Interview with Sarah Blasko

Sarah Blasko will tour around the country this May to July on her “The Soloist” national tour, performing without a band for the first time in her career. Sarah spoke to Amnplify’s Pauli Dee about going on the road to experience a more intimate, honest connection with the people that are buying her records.

Hey Sarah. Thanks for chatting to us. We’re talking today because you’ve announced your “soloist Tour.” Why have you chosen now the time to do it?

Well it was sort of about time really! It’s something a few friends of mine have been telling me I should do for a while now. I think a lot of things have also changed for me since I put out my last record. I really wanted to do something that felt inspiring and something challenging that I haven’t done before.

Its quite an extensive tour. 15 shows, right?

Yeah it’s not that many shows. I felt like last tour I did, which was last year, I just did cities and with each record, I’ve always sort of gone into the more regional areas, but I didn’t do that with the last tour, so I felt a little dissatisfied with how I left that, so that’s part of the reason why I wanted to do this type of tour, but it has been such a long time since Eternal Return came out, so I should do something that’s not centred around that album and just do something fresh, something exciting for me and also exciting and different for the people that have been coming to see my shows or a long time.

You’re not touring with a band this time are you?

No, it’s just me. I did some solo shows, supporting some friends in Europe a few years ago and I really enjoyed that, so like I said, I was looking to do a tour that was different to the last tour I done, particularly because I’m not doing this tour because I have a new album out or anything like that, I’m just doing these shows, because I just want to get out there and play for people, both in the cities, but outside the cities as well. I thought if I do a tour right now, I have to do something that’s special. Something that no-one has seen me do before and something that’s not related particularly to a record. It’s a tour that’s encompassing all of the songs from all of my records and kind of giving people an insight to the core of the songs, or how the songs started out or the simplicity of the songs.

Do you feel like you have to reinvent the older songs? Or keep them true to their original feel?

I think it depends on which song it is, because with some songs, it seems silly to completely reinvent them, but with others it could be nice to do. I only really do that if I feel like I have a good idea to reinvent a song. The songs on this tour are all going to sound different to the recordings because it’s just me and an instrument, so there’s sort of an element of reinvention with all of them, to some degree for this tour.

Will you be playing ANY new songs?

Yes I will be. I’m just about to finish a new record actually. I’m finishing it before I go on this tour and then mixing it after the tour, so there’ll definitely be a few new songs.

What can we expect from the new record then?

Its hard to describe simply really. There’s a kind of psychedelic element to the new stuff, but… I can’t really describe it! I think there are elements of “Eternal Return” in there and there are also elements of “I Awake” or “Day Follows Night” in there too, because there’s strings on the record. It’s sort of got a slightly soul sound to it… I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m really happy with it and it’s really exciting.

Is it something you’re hoping to have out this year?

Yeah I hope so, but we’ll just have to see how we go for time. It should all be finished by july, it’s just a matter of if I release it straight away or wait a couple of months until next year.

So if you’re not touring with a band. Does that mean you don’t have to worry about rehearsals? You just get out there and wing it?

No! I’m rehearsing! I’m rehearsing like a mother fucker!!! hahaha Im working really hard. It’s kind of terrifying!

Really? That’s surprising to hear.

Well we haven’t played like this in a long time. It’s genuinely quite scary, but I wanted something that I felt was out of my comfort zone and I want it to be generous. I want the experience to feel like a generous experience to the people that come to the show. I want to play stuff that I know the people want to hear. I want to show people how these songs started out & show them the intimacy and the rawness of what I’m talking about in some of these songs. I think sometimes the production and the band and all the exciting stuff, when it’s stripped back, the story emerges more and that’s a really cool thing about playing this way.