SARAH BLASKO

When life throws up challenges, one responds, but when tackling the peaks and troughs of life as an artist, one responds a little differently. By passing raw and disparate personal experiences through a cathartic filter, an internal refinery process, and honed skills, convert those sieved outpourings into something tangible and anew. Crystalising those moments of confusion, frustration, agony, and despair into a palpable expression encapsulating a time and place. For Sarah Blasko, who recently experienced her own set of deep problems and difficult moments, there was only one way in which to process those emotions through the only means she knows how. Song. By describing what music gives her that nothing else in this world does, it is easy to see how important a role music is in her life and how fundamental its expression is to her soul as she explains, “Music gives me a release – a release from sadness, from anger, from pain, an escape from the everyday mundane, it uplifts me, makes me feel understood, makes me feel something that’s beyond words”, and it is this solace and sanctity that music provides that allowed Blasko to fathom recent events in her life and find the means in which to funnel those emotions into her latest record.

There had been several tumultuous events that precipitated the making of I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain, and discussing what was happening in her life in the lead-up to the album is not a topic Blasko takes lightly, yet openly shares the difficulties of life prior to working on her current record. “It’s really hard to put into words what was happening in my life in the lead up to this album – it all sounds super dramatic – but in a nutshell the world was kinda falling apart (a.k.a Covid 19 hit), I was having a baby at the age of 43, and a lifelong friendship of mine was cracking up. I couldn’t look at my life the same way again. The ground was shifting underneath me in a way I never expected, and it all seemed insurmountable. The album was an outpouring, as my albums usually are, of all that was dear & important to me at the time.” Given that I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain marks Blasko’s seventh studio album, it indeed delineates another period in her life captured by the music she creates.

It begs the question as to whether, when working on a new project, Blasko looks back across her previous bodies of work with the clarity that hindsight affords in order to see forward? “I think I simply try to look for an element that I haven’t discovered yet, or the kind of record I haven’t made yet, rather than looking back too deeply at what I’ve done in the past. For this one, I really wanted to make a late-night record, something that held you in a similar mood/feel. I realised I love records like that – like Bill Callahan’s ‘Apocalypse’ or Cass McComb’s ‘Wit’s End’ or Cat Power’s ‘The Greatest’ – there’s a repetition there that allows you to fully explore something within yourself. I wanted it to be free-flowing and centre around the stories. I gave myself more room for lyrics!” And as all who know Blasko and her work can attest, her writing can be profound, and although the lyricism on her new album is deeply personal and idiosyncratic, it is equally highly relatable.

It may be in the realm of those in a think tank or a debate topic about the fourth wall, but in pressing Blasko as to whether there is an ever-present thought process and cathartic aid when constructing new material that comes from knowing her work will invariably touch the hearts and minds of thousands once it is released, is worth pursuing. Especially considering the wide fanbase she holds both nationally and internationally. “I don’t think I’m aware of how it will affect others until it’s out there, and it doesn’t feel right to think about what it will do for others in that moment I’m writing it. But I do always hope that if it all means something to me and there’s truth in it for me, then it will mean something to others and there will be truth in it for them too. I hope that they can apply it to what they’re going through, that’s why I don’t feel the need to provide absolutely all the details!”

Conveying that emotive power, which she is able to do in spades and translating that successfully requires many elements to work in harmony. A conduit that transmits a deeply personal and newly created work into a solid sonic state, which people can digest, comes from the studio and the level of comfort felt during the time of recording. For Blasko and the making of I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain, it was a harmonious and mutually beneficial experience due to how relaxed she was when recording, as she goes on to explain, “I think the fact that I just booked in the sessions with no one looking over my shoulder really helped in making it feel like a relaxed and simple process. In the past, I always felt like there was someone awaiting the results. This time it was just fuelled by my own expectations, and at this point in my life, particularly after having my second child and with a few wasted years during 2020/2021/2022, the beautiful experience of recording with other musicians that you love all in a room together was something just so special, so I really savoured it.” And adding to the renewed sense of enjoyment of recording and being in the presence of like-minded artists and musicians, it was some of the long-held wisdom bestowed upon Blasko many years ago that helped in creating the new album and maintaining an unbroken continuity between her now as a mainstay artist and that of a fledgling artist, as the wise words of Jim Moginie from Midnight Oil resonated with her. “I spent a lot of time with Jim when we made my second album together. He has so much integrity and has seen so much, and for him to take the time was extremely influential. I guess he just reiterated what I knew deep down, but to hear it from someone who’d been around for a long time was so important – basically to follow my gut and to not let anyone fool me into thinking that they know better about music – specifically record companies, I guess! He impressed upon me the value of art and music, the spiritual quality of it, when you can often feel that it’s lost in the industry that surrounds you.” Sage advice from a man who has been so influential in the world of music and whose ideals are of the highest order.

It is with the sense of each industry being a small world at times that who one interacts with and how they do so can have lifelong ramifications. A point highlighted perfectly by Blasko’s relationship with fellow Sydneysider, musician and director SPOD. A man tasked with the enviable job of producing Blasko’s video clips that feature throughout I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain. “I’ve known SPOD for a long time. I used to watch him play shows in Sydney, and we have many common friends. I’d noticed some really beautiful video work he’d done, taking live footage and transforming it. When I had all this performance footage that I didn’t know what to do with, I felt that he might be the person to bring it to life. I loved mostly everything he did straight away, it was a really refreshing process – I think he sees things from a really different angle, which was really great for me. I loved seeing how he responded to things and his very natural, instinctive vibe.” Relinquishing control and handing over the reins to another creative often yields positive outcomes, and the support Blasko receives and gives is evident throughout her career. 

Two prime examples of this include performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and working with Sydney Dance Company. Recalling her time when making ‘I Awake’ with an orchestra and then touring that album as one of her biggest milestones, “It was something I dearly wanted to do, and then I did it, and it felt beautiful and huge. I remember crying the night that tour was over, I just loved performing with the orchestras every night SO much”. For an altogether different challenge, Blasko’s work with Bell Shakespeare’s productions of Twelfth Night and Hamlet as well as Sydney Dance Company’s Emergence, were a step into the compositional world. Bringing everything she knew to bear on the projects by utilizing her years of experience was one aspect, but conversely, approaching them with a healthy dose of naivety helped tackle those new endeavours, as Blasko honestly states. “I think I mostly approached them with naivety. I love following the vision of the director or choreographer and responding to what I see the actors or the dancers do. The way I record the material is so different to how I would work on an album, so I mostly had to throw out what I “usually do”. Stepping back from outside her comfort zone to the world of the familiar, there are overwhelming spiritual and ecclesiastical themes throughout I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain.

As an artist who intimately understands mood and atmosphere, hearing how Blasko approached the selection of appropriate instrumentation (with her vocals being the primary instrument) and guiding their use to adequately convert the intangible feelings she had been wrestling with is squarely in her domain of expertise, as she states. “I wanted the piano to drive the songs, even though what I wrote is fairly rudimentary, I guess I wanted the lyrics and the stories to dominate – and my voice too, I guess, as that is the mouthpiece! There’s a lot of Hammond organ on there and layered backing vocals and some horns, and to me those things have links to gospel music and the music of the church that I so often talk about in the songs. But I didn’t want these elements to be heavy-handed. I think they’re pretty subtle, but they’re a nod to the subject matter. I talk about the holy spirit a lot, as I grew up in the Pentecostal church, and that was a physical manifestation of Christ. I always found the description of the holy spirit descending upon the people on the day of Pentecost to be so beautiful and so, in looking for beauty and a way out, I naturally gravitated towards that imagery.” And as religion has remained a part of Blasko’s life from her earliest days, the new album marks a midpoint in some ways. That of her career and her life. It is then with a sense of reflection and comprehension that some of the I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain subject matter and material could only be approached now in terms of maturity and technique. “I dearly hope it’s a midpoint, but honestly, at the time, it felt like it was all over! I think the honesty that you hear on this record is that of someone who has nothing to lose, someone who has lived through a lot, and yeah I think that some of the subject matter is something I only feel comfortable talking about now with a lot of years past. The isolating times of 2020/2021 brought with it a sense of reflection for many, including me.”

That reflection can be extended to include moments in Blasko’s life that are her all-time highs such as playing at the Sydney Opera House, and also some of the lows. “I think the orchestra shows were probably the mostly memorable for me. I grew up in Sydney so to not only play the Sydney Opera House but with an orchestra absolutely blew me away. Funnily enough not only the biggest shows made a lasting impression though – one of my first shows when a giant cat was in the audience with about five people will also live long in my memory!” Yet from her debut album, first sell-out show, winning multiple ARIA awards, working on dream collaborations, and reaching significant career milestones there still remains some elusive prospects, “a number 1 hit is elusive! I would’ve loved to write a Bond theme too!”. Given Blasko’s calibre and gritted determination, neither are outside the realms of possibility, but for the time being, she will be performing a huge regional tour across the country and sharing I Just Need To Conquer This Mountain with eager audiences.