A Special Chat with Sahara Beck

Sahara Beck has been busy touring around Australia following the release of her sophomore album All Attention On Your Emotions. With that she also released a very important single, ‘Special’ which I had the chance to chat to her about before she graced the stage in Dharawal Land/Wollongong.

Pleaser: Diving straight in, how did it feel to write ‘Special’?

Sahara Beck: Really good. I felt like I got to release this really big thing that id been holding onto. Doing my music for 13 years and touring there’s ups and downs like anything but going through COVID and stuff and thinking “if no one had told me I was special I wouldn’t have had this huge dream”, and then COVID wouldn’t be so hard. During that time everything I had ever learnt to do was illegal suddenly, it was like “oh great what do I do with myself now?”

Getting to write that song and actually express it made me feel a lot better, it wasn’t this frustration inside of me.

P: It was kind of like a letter to your younger self right? Was it a big cathartic moment when you finally finished it.

SB: Yeah definitely 100%. I guess its just a big feeling I’ve had for a long time, like what am I doing with my life? This is so hard. Its so emotionally exhausting. Your whole job is trying to convince people to listen to you and get on board with what you’re doing. Obviously its art so its subjective and everyone has such different opinions. It was very cathartic to get that out.

Image Credit: Beto Ruiz Alonso

P: What is a big lesson you’ve learned over the 13 years of performing.

SB: I think to just be honest about what you’re feeling and not write things you think people want to hear. I think that’s the stuff I’ve always connected to the most, is people who are being completely themselves. A band I’ve discovered recently is Amyl and the Sniffers and she is so unique and she’s doing it exactly how she feels she’s being like this is who I am. But that’s what we get told all the time, ‘be true to yourself’, but its so hard because its like “who am I, how do I be true to myself if I don’t know who I am yet?”

P: Do you find it easy to write the more vulnerable ways you’re feeling?

SB: I find it easy to write about but then as soon as I’m showing people I get that anxious people, that typical I hope they like me and I hope they like what I’m saying. I guess the more honest you are the more vulnerable you are with that and there’s a huge risk that people won’t like it but there’s actually a bigger sign that people will understand the vulnerability of it and they’ll understand it clearer and easier.

P: Oh I loved that the artwork was your kindergarten photo, it was so sweet. Did you come up with that idea?

SB: Jay Bovino who I was writing it with and finished the song  with had the idea and said “it would be great if you had a photo of you as a kid singing into a microphone”, I looked through with my parents, FaceTimed with them individually but we couldn’t really find anything. Then my dad showed me my kindergarten photo and we said “Aww that’s pretty cute” *laughs

Single artwork for ‘Special’

P: Taking the song title to a different place. Despite the difficulties of pursuing a creative career, What are some things that are most special to you?

SB: The memories I’ve made have been so unique and special. Also, meeting people afterwards who tell me what the music means to them. When I’m not touring and I’m just sitting at home thinking “is anyone even listening,? does anyone get it or care? Am I annoying everyone saying listen to my music?”. Then people say to me after the shows the most incredible stories of thees really hard things they’ve gone through and how they listened to my music the whole time and it helped them get through it. Its such a huge thing that its making a difference even if its only to one person.

P: Do you have a favourite moment in a live show?

SB: I think I’m always really nervous the 2 minutes beforehand and then I walk on and I realise its just like muscle memory, kind of like “I can do this”.

But definitely when we get about half way through and there’s no nerves its just pure expression and just letting go of everything and getting to sing my heart out.

*This interview has been shortened for length and clarity