sarah blasko interview

Album of the Week was lucky enough to spend some time with the lovely Sarah Blasko last week in the midst of her promotions for her third album As Day Follows Night and in preparation for the lead up to Splendour in the Grass 2009. Sarah like many others floating around was battling the common cold however she took time out from her busy schedule to give us the low down on her latest work... and how grateful we were.

AoTW: Hi Sarah how are you going this morning? I bet you are probably sick of talking to press but I will try and come up with some inventive questions for you.
Sarah: Yeah unfortunately I am sick and have been swallowing lots of cold and flu tablets to try and get over it… Its not very good timing.
AoTW: So this is your third studio album – what differences can listeners expect between this album and The Overture & the Underscore / What the Sea Wants, the Sea will Have?
Sarah: Well I wanted to make a more straightforward record, more classic and simple. There is no electric guitar, no bass guitar, no keyboards. I went into the studio with the aim of making a modern pop version of old jazz standards. The last record was more complicated and intricate. In this album I’ve used all air instruments, there’s a lot of piano, there’s baritone saxophone, strings, double bass, not many heavy sounds like guitars or keyboards. I wanted air instruments to be the main influence.
AoTW: So we read that for this album Bjorn Yttling from Peter, Bjorn & John was the producer and helped you take a different direction? How did this come about and how did the collaboration work out for you?
Sarah: Well I had heard a lot of his work and I thought that his sounds would suit my vision for this album so I wrote him a letter and with it sent him a demo of some of my work and then I just happened to be travelling in Europe and we arranged to meet up to discuss it all. It was kind of weird to work with him at the start as we were basically strangers to each other and it is hard when you don’t really know someone… but we played each other some music that we liked and musically we understood what we were doing and so it just worked. It was an exciting experience really because we were both coming from different places but we understood where we were both coming from and then in the end when things started coming together it was quite exhilarating.
AoTW: You have toured overseas a bit and recorded parts of all three albums overseas, as well as supporting acts such as Ray LaMontagne in the US… how important is it to you to break into the overseas market?
Sarah: Well it is pretty important to me. I want to continue to keep myself challenged and when you go overseas to the US or Europe you realise just how many people there are out there playing music in all these other countries, in other languages, other types of music and it is a challenge to think that you are amongst all this. You can get too comfortable in Australia, I like to get out and be challenged and keep myself inspired by seeing all that’s out there.
AoTW: So what are the differences for you between recording overseas and recording in Australia?
Sarah: When you are recording overseas you are not near any comforts, its all about recording, you are living in the recording world. You are surrounded by all these different ways of living, different types of food and nothing is comfortable. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone.
AoTW: So do you have any items that you need to take with you when you record or any superstitions that you need to fulfil when recording? For example I read somewhere that some of the Metallica band members liked to only eat a special type of sandwich when they were in the studio. Do you have any quirks like that?
Sarah: Umm… no, not really. All I took with me and all I needed were my notebooks and my guitars. That’s all I really needed from home.
AoTW: So this will be your third time playing Splendour in the Grass – do you prefer this festival to other Australian festivals?
Sarah: I love playing Splendour. It has a really good vibe to it, it’s not too big, there is lots of space and it’s in such a beautiful natural setting. You can’t really fault it. It’s very different to other Australian festivals, like Big Day Out – that is pretty insane, it’s almost scary insane. When I played Big Day Out in Sydney I would look out into the crowd sometimes and it was crazy. I was playing in the year when Bjork and Arcade Fire played so it was pretty amazing.
AoTW: Do you go out and about into the crowd and watch other performers or do you like to just hang on the side of the stage to watch? I suppose it might get annoying standing in the crowd to watch if people start to recognise you?
Sarah: Um yeah I like to do both. I like to stand around in the crowd depending on who the act is. If it’s a big act with loud performances its sometimes better to get into the crowd to experience it, but then it can get annoying if people start coming up to speak to you… its kinda like disrespectful to the performer if they are talking to you while someone is up there playing. I like standing on the side of the stage sometimes, like at Big Day Out I stood and watched Bjork and then my friend and I went over to chat to her after her performance. That was something I regret... I regret it because my friend gave her this big compliment about her performance and she just said “thanks”. It was a bit disappointing as I am such a huge fan of her music.
AoTW: So you like Bjork’s music – what other artists are you impressed by? Did you get into music because of seeing some of these artists on TV or hearing them on the radio when you were younger?
Sarah: Well I like the David’s – David Bowie and David Burn. When I was a child I listened to a lot of pop music… but it was more a love of singing that got me into it. It was just in me. It was something that I felt inside in my heart. It wasn’t really influences from other artists; it was more just something that I felt I needed to do. It was a real presence, this love of singing.
AoTW: I read that you were bought up in a fairly religious family. Did Church music and hymns influence you when you were younger and have you held onto this spirituality as you’ve grown older?
Sarah: Well I think some Church hymns are really beautiful songs. There is a real beauty and amazing expression to those songs. Some of those hymns are so powerful and so bold, but quite simple in their layout… I feel lucky to have grown up with some form of spirituality. I feel lucky to have been bought up thinking there is something bigger out there than us… but it is hard to shake a lot of the negative aspects of religion. I think sometimes religion is used to discourage people from living, from experiencing things and I think in this way there are some negatives because if I have kids I want them to experience life, to feel uninhibited and I think sometimes religion doesn’t allow for this.
AoTW: In 2008 you took time out to compose the score for the Bell Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet - how did that impact or change you as an artist?
Sarah: It was great. It was great to be able to work on someone else’s project. I could play a background role which was really refreshing. It was a nice change to work under someone else’s direction and not have to be the decision maker all the time. It was scary don’t get me wrong but it was a nice change.
AoTW: So the question we always ask our interviewees here at AoTW is what is your album of the week?
Sarah: Oh that’s a tough one… let me think, I have been listening a lot to Camera Obscura’s latest album, My Maudlin Career. They are a Scottish band. They have made about 4 records. This is a sad, heartbreaker album. Great songwriter with this Scottish accent, it sounds very 60s/70s.
AoTW: Thanks very much for taking time out to talk to Album of the Week. We hope you feel better soon. Is it cold where you are?
Sarah: Yeah I am in Sydney at the moment and it’s pretty chilly. Thanks. Have a good day.

Click here to download no turning back off Sarah's yet to be released album for free!

Sarah Blasko’s As Day Follows Night will be released via Dew Process/UMA on July 10.
Sarah Blasko plays Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay on July 25 & 26.


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