Austin McLean
Member Username: Bruegelpie
Post Number: 37 Registered: 09-2004
| Posted on Friday, April 20, 2007 - 09:58 pm: | |
I can't tell from the article below whether Robert ended up playing with Sara Blasko or not. Was anyone at the show in Brisbane? -- uneasy tiger; Bernard Zuel. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, N.S.W.: Apr 13, 2007. pg. 4 Sarah Blasko is swapping pubs for theatre stages but is she handling the switch? BERNARD ZUEL reports. Sarah Blasko wasn't meaning to be rude. The one-time pious teenager doesn't do arrogance, after all; self-deprecation and a nervy shyness is more her thing. But for a brief moment the man sitting opposite her in the studios of Brisbane's Nova radio station, a grown man seemingly happy to go by the name Bossy looks a bit flustered, or perhaps flummoxed. "Um," he says nervously into the suddenly uncomfortable silence. Oh, dear. It had been going well until then. At the first of two interviews Blasko is doing today, midway through a four night run in Brisbane, Bossy declares himself a fan, comments favourably on her voice and jovially suggests since she probably has had many of his questions asked of her already, maybe she should suggest new questions. "I have a lot of questions I don't have answers for, really," Blasko bats back, her response falling into typical Blasko interview territory of somewhere between banter and the quite serious. In this pre-recorded interview to be aired later tonight, will Bossy take up the challenge and probe into her psyche? Delve into the psychology of a woman whose first album had spawned a surprise hit and raised expectations of more pop hits but whose second album eschews easy sounds for something darker, daring and more fascinating? Perhaps pick up on her complex relationship with faith? Break down those aquatic metaphors on that new album, What the Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have? Perhaps wisely - this is Nova not Radio National, let's not forget - Bossy lets the moment pass. He chooses instead to ask her about the current national tour, which has her in theatres rather than pubs, accompanied not by a standard band but with drums and guitar augmented by three string players, aflautist and a French horn player. It had been inspired by seeing Paul Kelly play in small theatres last year, Blasko tells him, and finding the experience "really moving". Two nights into her tour, with Brisbane's four-sold out shows an impressive start to a risky venture, things have been "nerve-racking but good", she says, the format suiting the new songs. Ah, the new songs. Bossy says,"I'velistened to half the album andreally like it." Oh, yes, Blasko replies, which half? Bossy doesn't miss a beat, explaining that he's made it to the current single Planet New Year, an acoustic version of which Blasko and guitarist, co-producer and songwriting partner Rob Cranny had recorded before the interview in a little Nova sound booth. That's when trouble strikes. "That's not halfway through the album," Blasko says. Not with any malice, more conversational really. She's right after all, it's track five of 12 - but blunt nonetheless. "Um," Bossy says. Silence. Perhaps realising that a commercial radio DJ who has listened to any tracks on the album before interviewing her is a rarity to be celebrated, Blasko jumps in with a joke. "It really goes downhill from there. It gets really depressing," she laughs. "Oh, I'm giving the end away now." Back in the car, on the way to the ABC radio studios now, Blasko sits in the front quietly, coughing occasionally, the after effects of using a damp Sydney rehearsal room where "we were breathing in mould spores the whole time". Blasko is smart, dry of wit and capable of being quite silly, as can be seen in the film clip for Planet New Year, where she falls in love, marries and has a child with a piano. Yet the 30-year-old still is not entirely comfortable doing the media rounds or talking in public. She's more relaxed with the ABC's Richard Fidler, her tone less uptight, and she joshes with him that since tickets have sold out "we'll be busking in Queen Street Mall". But as she had told Bossy, "I feel much more nervous speaking to an audience than singing toan audience." Still, it's a requirement for tour promotion and none of it is making her any more nervous than when she approached Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens to be the first of the special "secret guests" appearing at eachshow on the tour. "I didn't expect him to say yes," Blasko tells me over a tuna melt and coffee in a hole-in-the-wall Brisbanecafe. The nightly guest duets with Blasko on three songs during the long and intense show - she won't reveal who it will be at the three Sydney shows but in Melbourne a few days later she's joined by Augie March's Glenn Richards. "I wanted to have a journey through the show but have one moment that broke that up," Blasko says, adding with a grin, "it's also a great opportunity to work with people I respect." Nonetheless, there is no one the singer iscloser to, no one she respects and depends on more when working, thanCranny. He's a quiet presence at the interviews - "I know 90 per cent of the time they only want to talk to Sarah, and that's fine with me" - and later at the sound check, guiding the new players and long-time drummer Jeff de Araujo through one more change, but his fingerprints can be found all over the show. It is his imaginative and beautifully structured arrangements that make the string-woodwind-brass ensemble more than just the standard add-on you get when pop musicians feel the need to "go classical". As the Cremorne Theatre audience discovers tonight, these new songs in particular lend themselves to this elegant chamber music presentation. As is common now at her shows, the Cremorne Theatre is dotted with girls dressed a la Blasko: that slightly buttoned-up, classy but not flashy retro look that suggests a 1950s Sunday social attendee with just a hint of sauciness. Blasko stands still at the microphone for the first song, her hands in stiff, angular poses which open out, as she bends at the waist, into quirkily robotic movements. There's still something endearingly clumsy, a little unsure in Blasko on stage: her little dances, her occasionally awkward between-song patter. But her face is often vividly expressive, particularly her eyes. After the interval though, she's much more relaxed. Some of that can be attributed to tonight's guest, the crowdfavourite - well, he is a Queenslander, even if he does live in Sydney now - excellent singer-songwriter and former Blasko flatmate, DarrenHanlon. Together they do several numbers, their ease in each other's company obvious, before the piece de resistance, a fitting climax to a classy show in a classy room. "This is one of my favourite songs," she says. "Sung by one of her favourite singers," he says. The song? The Muppet Show favourite, Rainbow Connection. What a pity Bossy, who is on air at the moment across town, is missing out on this bit of personal revelation. Still, there's one question he can throw at Blasko next time if he's looking for payback: so, you and Kermit, what's thestory, lady? |