to co-writing many of the songs here, and playing drums (masterfully) on many of the tracks, Gruska also produced Interior Person in a studio constructed in Sidley’s childhood bedroom (more on that later.)
“She is such a badass,” Sidley says. “My record sounds exactly like what I needed it to sound like – the old records I grew up on, mixed with now and the future.”
“I’m gay and I’m proud, and I want to sing songs that are about being gay and proud,” Sidley explains about “I Like Girls,” but also about actually liking girls. She is content in her skin, in her relationship, and about how her marriage is not just personal i.e. it includes building a recording studio in her childhood bedroom (we’ll get to it!)
“I saw her and was completely blown away,” Sidley says of first seeing Gruska’s band perform over ten years ago. “I thought, I understand that person. I can take care of them.” It wasn’t until Sidley heard Gruska’s voice on MySpace (MySpace!) that Sidley got up the nerve to message Gruska that she was “smitten.”