She has shared the stage with artists including First Aid Kit, Amos Lee, Langhorne Slim, and Victoria Williams[3] and collaborated with Kyle Craft, Hoots & Hellmouth, Sharon Little, and Shirley Manson.
[4][10] Amid the dissolution of Sisters 3, Sapphire launched the short-lived solo project Murchant in 2013, under which she toured locally, filmed a video of her busking at a G Line subway stop in Williamsburg, New York, and re-released several songs from Coruscate as well as a demo entitled "The Man", intended for an EP that did not materialize.
[17][18][19] Eventually, Sapphire left Pennsylvania in 2014 and traveled the country before settling in Joshua Tree, California, located in the Mojave Desert, having previously visited the town while working concessions for Coachella.
[35][36] Over the next two months, Sapphire released the singles "Stick & Poke Tattoo" and "Bag of Bones", as well as a music video for the latter edited from homemade footage,[36][37][38] and streamed a virtual concert entitled "Quarantine Songs From My Bedroom" via Facebook.
[41] Sapphire returned to Philadelphia in October to open for Christopher Paul Stelling at World Cafe Live,[42] and the following month she and Nick Perri were featured on Sharon Little's cover of Radiohead's "High and Dry".
[43] In April and May 2022, "Stick & Poke Tattoo" and "Bonsai" were re-released as singles, with the latter receiving a music video,[22][21][35] and Desert Car was finally released on July 16, 2022, via American Standard Time Records.
[21] In October, queercore group The HIRS Collective announced that their new compilation album, We're Still Here, would release on March 24, 2023, on Get Better Records, and that Sapphire would be featured on the title track alongside Shirley Manson of Garbage.
[24][20][44][41][3][32][25][52] Her expressive and wide-ranging vocals have been compared to Neko Case, Sally Oldfield, Susan Osborn, Annie Haslam, Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power, and Lydia Loveless.
[10][44][41][53] For her part, Sapphire has cited influences including Jeff Buckley, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Neko Case, Joni Mitchell, Aretha Franklin, Angel Olsen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom Petty, Frank Ocean, The Clash, Lucinda Williams, and Lou Reed.
[20][26][8][21] Early in her career, Sapphire counted Judy Garland and Ani DiFranco among her influences; her debut album, Elixir for the Human Heart, was described as having a "bluesy film noir flavor" and being "filled with mystery and longing as well as vocal and instrumental interplay.
[4][29] On her 2020 EP Omni Present, opener "Red Sands" "marries the vast expanses of Neko Case with the stomping fire of early Velvet Underground",[10] "Mini Tour" features a lo-fi sound reminiscent of Liz Phair and the Violent Femmes that "brings to mind an Astro van full of guitars heading full speed across the sand",[4][10] and "Pictures of Yourself" and "Thirsty Willow" emphasize a rock sound.
[24][25][44][56] "Bonsai" features near-operatic vocals, rhythmic picking, atmospheric drones, and growling electric guitars;[44][35] Sapphire created the song's echoing sound on a vintage Sunn spring reverb mixer and intended the melody to evoke whale calls.
[57] "Bonsai", inspired by a dream Sapphire had about "meeting different muses in the desert that were helping me get married to myself",[27][35][21] uses this imagery to express a desire for real love in the face of a failed relationship.
[67] Since relocating to Portland, she has been involved with the non-profit Rock and Roll Camp for Girls as a volunteer vocal coach and 10% of proceeds from her Omni Present EP were donated to the organization.
[61] In December 2018, Sapphire echoed fellow musician Chris Kasper's suggestion that streaming services like Spotify should introduce a virtual tip jar for artists, similar to what Uber and Lyft had done for their drivers.