An exciting time as the world beckons

Sarah Blasko is the reigning Queen of Australian Pop, having taking home the ARIA Award for 2007 for ‘Best Pop Release’ for her fabulous second album What the Sea Wants, the Sea Shall Have.

“I actually like to call myself the Princess of Pop, actually – I prefer not to be the Queen,” she deadpans, even if her porcelain skin and delicate fine-boned features bear more than a passing similarity to the striking visage of Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I. “Minus the acting ability!”

Well, perhaps. Sarah is less than willing to bet that Cate couldn’t match her in the singing stakes. “She probably can – she strikes me as one of those people who is very talented.”

Like Blanchett, Sarah Blasko’s ascension to the heights of her craft has been a slow and steady one – she first appeared in the Australian musical world fronting the folk-pop group Acquiesce, before that group split asunder after releasing only the one EP. Shortly thereafter she released an independent solo EP, Prelusive, that saw her quickly gain traction within the industry and before she knew it she was signed, sealed, and delivered by the quasi-indie major label-affiliated Dew Process. Her debut album The Overture & the Underscore was an impressive if ultimately forgettable debut, mining a similar electronic folk bent to the likes of Beth Orton.

It has been her second album, What the Sea Wants, the Sea Shall Have, that has really stamped her presence upon the nation, thanks to some truly fantastic songs like “Planet New Year”. Winning the ARIA for best ‘pop’ release come as something of a surprise, as her second album is truly an artistic achievement full of wonderfully obtuse instrumentation, song-focussed yet artistically-driven.

“It did surprise me,” she admits.  “I do consider my music to be pop music but the vibe I get from radio stations and certainly commercial radio stations is that they haven’t tended to think of my music as pop music – because my music gets played on Triple J they tend to think of it as this ridiculous genre that people tend to name as ‘alternative’. What does that even mean?” Sarah rails.

Existing on the edges perhaps, Sarah nevertheless sees her songs as being instantly approachable, and not segmented into any particular label. “I think it’s quite small-minded for people to perceive things as being played on Triple J as pop music, because I think they do play a broad verity of music.”

Perhaps her success at the ARIA Awards will open up her music to a broader audience, given that all the other artists nominated in the category certainly are played on commercial radio where Sarah’s music is not. “I’m not really sure whether an award can bring those kind of results,” she says, before revealing that she has at least been invited to do interviews with commercial radio DJs. “I’m not pinning my whole life on it either. The thing that I care about is being able to sustain a career, and trying  to work out the best way to do that – and for a lot of people that involves going overseas.”

But before Sarah can embark on international travel, she has a series of festival dates planned for the summer having recently wrapped up her most recent solo tour – which included a final date in Adelaide that witnessed Liam Finn dancing around the stage in green underwear and a pair of shoes.  “I’ve finished my own tours, so now I’ve just got a whole heap of festivals to play over December and January.”

With time off between dates, she’s now turning to writing new tunes for any prospective third album. “I’ve started in the last few days,” she confirms. “I’ve got quite a few half-written songs, so it’s a chance to work a bit more on those. But at the same time it’s nice to have a break from music altogether and just think about something else for a while – it can be quite refreshing to that.”

She admits to a sense of frustration with what has become the grind of the stationed-in-Australia artist – she essentially started writing solo material, made her EP, toured behind it, made her first album, toured behind it, made her second, toured behind it. The lure of an overseas adventure is strong.

“I’m becoming less and less happy with just staying here,” she admits of the circuit. “It does get to a point – and not to say I’m not happy playing music here as I’ve been really lucky and it’s been really enjoyable – but I think there does come a point in time where anybody who is trying to search for new things and work with different people does lead to travel. It’s just something that people do to broaden their experience of the world.

“So it would make sense to learn more about music and have interesting experiences that do involve travel,” she continues, “and it’s not necessarily that I feel this need to have a huge career overseas, but just to attempt it is part of it, just trying to get out of your comfort zone and get in front of people who don’t know who you are. It’s a different kind of test, I suppose, and I always want to feel that I’m challenging myself and do different things to spark myself.”

Sarah Blasko is due to perform at a variety of festivals over the summer.