After a year-plus wait since her first two singles in 2019 ('Chasing Black' and 'HDYAI?'), Sydney artist Sarah Yagki has finally served another slice of addictive pop with 'This Won't Hurt'.
While 2020 was a year spent building her own portfolio of work away from the public spotlight, 'This Won't Hurt' finds the multi-instrumentalist honing a strong sense of self-aware lyricism together with catchy musical arrangements.With the majority of the song coming together at Obseen Recordings in Bowral, where Yagki produced the track alongside James Guido (who also mixed the final product), 'This Won't Hurt' examines the all too familiar pull of repairing a fractured relationship to save the friendship.
"This song is about falling back into habits with an old relationship, with the inability to let go of one another, despite knowing that it will hurt," Sarah says.
"It's about relearning to see someone you used to love in a different light, and the push and pull when processing to let go of someone you can barely see yourself without."
Where her sound in the past has been influenced by the likes of Halsey, Sia and Blackbear, Yagki takes those sonic foundations and pushes them further as her exploration of alternative pop sounds continues to thrive.
Here, she lists 5 albums that have had a major influence on her own musical creations.
1: EDEN - 'Vertigo' (2018)
'Vertigo' is the most influential album to myself as an artist, for artistic and personal growth.It's shaped me as an artist through its unique blend of electro and acoustic alt-pop instrumentation coupled with poetically-crafted lyrics that have influenced my writing and soundscape.
It has shaped me as a person as EDEN is an artist I discovered nearly ten years ago, and through any personal experiences I have had I have looked to his music for support, and hope to have others do the same to mine.
2: Jeremy Zucker - 'Love Is Not Dying' (2020)
'Love Is Not Dying' is influential through its blend of sound design that encapsulates a realistic perspective to the listener from the first track, which is completely based on this.The seamless transitions through the tracks and the subtle vocals that grow with the instrumentation are unpredictable yet comforting. This has shaped me as an artist by focusing on different layers of a track and how this can be achieved through Zucker's focus on purposeful blends of sounds in his music.
As a person, his album is one where I can drive for hours and get lost in his music as if time becomes seamless. It's been an album to encourage my own personal reflection, growth and understanding situations that arise that I can work through in his music.
3: blackbear - 'Everything Means Nothing' (2020)
blackbear brings an energetic album that makes you want to get up and dance. It's been influential to me as an artist – its clever play on lyrical content mixed with energetic-pop rhythms are an ear worm for weeks.I discovered this artist about six years ago in high school, through a YouTube channel playing his music and especially his acoustic renditions of his tracks.
To see him from a few years ago to himself as an artist now has been incredibly influential to myself as a person and an artist. The way he has reinvented himself and developed his art while continuously setting a higher and higher bar for him to achieve is incredible.
blackbear has featured and produced a countless amount of both mainstream and alternative artists providing his unique edge to their music. His sound, voice, and edgy energetic pop tracks are undercut through carefree and sometimes melancholy lyrics.
4: Bea Miller - 'Elated!' (2020)
'Elated!' by Bea Miller is an absolute BANGER! It has been influential to me as a person as it has this almost gothic-alternative pop edge that makes you instantly bop your head to the rhythm.It has been inspiring as an artist as it shows an edgy, witty and confident tone in her delivery of every line, and the instrumentation feels like it follows every single word she says seamlessly.
Her lyrics are honest and blunt, bringing up social, political and personal issues that serve as her own existential quest that reflect in her music.
Personally, this is the reason it's been influential as it brings common issues to the forefront in a blunt way that creates almost a sense of light heartedness among topics to see it in a different light.
5: Two Feet - 'Pink' (2020)
'Pink' by Two Feet has been highly influential in developing my own sense of musicianship in this rock/ pop alt world of Two Feet.As an artist, his sense of self as an artist is incredible as all his sounds, lyrics, melodies are recognisably him but continue to show more and more variety in his music while remaining true to himself as an artist.
The use of guitar, layered harmonies, sultry and slow melodies with instrumentation that makes you feel like you're driving in slow motion in a movie is undoubtedly Two Feet.
'Pink' has been influential to me as a person as it has inspired a large majority of my sound and through this, has helped me personally develop in my own creative endeavours while encouraging me to explore different ideas of sounds and how this can be achieved particularly in pop music.
It's minimalistic layering that grows and grows while remaining effective is incredible, and is truly one of the most influential albums to me.
