Inside Sasha Alex Sloan’s Songwriting World [Interview]

Sasha Alex Sloan has never been particularly interested in staying in one lane. Her recent songwriting…

“A great song is just a great song and it can be whatever genre it wants to be,” Sloan tells MusicRow .

That mindset has become a defining part of Sloan’s career, particularly as her work has increasingly connected Nashville songwriting with the broader pop landscape. A Massachusetts native, Sloan first began writing songs simply because she loved music. She took piano lessons but found herself more interested in writing her own songs using chord books from artists including Queen and The Beatles.

“I didn't even know songwriting was a career,” she recalls. “I just loved music.”

That career came together in an unexpected way. After leaving Berklee College of Music after six months, Sloan moved to L.A. at 19, where a viral Reddit post eventually led to a publishing opportunity. She soon found herself working as a professional songwriter in L.A., beginning a career she had never originally planned on pursuing.

The early years were anything but easy. Sloan worked at a coffee shop, clocking in for 5 a.m. shifts before heading to songwriting sessions. She spent roughly four years doing that without seeing much tangible progress, but she now looks back on the experience as an education in collaboration.

“I was this 19-year-old who had written alone forever, and then I was thrown into rooms with people who were used to co-writing. The first couple of years there, I just spent learning how to be a good co-writer.”

Nashville eventually became the place where Sloan felt most connected to the kind of songwriting she wanted to do. She bought a house in the city in 2019 after making several trips to write, then moved to Music City permanently in 2020. The shift gave her a deeper connection to guitar-and-piano-driven writing and the storytelling that first drew her to music.

Her Nashville work includes five cuts on Zach John King’s I’m What You Get album, as well as collaborations with Wetmore, Max McNown, Willow Avalon, William Beckmann, Carter Faith, Kaitlin Butts, George Birge, Sam Hunt, Alana Springsteen and Kelsea Ballerini . Among those songs, Wetmore’s “Yours” and King’s “Way To Go” reflect the songwriting process Sloan values most: starting with an idea and building the story together.

“What I love about Nashville is it's so much about the song and the production comes later. It’s about getting from point A to point B and telling an amazing story.”

At the same time, Sloan’s pop work has placed her in rooms with some of the biggest names in contemporary music. She co-wrote Olivia Rodrigo’s “what’s wrong with me,” featuring Robert Smith, a collaboration that became particularly meaningful after Sloan had stepped away from songwriting for a period and was struggling with her confidence.

After hearing that Smith would appear on the song, Sloan tried to put the information out of her mind until it was real. Watching Rodrigo and Smith perform the song together at a festival ultimately became a turning point.

A similar sense of disbelief followed when Sloan learned that a song she had written with Isabel LaRosa and Thomas LaRosa would be released by KAROL G and Bruno Mars. Hearing Mars’ voice on the song was especially significant for Sloan, who has long admired him as a songwriter and performer.

“Hearing his voice on something I was a part of was just full body chills.”

Those experiences have reinforced what Sloan already believes about songwriting. It’s less about fitting into a genre and more about making music that connects. Her experience as an artist has also shaped that philosophy. After initially releasing her own music as a way to help other artists understand her writing, Sloan eventually embarked on her own major-label career and toured, giving her firsthand insight into what artists need from the songs they record.

That perspective now informs how she approaches every room. Sometimes she brings a concept. Sometimes she starts with melodies. When writing directly with an artist, she sees her role as serving that artist and helping create the best song for them.

For Sloan, versatility comes from staying curious rather than trying to master every style. Her influences range from Carole King and Dan Wilson to Brandon Flowers, Shane McAnally and Rodney Clawson, reflecting the wide musical world she has continued to build around herself.

And as her list of credits continues to expand, Sloan remains focused on the same thing that drew her to songwriting in the first place.

“Part of being a songwriter is being a great listener and every day waking up and knowing you have more to learn,” she says. “The biggest piece of advice I would give is just having an open mind and not thinking you know everything because that can be a real killer.”