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ON THE RISE
At only 11 years old, Sasha Friedman has experienced more in her life than most people do in a lifetime. The Atlanta based singer/songwriter has been battling cancer since the age of 10 and now she is using her music to inspire others to have hope and always push forward to succeed at what they love.
Friedman has been a performer in every sense of the word for as long as she can remember. She was inspired by the band Queen at a young age and had a love for acting and performing on stage. She has also learned how to play just about every instrument under the sun, with her favorite being the piano and ukulele. When she was nine years old Friedman was discovered by Cory and Julia Shuman of Bird Big Sound through social media. Most recently she released her first single titled “Free to Be Me,” which hit number seven on the iTunes Pop Charts in the within the first day of its release in June. It can currently be found on Spotify.
The lyrics to the song are uplifting and inspiring, and is backed by a catchy beat and rhythm that coincides with her zest for life. She sings, “Life shouldn’t be so hard, it’s time we had some fun,” and “nobody’s gonna stop me from being myself.” While the song was written before she was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, she said the vibe of the tune directly relates to her journey through battling the bone cancer that had spread to her neck, arms, legs and lungs.
“I wrote it before my cancer journey and I wrote it about a kid that was nervous about fitting in, but realized it was okay to be myself and be me,” Friedman explained. “That’s where ‘Free to be Me’ came from because you should be free to be you.”
Shortly after recording the song she was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma after she experienced neck pains, and promptly started her treatment. This involved chemotherapy and a major surgery where she had three ribs removed. While the struggles of bone cancer are daunting, Friedman has remained positive throughout the journey and has a positive outlook on life and what the future holds for her. She is currently in remission and has used the battle with cancer as inspiration to continue writing uplifting, positive music that is beyond her years.
“Seeing what people have to go through and knowing how difficult things can get, I want music to help people know that they can get through it and get through difficult times in their lives,” said Friedman. “I want to make people feel that they are not alone and that you are never alone in anything, and that there are other people going through something like that. I want my songs to bring people together and make people happy.”
Friedman said that recently she surprised her best friend Emma at a school dance, as they thought she would need to miss it because of chemotherapy treatment. “Free to Be Me” was played at the dance before the single was released and she said it was an instant hit among her friends. Friedman said it was taxing for her to be there due to the cancer treatment, and she even got a little sick, but she said she wouldn’t have changed a thing because she had the time of her life.
“Everyone was dancing at the school dance and it was so fun to listen,” Friedman said, adding that people who she had never even met were coming up to her raving about the track.
She said Emma has been so excited about how successful her music has already been, and Friedman added that she has big plans on the horizon. Next year she will be singing the National Anthem at the Boston Marathon to represent Dana Farber.
She also has new songs in the works, including one that that is about AI. Friedman said she is sure that song will be a hit, as it is a trending topic in the world right now. She said the song is about a robot who falls in love with a boy. When she told the boy she was a robot, he tried to shut her out and pull the plug. Instead she kept pushing and turned into a real girl, showing him that nobody was going to shut her down and she was someone to be loved.
Friedman said she does have aspirations of fame in her future, but in no way does she want to be someone who doesn’t have a care. She wants to be an artist who can help the world become a better place.
“I am so excited for the future because I really want to be heard,” Friedman said. “I want to spread happiness and get people through hard times. I want to bring friends, family and even just strangers together to feel happy.”
Make sure to stay connected to Sasha Friedman on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts @officialsashf.
ON THE RISE
As they prepare to unveil their fourth album, ‘Joy In Short Moments’, The Snuts have spoken with NME about how stepping away from touring gave them the chance to reflect on some of life’s biggest challenges and bring greater attention to mental health.
Their first album since 2024’s upbeat ‘Millenials’ follows a rare break from the road over the past year. During that time, frontman Jack Cochrane also experienced a major change in his personal life as he welcomed his first child.
Along with getting used to fatherhood, the singer began thinking about deeper questions that the demanding touring lifestyle had previously left little room to consider. His reflections on growing up, dealing with loss and understanding what success really means gradually found their way into his writing, eventually shaping the direction of the band's more personal new album.
Fans were first introduced to the album earlier this year through ‘Summer Rain’, an emotional track exploring postnatal depression and the “fear of the future”. They later returned during the summer with the more hopeful ‘Defibrillator’, encouraging listeners to move beyond negative thoughts about themselves and find comfort in connecting with other people.
Speaking to NME about the creative shift behind their fourth record, Cochrane explained: “By taking a conscious break from life on the road and making records, my world opened up to let so much more of the real world in,” he said. “For the first time I was living then writing, not writing while trying to live.”
He also described how the change helped the band approach recording differently, adding: “It unlocked a new process that the band had been crying out for,” he continued. “The studio sessions were set up to allow us to be friends and not colleagues. Distraction and external pressures were completely eradicated from the recording environment, allowing us to trust our gut and have the conversations we needed to as humans.”
In the remainder of the interview, Cochrane also discusses his new role as an ambassador for mental health charity CALM and talks about starting a podcast designed to encourage more artists to speak honestly about their personal struggles.
NME: Hi Jack, congratulations on the new album. You’ve said that this record was about addressing the topics that you previously tried to hide from. What kinds of questions did you find yourself confronting?
Jack Cochrane: “I would say mainly, ‘What do I need to be happy?’… Eeek! It’s a big one I know, but having set out with the title ‘Joy In Short Moments’, I was able to spend my time searching for them and allow joy to do what joy does: compound and relieve the stresses of the modern world.”
That’s not the easiest question to find yourself confronting. Did you manage to find any answers along the way?
“Ultimately yes. With the completion of this record I was able to find a much happier healthier version of myself I had been so long yearning for.”
The album sees you deal with new themes, but musically we also see you return to the guitar-led sound from your early days. Did revisiting those roots make you notice how much has changed since you were starting out?
“For sure. We were able to remove any snobbery from the process. We’re no longer new kids on the block and with that came a new found ability to be really honest about the kind of noises we wanted to make and the type of artists that had originally inspired us.”
This album goes hand in hand with you becoming an ambassador for CALM and launching your own podcast dedicated to checking in with fellow artists. Why was it important for you to get involved in the conversation about mental health?
“I think conversations and role models are absolutely essential for young people. I wanted to have more and do my best to be one. Every song on this record was born out of unfiltered, open and honest conversation.”
From talking to people on your podcast, including Louis Tomlinson, and using your platform to open up this dialogue, is there anything interesting that you’ve noticed?
“I think that more often than not, young men are finding it difficult to combat the struggles they are facing in this modern world. To me it feels like there are less and less spaces and opportunities to have meaningful, healing conversations…”
Having had those conversations yourself and explored them on the album, it must be somewhat daunting to now put it out into the world. Is there something that you hope people take from it?
“I’d like people to feel less alone after hearing the record and the themes intertwined with it. I think music is more than just heartbreak and I hoped in the writing of this record I would be able to highlight some more universally relevant topics.”
You have your headline tour coming up next month. What can we expect from the shows?
“Big smiles and big sound all round! It will be the most self assured Snuts tour to date.”
‘Life In Short Moments’ is out now Happy Artist Records in partnership with Virgin Music Group. Their UK and Ireland tour kicks off next month with an opening night in Dundee. Visit here for tickets and check out a list of tour dates below.
NOVEMBER 2026
19 – Dundee, Livehouse
20 – Aberdeen, Beach Ballroom
21 – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
23 – Dunfermline, Alhambra Theatre
24 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
26 – Sheffield, Octagon Centre
27 – Nottingham, Rock City
29 – Norwich, UEA
30 – Hull, City Hall
DECEMBER 2026
1 – Bristol, Prospect Hall
3 – Leeds, O2 Academy
4 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
8 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
9 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
10 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
JANUARY 2027
26 – Belfast, Limelight
27 – Galway, Róisín Dubh
28 – Dublin, Academy
