Sydney’s sultry and enigmatic chanteuse, Sarah Blasko, will tender her sophomore album, What the Sea Wants, the Sea will Have, this Saturday, October 21, amid a surging groundswell of wonder and expectation. Recorded swiftly, the material conveys a more succinct, more lucid and more forthright side to the prodigious singer/songwriter.
In a bizarre twist of fate, Blasko headed directly from her performance of the Crowded House flagship number, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, to Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland. Tracking with a live band this time, she recorded her collection of shiny new songs, the dew still on them, in an old converted ballroom. Blasko then hit New York City to mix the tracks with Victor Van Vugt, an ex-pat Melbournian, who has long been associated with icons of the Australian music scene, including Nick Cave, Dave Graney and Beth Orton. She reflects, “The whole process was really difficult. We had to cut a number of songs in order to sustain a mood and capture the emotion and energy I’m seeking to express. I had a chance to develop my perspective, get to know the songs, and consolidate the progression in my writing.”
Blasko’s debut album, The Overscore and the Underscore, propelled her into the public consciousness. Widely acclaimed, it purveyed an alluring succession of innovative arrangement-centred songs. Her voice was artfully draped over lush orchestrations, exploiting a palette of sounds that melded the organic with the electronic. What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have shows us that her creative beast is evolving steadily and confidently. She is more direct and coherent – her lyrics shoot straight and the instrumentation is incisive and purposeful.
There has been some suggestion that, thematically, the album is an exploration of fatalism. Using the unpredictable ebbs and flows of the sea as her metaphor, Blasko does look at fate with a certain reverence. However, she fundamentally communicates the maturity to set sail in spite of uncertainty, and the courage to identify her own former shipwrecks as seamarks. She muses, “Ultimately it’s about taking charge of your own life – about needing to let go of the past and being at peace with decisions you’ve made. Living in constant regret is so disabling.”
Blasko’s musical engine “developed very naturally”. Like many children of the 1980s, she grew up watching the music videos of Prince, David Bowie and the Eurythmics. Her Mum listened to Olivia Newton-John and her Aunty gave her tapes of the Beach Boys. Her Dad introduced her to Rachmaninov, Schubert and Bach, as well as the lesser-known works of Paul McCartney. She would sneak out to revel in the sonic mash of live jazz and blues, and admired Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
Blasko has stated previously, “I admire bands in this country who do things for themselves, who have a fan base and sell records off their own bat. It’s not an easy thing to do. I think it is really great when you can see that something is handcrafted and thoughtful.” She is highly uneasy about the impact of commercialism on music, growing like a cancerous tumour on its integrity. The current tendency of music to become more of a product than an art form is deeply frightening to her. “It’s a scary world. I sometimes have to remind myself about who I am and what I do. I’m a musician. It’s confronting when I’m asked to do certain things I would never consider doing. Success can be a trap and it’s important to maintain a sense of independence.”
Blasko has recently toured with the likes of Ray LaMontagne and Martha Wainwright in the United States. “It’s good for me to be exposed to people like Martha. She’s very strong-willed and opinionated. America is a challenging place. Everyone is so confident and hard-working – quite different to Australia. At times I felt so inarticulate!”
On Friday October 27 Blasko will play live for the first time since recording the new album at the Legs 11 benefit concert in Sydney. She will be supporting Tim Rogers and Tex Perkins with the Sydney Youth Orchestra. Little Birdy, Bob Evans and Claire Bowditch and The Feeding Set will also join the line-up. Blasko will then embark on a national promo tour for her newie, including three special nights at @Newtown in Sydney. Bringing with her an eight-piece ensemble and selecting only intimate venues, she will attempt to recreate the grandeur of Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios.
What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have is out October 21 via Dew Process Records/Universal. Blasko can also be heard on Doubt Seeds, the Bluebottle Kiss 2CD LP (August 2006).
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