Sarah Blasko

Sarah Blasko’s first album, The Overture & the Underscore, propelled her into the public consciousness as a purveyor of inventive, intelligent pop music, sparking critical acclaim, a raft of ARIA nominations, a Gold album, sold-out tours and a performance at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.

Recording in April this year, Sarah Blasko set to task bringing to life a brand new set of songs she only began working on this year. In a strange twist of fate, Sarah headed straight 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 own Roundhead Studios, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Working again with loyal accomplice, Robert F Cranny, the pair brought in the talent and experience of Jim Moginie to assist with the production of the recordings. Sarah Blasko first encountered Moginie personally when collaborating with him on her version of Flame Trees, although he is better known to many as a songwriter & multi-instrumentalist with legendary Australian band, Midnight Oil.

Complementing the freshness of these new compositions, Sarah Blasko took a four-piece band into the studio – a converted former ballroom – where the twelve new tracks were recorded live in the spacious and ornate surrounds by engineer Paul McKercher.

Finally, the project was mixed by Victor Van Vugt, an ex-pat Melbournian who has a long association with icons of the Australian music world, Nick Cave and The Go-Betweens.

Thematically, the album is an exploration of fatalism. Using the unpredictable ebbs and flows of the sea as her metaphor, Sarah Blasko looks at fate with a learned reverence, but with the maturity to set sail in spite of uncertainty, and the courage to use her own former shipwrecks as seamarks.

Sarah Blasko spent her youth in the suburbs of Sydney, in a family whose journeys of faith steered her through numerous religious denominations. Through the church, school and her Father’s oddball record collection, she was introduced to music quite accidentally, and has no formal training to speak of.

Having ventured out into the bright lights of Hollywood to record her last album, Sarah Blasko has spent two years touring the world only to find that Australia has a musical heritage as rich as anywhere else in the world.

The result is her second album, What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have. Recorded swiftly, the album displays a more succinct, a more lucid and a more forthright Sarah Blasko. Her lyrics shoot straight and the instrumentation is clear and purposeful in its application.

Despite Sarah Blasko’s grace in the face of her humble achievements thus far, her confidence must have grown a little. She has tiptoed amongst the shadows of people like Jim Moginie, Neil Finn, Paul McKercher & Victor Van Vugt – people whose contribution to music stretches back into her suburban youth. Yet Sarah has emerged into the sunlight on the other side unflinchingly still herself.