“It’s a very concerted effort I make to not do that, and to try to be influenced by things that I love and not what’s current”: Sabrina Carpenter songwriter Amy Allen on why she doesn’t listen to other contemporary pop hits

In some ways, the career of songwriter Amy Allen has mirrored that of Sabrina Carpenter, her most successful recent collaborator. Both have been on the scene for several years, but in 2024, their music has become inescapable.

Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso (Official Video) - YouTube

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Allen has now been reflecting on her not-quite-overnight success with Billboard, and revealed that her inspiration definitely doesn’t come from listening to what else is currently on pop radio.

“It’s a very concerted effort I make to not do that, and to try to be influenced by things that I love and not what’s current,” she says. “Because what’s current now is not going to be current by the time anything I write comes out.”

Allen does admit, though, that she loves a big chorus, and when she’s writing for or with another artist, this is always her entry point.

“I always start with the chorus - listening back to the great pop songs of the ’60s and ’70s through today, the chorus is the crux of the song,” she says.

This contrasts with the way Allen writes her own material - she released her eponymously titled debut album in September - which she likes to write “in a through line, start to finish”. Working this way, she says, “helps me keep them separate, and it allows me to still keep falling in love with songwriting all the time.”

Other things we learned from Allen’s Billboard interview are that she began her music career at the age of nine - playing bass in her sister’s band - and that, after dropping out of nursing school, managing to get into the prestigious Berklee College of Music despite not being able to read sheet music or knowing any theory.

Prior to this year, Allen had notable co-writing credits on Harry Styles’ 2019 hit, Adore You, and Halsey’s Without Me, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018.

Of Sabrina Carpenter, who she began working with on 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send album, Allen says: “Her musicality and personality blow me away every time that we work together, but I’m also so grateful to her because I’ve never gotten to be part of every song on an album before. That’s so in line with what I grew up loving - digging in like that.”