The Story Behind the "Lessons Not Learned" Photo Shoot

By SARIKA

I knew I wanted the artwork to include an unlit candle or a lightbulb that wasn’t turned on, to symbolize an idea that was never had, or a lesson that was never learned. And I also knew I wanted to wear the red corset that’s in the cover art, but initially I was just planning on sitting in a chair or something.

Then some friends and I were at the Tasty Burger in Fenway after one of them performed nearby, and we had had a couple of drinks. The counter and hand dryer in the Tasty Burger bathroom are bright red, and I was wearing a red sweater, so I was like “guys take a picture of me sitting on this right now.” I posted it on my Instagram and someone commented that it needed to be album art, and she was totally right.

So I went back to Tasty Burger in my corset and nice outfit with a photographer, wrapped string lights around my neck, and sat my ass back on that counter! I was kind of uncomfortable because between the tight corset and string lights around the neck I felt pretty constricted, plus we had to hide the battery pack by shoving it in my corset (plus editing out the wire and weird boxy bulge from it later), and I’m actually not resting my legs on the trash can at all because of how high my heels are, so it was kind of a work out to sit like that.

But any discomfort was totally worth it, because I was super happy with how the photos turned out! Then I wanted the hand dryer and soap logos gone, and I thought it’d be fun to incorporate the EP title and my artist name in a creative way, so I had another photographer friend Photoshop the hand dryer to say “SARIKA / Lessons Not Learned” instead of the “Xcelerator” logo. So that’s how my tipsy impromptu Instagram photo became the official EP cover!

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I want to thank SARIKA for taking the time to share this look at her EP photo shoot with us. 

Be sure to follow her on Instagram, and Spotify to be sure you won't miss anything (including her two most recent singles)! You'll also want to check out every other time SARIKA has appeared here on Section 36 Music!

Thanks again SARIKA!