SugarVenom Music

Sarah Thiele is a singer-songwriter pianist living in the Las Vegas valley area. She has been a student of music since the age of three. Vanessa Reeves is a songwriter from Mississippi. She has been writing for as long as she can remember.Vanessa and Sarah met online (a MySpace mixup) early in the month of October 2007. If you ask either of the two, they’d still refer to the events leading up to this as “creepy.” Neither of the two writers living across the country from one another had ever co-written over the Internet. “I’m certain this was meant to be, otherwise our paths probably would never have crossed,” Vanessa says.It didn’t take long to sync up. Literally 48 hours after their initial conversation, the girls set up a session for their first collaborative effort to be tracked, a song entitled “I Can’t Leave.” Two weeks thereafter, the girls made arrangements to meet in Nashville to demo an additional five songs. With their focus on pop-friendly, fun-loving, box-bending music, they exchanged both new and old ideas and bore down. Their efforts resulted in a 13-song catalog, only three weeks into the partnership. “As a songwriter, you don’t consider 13 songs a triumph. You’d probably just refer to it as a start,” Sarah says. “I consider this catalog to have a new kind of voice. For that, these 13 songs feel like a greater achievement. For whatever reason, this material is different. Maybe it’s the content, maybe it’s the musical definition, I don’t know. I can’t quite find the words, but believe me, it is different.” Both girls speak of the experience as fluid, exciting, natural and rewarding. Their respect for one another is refreshing, and it shows in the music. “ Sarah is certainly the most gifted artist I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting,” Vanessa says. “I’m not sure why I was chosen to stand on this path with her, but this whole experience has been a blessing. We have had so much fun, really challenged each other with how far a song can go. I love saying that Sarah gives the listener their full three minutes.” “There’s some sick humor in the story,” Sarah says. “One night Vanessa and I went to sleep sure of our five song choices. The next morning, I got a call. She wasn’t unsure, she had just flat-out changed her mind.” The girls agreed to replace one song out of the five selected. The only problem was, it wasn’t even written yet. “At first, I was a little nervous, and I thought she was a little crazy," Sarah says. “But then I reminded myself that I’m the crazy one out of us two. So all was right in the world, and we wrote ‘Freedom.’ ” Sarah and Vanessa completed the song with no time to spare, added it to the work tape, and sent it out to their musicians. With less than 48 hours until departure, the girls were finished. All that remained was the trip to Nashville.Vanessa and Sarah met face to face for the first time December 5th. That meeting was followed by two 14- hour studio days, and one long trip to Music Row. If you’re wondering how their meeting has affected the relationship between the two, they’re half way into the next batch of songs, they talk every day, and “This is still just the beginning,” Vanessa says. “Sugar Venom Music is meant to be different. It’s two writers, meeting by chance, infusing music with different cultures and ideas,” she continues. “In my little Mississippi town, on the outskirts of the Delta, we call that the hand of God. We want people to listen, and whether they love it or not, say wow, at least you girls brought something new and unexpected to the table.” “I’ve never before felt the click, that special instantaneous feeling that something is gonna work,” Sarah says. “Vanessa brings a quality that I do not possess; a patient but killer instinct. I’ve been involved in music for nearly 23 years, and I cannot recall ever moving so quickly, or being so sure in any of my musical ventures. Sugar Venom Music is intended to be an infusion of our different personalities and tastes. But honestly, at the end of the day, we just want our music to feel good.”