[Interview] SARAH BLASKO

Back in Australia after a break overseas, SARAH BLASKO is heading into a new Australian tour for the release of her fourth studio album, I Awake. LOUISA BULLEY spoke to her last week about Paris, her new album, and why she still calls Australia home.

So you’ve been working and living in Paris, and touring all over Europe for the last little while. Why Paris?
Well actually, I wasn’t really working that much in Paris, except for just working on my French, haha, and working on my intake of carbohydrates. I was eating a shitload of bread. Yeah I really just had a break in Paris. I did a little bit of work, a few interviews and things like that, because my album came out in Europe a few months ago, but then I just decided to learn French and have a break, visit some galleries, regroup, you know. But before that I was touring around Europe and it was great, I had a really great time.

So where predominantly were you writing I Awake, overseas or in Australia?
I wrote that about two years ago I guess. I wrote that in Brighton in England coz I was there for a year. I wrote that and then I recorded it in Sweden, umm, last year.

Have you felt a difference touring in Europe where you’re possibly slightly less well-known than in Australia? Can you point out any differences, pros and cons? 
It’s a bit more of a hard slog because obviously the shows are a lot smaller, but then it’s actually a real buzz because it’s totally like starting again and that’s a really exciting period. I really enjoyed that when I started out, and you know, obviously when I started out in Australia and was playing to like five people, that wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable part of it. But then when I started playing more shows and the word was spreading a little bit and the crowds were getting slightly bigger and more enthusiastic, that was a really exciting time of my life and I think that going and playing shows in Europe and having that kind of feeling there is really exciting. It’s difficult but it’s exciting. And you know, there’s something great about playing smaller shows, you know, I love doing both, I love the bigger, more exciting, more theatrical things you can do with a larger show, but then I love feeling like someone is literally a metre away from you and you really feed off that in a way that you don’t in a larger show. So yeah, it’s definitely had a lot of good things about it.

Plus, I guess if you’re talking about being in Paris to regroup, that’s such a good way to regroup and have a fresh start by playing to a new and different audience?
Yeah, I think travel in general is so good for your soul and just so good for getting some perspective and I definitely felt like that in Paris. It sounds very exotic and it is, but it kind of has a grittiness to it as well as a city, and so I got a lot of perspective out of that. There’s actually a lot of poverty in the city and a harder sort of edge to it, and I think in Australia we actually are very fortunate. In Europe at the moment there are some very hard times going on, and I was really impacted by that. I think it’s very obvious travelling around Europe.

How is your music being received abroad in your experience?
Yeah, I mean good. Like I say it is like starting again, but I feel like there’s a really tight enthusiastic, not a huge crowd, but a tight, enthusiastic kind of crowd that I feel is growing. So that’s really nice.

I Awake was recorded with the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra. I understand that you have some Bulgarian heritage, was this an important factor in choosing this orchestra specifically?
I guess it just added to the appeal of it. I had read about them about five years ago in the Herald and how they record in the old sort of Radio Hall, and I thought, well, recording with an orchestra is something I’d love to do, and I thought if I’m gonna do it then that’s where I’d want to do it. So I’d sort of had it in the back of my mind for a few years and then I thought, just with the kind of music that I was writing for this album, I felt that an orchestra was the right way to go. I feel really happy that I had that idea and that I kind of followed it through because I feel proud of myself for that at the very least.

Listening to the album, there seems to be a very romantic feel to the use of the strings. Was this something that you were going for deliberately, or am I just reading that wrong?
I love that use of strings. I grew up listening to lots of musicals and Hollywood films and I have a really deep love for that kind of romantic sort of music. But yeah, at the same time I was really influenced by a Leonard Cohen record, Songs Of Love And Hate, where the strings are very dramatic and at times are really scary. So I was influenced by that as well. And I think you can hear a bit of both on the record. There’s a lot of beauty in a song like ‘Here’ or ‘All Of Me’ and that they’re very romantic songs. And then in songs like ‘I Awake’ or ‘Not Yet’ where the strings are a bit more intense, and yeah, they kind of freak you out a bit as well.

There’s been a recurring theme in your music of your relationship to faith and more specifically to Christianity, and this is clearly a dominant theme again in this album. Does this show that this is something that you’re still grappling with, the search for or the abandonment of faith or beliefs?
I think it’s always going to be something that I’m thinking about in my life, it’s just, when you grow up in such an intense atmosphere of, you know, religious beliefs and most of my adolescence was in quite a fanatical church. So yeah, it was intense. It wasn’t just like a Sunday Church experience, it was really full-on and yeah, I don’t think I’m ever gonna be able to ignore what those experience brought up in my life. To see people speaking in tongues and casting out demons and all of these intense things, I can’t just very easily say to myself, “oh that didn’t have some sort of strong impact on my life,” you know. And even though people could very easily dismiss those things as being theatrical and false, I feel that it’s a bit more confusing than that for me. I have a lot of respect for my dad, who is a really big believer. He’s got a very strong faith, I have a lot of respect for him and I think he’s a very intelligent man.

So I don’t feel like I can dismiss these questions of faith and I do feel like I want to keep working out where I stand. I’m pretty sure that I don’t believe in the things that I grew up being taught, like the concept of hell I find very difficult to understand or believe or whatever. But this idea of some spiritual side of life, I’m very interested in that. A very strong part of me believes that there is a spiritual realm but I don’t really know what I feel. So that’s why I guess I’ve gotta write about it. I don’t think necessarily this album is so much about that, I felt like it was more about nostalgia and missing home and taking stock and control of your life a bit more, and that happens I guess as you mature as a person. But yeah, I think religious imagery is always gonna come up, just coz it’s what I grew up with.

How are you feeling being back in Australia about to head into this tour?
I feel great, yeah, it’s good to get out of the cities and it’s been a while since I’ve done that. I think the last time I did that was with Seeker, Lover, Keeper, so it’s really nice, I can’t wait. And it’s really nice just playing with the five of us, which is what we did when we did our European tour as well, so I’m really excited about that. I’ve got my drummer coming from Sweden to play and it’s gonna be good!

So you’ve already toured this album earlier on in the year with the orchestra, but are now moving it into more of a band setting for your upcoming tour. How does this change the way that you personally perform?
This is an obvious thing to say, but there’s more emphasis on us? When there’s this big orchestra, you’re incorporating this larger group of people and it does change the dynamic a bit. We can play around with the song more when it’s just a smaller group, things can change every night, whereas with the orchestra we had to play pretty much exactly, we stuck to the charts. So with this setting there’s a bit more room for improvisation because there’s less going on. I think it can have a rawer kind of energy and passion about it, so I look forward to that.

Having lived in Paris for the creation of this album, do you sense a difference in the way that you make music depending on the country and context in which you’re making it? Even within Australia, does the context change the way that you record?
I think it absolutely has an impact. Yeah, it just impacts how you feel, how you’re looking at your life, how you’re looking at the world. Yeah, I felt pretty isolated when I was making the album and I felt a little like I’d lost my identity a bit, which I think can happen when you’re living in a different country. So I was really questioning my identity, you know, “who am I and what do I stand for?” And you know, “what do I want to do and why have I let different things hold me back, what am I afraid of?” Those kind of questions were really big in my mind in that time, so I think that’s what I wrote about.

Is Australia still home, or do you see yourself more as an expat now?
Oh no, no. I think I’ve just really come to terms with the fact that, while I love spending a lot of time overseas and I think it’s very important as a musician, or as anyone trying to do something creative, I think any way that you can broaden your mind is good. But I think at the same time it’s also very important to remain connected to where you’re from. Because I think it’s very important to have a strong sense of identity and ties to your roots and all of those sorts of things. So I think ideally I’d love to feel like I could do both, I think anyone in the world would think that’s a great idea, to be able to travel and to have your home as well. I can’t deny that Australia is my home, and I think I’ve realised from spending a lot of time away that I don’t think living away is necessarily for me. I guess, never say never, but I think for me at the moment it’s very important to keep being here and it’s important for my happiness. Sorry I’m really raving on! I think it’s coz I’ve just had a really strong coffee, haha.

Sarah Blasko performs at Newcastle City Hall on Wednesday July 24, 2013.