Sahara Beck
Sahara Beck (born in 1996 in Darwin) is an Australian singer and songwriter from the Sunshine Coast. Sahara began singing along with the music of her favorite movies as a child, and later she began taking singing lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons, and trumpet lessons. When she was just 13, she impressed the remarkable local musician, Harii Bandhu, by spontaneously getting up and singing with him at her dad’s birthday party. Within a short time, Sahara wrote more than a dozen original songs, and Harii took on a mentoring role and gave her opportunities to perform with him on some of his gigs. Harii helped her refine those songs, and they recorded nine of them with the help of musical wizard Geir Brillian. Sahara was fortunate enough for Max Sportelli and Gus Fenwick to step in and play drums and bass.
And so Sahara’s debut album, “Sahara Beck Volume One,” was born. It portrays Sahara’s beautiful songs, enhanced by those amazing musicians. Watching the evolution of Sahara Beck from an up-and-coming Brisbane artist to full-blown alt-pop stardom has been a joy to behold, and it continues as Sahara releases her latest EP. Sahara Beck is the real deal. Her clever songwriting brings a depth that is so often missing in pop music, while her songs remain accessible and, most of all, catchy. Still reeling from the release of her killer single, “Don’t Overthink It,” Brisbane bombshell Sahara Beck backs up today with news of a brand-new EP as well as dates for a national tour. One of Beck’s records, titled “Queen Of Hearts,” was produced by ARIA Award-nominated partner-in-crime Tony Buchen (Mansionair, Courtney Barnett, Montaigne).
The EP was released on October 4 via Dew Process records. To celebrate the EP’s release, she took off on a national tour to support the record, which began on Monday, October 7, at the Caloundra Music Festival in her home state of Queensland. Despite the success of her song “Don’t Overthink It,” “Queen Of Hearts” sports the previous hits “I Haven’t Done A Thing Today” and “Here We Go Again,” which have already scored big love from triple j and community radio nationwide, as well as coveted spots on Spotify and Apple’s new music playlists. The record is rounded out by two new tracks: the aptly grandiose, new-age pop of the title song and the bright ballad record-closer, “21st Century.” All this music was brought to life by Beck’s work with Tony Buchen and honed at his Kingsized Soundlabs studio. The pair first collaborated in 2017, and the connection was so strong that Sahara couldn’t wait to get back. _”I spent two years throwing my heart and soul into these songs, and my instinct was that Tony could help me take these songs to a place I’d only been dreaming of,” she says about her studio buddy. “I like how much he pushed me every day—more than anyone had before—and he got me to sing in ways I didn’t know I could.” _ It’s an inspiring evolution for a girl who wrote her first song at 12 and an exciting new page in a CV that already includes one album to date, two EPs, winning a QLD Music Award (the Carol Lloyd Award for emerging Queensland female singer-songwriters) and taking home the third prize in the coveted Vanda & Young International Songwriting Competition, festival appearances at Bluesfest, Bigsound, and The Falls Music & Arts Festival, plus support slots with Bishop Briggs, Kim Churchill, and Paul Kelly.
Fresh off the plane after wowing audiences in Glastonbury, London, and Scotland, Sahara Beck returns with “Mr. Breezy,” a playful and catchy slice of alt-pop heaven—out now. “Mr. Breezy” was co-written with Alex Henriksson (Matt Corby, Jarryd James, Budjerah) and is the first single from an album Sahara plans to release in 2023. The single (from the upcoming album) is produced by multi-Aria Award-winning producer/engineer/Songwriter Kon Kersting (Tones And I, Jungle Giants, Milky Chance, Spacey Jane).
A musical highlight in her stage show with Briefs Factory International and their collaborative project “Bite Club,” “Mr Breezy” featured Sahara performing alongside Briefs’ cast member Louis Biggs who deftly manages multiple speedy costume changes while on a Treadmill vying – unsuccessfully – for her attention. The physical performance creatively but subtly comments on the relationship between respect and disrespect and the conversations that happen in between. So who is this elusive Mr Breezy? “He’s the guy who lulls you into a false sense of comfort and then tells you he isn’t ready for something serious, making you feel as though he never knew you in the first place and that he’s afraid of who you might actually be,” says Sahara.
Sahara recently returned from the UK, where she headlined the Circus Tent at Glastonbury Festival with Briefs: Bite Club. The collective also played 9 shows at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and 24 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, to standing ovations every night.
It was “an incredibly wild dream for my first international tour,” says Sahara. It’s been an exciting and varied year for Sahara, with things looking set to continue in the same fashion: working on stage shows, recording her own genre-challenging body of work, and writing dance floor anthems for artists around the globe—she is the true chameleon. Including the October release of disco queen Mell Hall’s “End of Time (feat. Sahara Beck),” a song she co-wrote with Mell during the pandemic period.
Mell Hall currently holds the record for the longest-reigning female artist at #1 on the ARIA Club Chart. This follows on from the recent success of her co-writes and features with the German-based Purple Disco Machine on “Can’t Get Enough (feat. Sahara Beck)” and Austria’s Toby Romeo on “Devils Cup.” An impressive list already and one that’s bound to grow exponentially off the back of the release of this latest record Mr. Breezy, Sahara Beck continues to cement herself as one of the most unique talents in Australian music and a Queen of hearts in her own right. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself humming any one of these five tracks for days after giving “And Her Kryptonite” a listen.
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