Sarah Blasko says it's an understatement that she's excited to play her upcoming show at WOMADelaide.
"It feels like anything could happen!" she says. "I've not done a full band show for a while, so this is going to be really great."Billed alongside artists like Archie Roach, Midnight Oil, and The Teskey Brothers at the revamped 2021 edition of WOMADelaide, Sarah agrees that in these uncertain times anything can happen – in more ways than one.
"It's weird, isn't it? The freedoms you get used to having are taken for granted – like getting on a plane and doing a show. Now it feels like it's going to be so exciting to do that, the simple things."
Two years ago marked the ten-year anniversary of Sarah's seminal album 'As Day Follows Night – a busy year of touring and pregnant with her second child, Sarah, though she wanted to, didn't get to celebrate the milestone.
Last year, of course, wasn't an option. "This performance will be a celebration of that album in full," she says.
Sarah's had some significant experiences in recent years, ones she says have shaped her artistry but the more extenuating circumstances have not necessarily – though it may be a consideration for some – stifled her creativity.
"In a lot of respects, [these] experiences have been very anxiety-inducing ones – like being pregnant during the time the pandemic kicked off, but generally, as an artist, things that are difficult or restrictive, those things I've learnt over a long period of time, it actually propels your creativity.
"It's at those times, for everybody, we grow. Significant amazing events, or significant difficult events; as an artist, I don't feel that all these things have been stifling of creativity but stifling in one regard – performing.
"In all of us who perform and write, I think [the past year has] made us sad to not be able to perform so much, because that's a real outlet. It's kind of sad."
First returning to play with several other musicians for a filmed performance of 'As Day Follows Night' last October, Sarah found the experience, as close to a live performance as she could get at the time, rejuvenating.
"Playing with other people was amazing. "Musicians who are travelling together, it's such a wonderful job, such a rich job to be able to travel and meet all kinds of people. [And] you spend so much time with these other lovely people you play with. That's been sad more than creatively stifling.
"For me, it's also been a time to not be fruitful in writing because of the anxiety and uncertainty. Creatively, it's a time to soak it in and reflect, rather than be super active with all that stuff."
Somewhere in the Sarah Blasko timeline, she described 'As Day Follows Night' as a "hopeful heartbreak release".
A decade-plus since then, that description, to some measure, still stands. Though there has been some evolution of meaning, Sarah says. "I still really feel that way about it and I feel very proud that I went down that road with the album.
"At the time I came out of a genuine heartbreak situation, a relationship that went wrong, and I was so adamant I didn't want to get lost in the sadness of that experience. I wanted it to be something I moved from really positively.
"When I look back, I think it was a wise choice. I might have looked back and been like 'Couldn't I have tried to come outside of myself and have some perspective?'.
"I feel like when I perform the songs now, with anything, you do have to bring where you're at in the present day to those songs to be able to feel them. There's other heartbreaks, other things in life that are similar to what ever efforts are happening in a song. But I do also look back, quite nostalgically, to that time.
"There's something amazing about that experience of having your heart broken and coming through it. It gives you such strength. I hear a lot of that in the album and I feel very proud of that aspect. There's a lot of strength in there.
"I learnt more making that album than I have on any other album. It was a very defining moment for me."
