While Sarah McLeod – the charismatic frontwoman of the chart topping, SA Hall of Fame rocking Adelaide band The Superjesus – has forged a career from songwriting, the creative process isn’t simply a source of revenue for her; it’s her reason for being.
On her latest single, ‘Wild Hearts’, from her new solo album ‘Rocky’s Diner’, the song’s protagonist “works at night and during the day she writes her stories… and she knows that all she needs is living inside her”.
Similarly, Sarah finds solace from her rich, inner world. “I know it’s easier said than done and a lot of people say ‘you’ve got to find the inner you and run with it’.
"I am not sure how it is with everyone, but I know with me it’s easier if you have a creative outlet because if everything in my life has fallen apart, and I’m standing in an absolute mess of rubble, if I write a song, then suddenly everything is ok.
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“It doesn’t matter what people think of me or what I do and don’t have because I created something and that gives me so much joy within myself. A bomb could go off behind me and I wouldn’t even turn around.
“It doesn’t matter if people come and go or if you make mistakes. The things that seem important to everyone else don’t seem to be important at all. If you can harness that feeling inside you, it’s really powerful; unstoppable. And it’s kept me going through a lot of bad times actually.
“For me, personally, having a creative outlet is like having a one-way ticket to happiness, regardless of what’s going on around [me] and everyone’s just got to find that thing that they have that they can find their peace and contentment within.”
While Sarah’s 'Wild Hearts' character’s stories are not for public consumption, many of Sarah’s songs appear on the airwaves, are streamed on YouTube and her lyrics are screamed by adoring fans.
She has slowly learnt how to painlessly hand over ownership of these intimately private moments of catharsis. “There is a knack of detachment that you have to employ over the years.
"Now I’m ok with releasing things because I have my spiritual moment with me and the song. In that moment before I play it to anyone, I milk that moment.
"I listen to that song over and over and over and I find joy in every bar, in every line, every note and I’ll really get off on it and I’ll drink a bottle of wine and listen to it all night and then I’ll never listen to it again.
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“It’s like I’ve given children away. I’ve read about a lot of songwriters talk about writing songs is like giving birth and it’s true.
"You have to give your baby to everyone and say 'what do you think of my baby?' and then have people go 'I don’t like your baby; your baby’s ugly man'. We even employ people called reviewers who we call in and ask to criticise our baby.”
'Rocky’s Diner' is Sarah’s first solo album in 12 years, but she has not been musically idle in that time. She has had such a diversity of pursuits that she felt her songwriting lacked the cohesiveness of intention that an album requires.
“Because I had written a song here and a song there, it was just a collection of songs and because they were all written at different times, I felt differently about them because so much time had passed between the writing of each song.
"I never felt strongly enough about each body of work as an album. I thought I’d rather put nothing out, terrible as that is for my accountant.”
She deliberately and consciously overcame this dilemma by locking herself away with her recording equipment in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York. She explains the strategic rationale behind this tactic.
“The thing about going to New York was not to alleviate writer’s block, it was more to gain writer’s momentum because when you write, if you’re on a bit of a roll, you can keep writing and your writing gets stronger as the ball rolls, whereas if you write something and then you stop, it’s kind of like you have to start again from the beginning.
“When you’re writing all the time, you just put one down and go 'great, I’ve listened to it for ten hours on repeat with a bottle of wine, put it aside; next song'.
"You’re so focused and so excited to think of what the next song will be because who knows what’s around the corner because every time you go to write a song, you could be about to write the biggest hit in the world or it could be a piece of shit.”
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The album that emerged from her self-imposed seclusion is undeniably reflective of the location where it was written, as Sarah explains. “In my mind when I was writing the record, it was all black and white and Robert DeNiro, you know what I mean?
"I had this slightly gangster-ish yet Lonely Hearts Club theme going on in my head and it all revolved around Little Italy or Hell’s Kitchen in the '50s.”
The thriving metropolis of New York is perhaps the antithesis of Sarah’s oft-maligned hometown of Adelaide. Having travelled the world, Sarah, though, is full of praise of Adelaide’s burgeoning live music scene. “Adelaide’s totally going off at the moment and word on the street is that Adelaide’s going to be the new Texas because everywhere else is closing.
"Sydney’s just a disaster. No one’s really having live bands anymore, but Adelaide’s gone the other direction with late nightclubs open all hours.
“It’s a lot easier to get noticed in Adelaide now. It’s always hard to get noticed on a national level. Back in the day when we started, it was harder to get noticed in Adelaide than it was in Sydney.
"We just could not get a gig in Adelaide to save ourselves and we tried so hard and we made these most elaborate demos that, just between you and me, sounded really good and the first person who decided to take a chance on us worked at the Crown and Anchor.
“We were so excited. It was like the greatest thing that had ever happened to us. We got a gig at the Crown and Anchor. That one gig at the Crown and Anchor opened the door for everything and then suddenly we were playing at The Exeter and The Austral and The Synagogue and then we were at the Sydney Big Day Out.”
After a hiatus of over a decade, Sarah is revitalised and embarking on an epic national tour, armed with a five-year plan for future recordings. With guitars again dominating the alternative airwaves, it is a divine time for her musical resurrection.
'Rocky's Diner' is available now.
Sarah McLeod Tour Dates
Thu 5 Oct - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)Fri 6 Oct - Spotted Cow (Toowoomba)
Sat 7 Oct - Miami Shark Bar (Gold Coast)
Sun 8 Oct - Byron Bay Brewery
Thu 12 Oct - 48 Watt (Newcastle)
Fri 13 Oct - The Baroque Room (Katoomba)
Sun 15 Oct - Miranda Hotel
Wed 25 Oct - Pelly Bar (Melbourne)
Thu 26 Oct - Sooki Lounge (Melbourne)
Fri 27 Oct - Karova Lounge (Ballarat)
Fri 3 Nov - Waratah Hotel (Hobart)
Sat 4 Nov - Club 54 (Launceston)
Sun 5 Nov - Jive (Adelaide)
Wed 29 Nov - The Curtin (Melbourne)
Thu 30 Nov - The Basement (Canberra)
Sat 2 Dec - The Foundry (Brisbane)
Thu 7 Dec - Badlands Bar (Perth)
Fri 8 Dec - The Odd Fellow (Fremantle)
Sat 9 Dec - Prince Of Wales (Bunbury)
Fri 15 Dec - Heritage Hotel (Bulli)
Sat 16 Dec - The Lansdowne (Sydney)
