Sarah Blasko – ‘don’t u eva’
During university I went through a phase of audio engineering and did some work experience in the Roundhouse, a venue at the University of New South Wales. One night I was helping out the house sound tech doing the university band competition and I saw band called Acquiesce belting out folk rock tunes, complete with a violin. They were the most professional out of the usually crappy entrants, but what set them apart was the female singer’s voice. It was just so beautiful I stopped and watched the entire set. They won that competition of course, I got the EP and set out to see them again. But I never did. The band broke up and the vocalist Sarah Semmens disappeared from the music scene entirely. I couldn’t believe it. I asked around and scanned the papers for her name to appear solo or in another band but it never happened. It was very disappointing to think that such a talent had just given up on the music scene.
A few years later I had forgotten about the whole thing when I heard the same voice coming out of Triple J, this time much more mature and confident. It was Sarah Blasko and right at that moment I just knew it was the same Sarah from Acquiesce. Her voice was so unique it couldn’t be anyone else. I went to one of her solo shows and talked to her. She never did explain why she changed her name, but I was just glad she was back singing. That was before she released her EP Prelusive. Two years ago she went to LA and recorded The Overture and The Underscore – it’s one of my favourite Australian albums of all time. I think a lot of people dismissed it as another sooky solo singer songwriter record, but this record had such incredible melodies that only Sarah can pull off.
The good news is she has a new album coming out called What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have. The track ‘Explain’ has been on high rotation on Triple J and it is just fantastic, backed by piano and sweeping string arrangements. I couldn’t get an mp3 from her label, so this video will have to do for now. Directed by Lucy Dyson & Isobel Knowles.
September 30, 2006 6:13 pm
simple, neat, timely, thought provoking lyrics and images – excellent work Sarah
October 1, 2006 2:09 pm
great singing voice, very different, real meaning to her words, the pictures were very plain but theyu helped to explain the song and… just… well its really good!
October 4, 2006 2:37 am
I agree about The Overture and the Underscore… it’s brilliant. And yeah, I think many people probably overlooked her on the “singer-songwriter” basis… But she’s interesting… in the same way that someone like Sally of New Buffalo is…
I saw Sarah Blasko live in London last year and she was amazing… her voice is so strong live. Really looking forward to hearing the new album…
October 6, 2006 11:03 pm
I may be able to shine some light on why she left the music scene for a number of years. I know her father through the highschool which I went to, and he told us of how his wife had died a number of years ago (but not sure when it corresponds to), which may be why she took those years off. The change of name is to her father’s last name, Blasko, but I’m not sure where her previous name originated.
October 28, 2006 4:25 pm
The new album is awesome. Really interesting to hear the mini background of when you first saw her. Nice writeup. Definitely going to see her live…
November 21, 2006 10:37 am
Sarah used to be married so Semmens is her married name.
November 21, 2006 11:13 am
Thanks Nat, I thought that was the reason. Didn’t wanna make guesses!
June 27, 2007 2:45 pm
She does well to downplay her ex-married status… the ex-husband is a poet and is writing a book about their break-up. The Overture album is apparantly all about him, so it’ll be interesting to hear his response.
June 12, 2009 3:33 pm
I saw Acquiesce many times while they were still together (one of my best friends was the sister of the violinist). They were great. I didn’t ever get to get the EP unfortunitely. The family don’t even have any left.
I believe that the marriage split was a bit of a shock. I have been to a few camps with her ex-husband (during Acquiesce era). He’s a comical poet who was very much in love with Sarah so it was quite sad to see the split.
She does have an awesome voice!
October 14, 2009 9:54 pm
Sarah was married to a poet with the last name Semmens. They were very much in love – I was at the wedding, which was at Sydney Uni. Her husband adored her and was arty, like her and was very supportive, always cheering her on at every gig. They were married for about 3 years. She suddenly left him, saying to him that her music career couldn’t move ahead if she was married. He was utterly devastated, and it took him years to get over it. She has completely separated herself from her past life and all the friends that they had. The husband finally found new love, re-married and now has a baby, and is happy.
September 4, 2015 10:38 pm
Happy, but still….this in 2013…
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/projects/pocketdocs/4984590
January 26, 2010 2:05 pm
Sarah changed her name because she got divorced. She was previously married to an amazing performance poet called Cameron Semmens.
March 19, 2014 11:12 pm
Is there anywhere I can find Acquiesce’s music online? Or if you still have the EP to put it online somewhere?
March 20, 2014 12:58 pm
There are some songs still streaming on MySpace, Anna: https://myspace.com/aacquiesce/music/songs