Sahara Beck on pushing through the hate and doing what you love
Queensland’s best regional artist of 2019, Sahara Beck recently released a new hit ‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’ that she wrote in her family home with her brother. And despite the title, her schedule has been pretty full.
The 23-year-old Brisbane blues and indie rock artist who has worked alongside ARIA Award-nominated Tony Buchen (Mansionar, Courtney Barnett, Montaigne) has released an album, two EP’s, performed at Bluesfest, Falls Festival, BigSound Festival and last November sold out her first hometown headline show.
Beck, who wrote her first song at 12, has always loved music and her early years consisted of going to school, then after school playing at any venue she could find and coming home and doing homework. Her perseverance to follow her passion is something that is still apparent as we speak to her today.
BYO: Your new song, ‘I Haven’t Done a Thing Today’, is made up of non-judgemental thoughts on self-love and acceptance. What is the meaning behind it?
Beck: It’s just about I guess having love for all the things you do, whether it’s not doing anything at all, or doing anything you can but it does feel like enough – putting as much love as you can in every situation.
BYO: Did you have any recent realisations that have aided this song and your music in general?
Beck: Well when it comes to the song, it’s a way iIve always felt. Something I was speaking about recently with my brother was giving the love we give to other people, to ourselves and how it’s not as easy as you think. You know you’ll come to your friends who’ve had a bad day and say “you’re doing great”, “everything’s going to be fine”, “love you” but it’s not as easy to do that to yourself. And I guess that’s the conversation we had that led to the song.
BYO: What’ve been the most challenging moments in your career? And how have you overcome them?
Beck: I think the most challenging thing is continuing to believe in myself, and dealing with people that are filled with a bit of hate, and don’t want to help other people. And it’s important to stay on your track and stick with people who are giving you love.
BYO: And what has been some of you highlights so far?
Beck: We played at BluesFest for two years, and the second year I brought my eight piece band, which was a bunch of my friends, backup singers, a horn player and the rest of the band. And we played my last album Panacea to a packed out tent which was just an absolute dream come true.
BYO: What is your intention when you write music?
Beck: To be honest with everything that I write, it might be a bit dramatic sometimes, might be a bit too much, too intense. But I think to me the most important thing is that it’s making people feel something.
BYO: And what do you do when you have writers block?
Beck: I used to kind of punish myself, and kind of sit there and be like “c’mon lets go”, which I still sometimes do, but I’ve gotten better at being like “okay well it’s not happening right now” and be able to watch something. Because sometimes you just need to come back to it and go alright, it’s going to happen now.
BYO: Could you talk me through the process of how you got to where you are today?
Beck: When I was younger I always wanted to act, and I started naturally playing music and just kept going. I didn’t have as much fear as when I was younger, like if I started now I probably wouldn’t have gotten as far because the older you get the more fearful you are of losing who you are, and I think in starting young I just kept going and writing music. And I didn’t change anything for anyone, I just kind of did It exactly how I felt it. But I think just continuing with that motivation of wanting to do it regardless of what would happen and not having the fear that it wouldn’t work out.
BYO: What musical influences did you have growing up?
Beck: We listened to a lot of classical, my mum actually introduced me to Cat Empire pretty young, and that was one of the first band that I was a fan of. My dad always played The Jackson 5 and Destiny’s Child, and there was also a lot of Latin music from my mums side, so I had a lot of influences growing up.
BYO: What can we see from you in the future?
Beck: I have a bunch of songs that I’ve recorded and am going to release them throughout this year and hopefully play some shows.
BYO: Will your releases be similar to ‘I haven’t done a thing today’?
Beck: Yes, they’ll be art pop, dramatic, passionate - I’m so excited to release them.
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