INTERVIEW: Sara Berki’s new EP In the Neon: “This opens up a door to people who might not like traditional-sounding country”
Words: Emma Driver
Interview: Shalane Connors
Published: 9 July 2025
Country music is definitely having a big moment. With the future feeling complicated and uncertain, maybe more of us are looking for a simplicity that has stood the test of time – like music from the heart that reminds us that the wide-open spaces are out there, just waiting for us to roll up and pitch the tent. Australian singer/songwriter Sara Berki is one emerging star who has planted her boots all over the genre over the last few years, delivering a fresh breeze of country songwriting with a feather-light touch – a kind of antidote to a difficult world.
Since 2022, Berki has been rising fast – check out Women In Pop’s interview with her in 2024 for the background on this Bundaberg-born former hairdresser with a sixth sense for how a country song should feel. Now her new EP In the Neon has landed, a collaboration with producer Liam Quinn, who has produced some of the best voices in the business (Keith Urban, Guy Sebastian, Jess Mauboy and more). The professional Nashville-like polish on the EP makes it clear Berki would be right at home playing in any Tennessee bar – or on any arena stage.
For an instant hit of her good-time energy, start backwards with ‘Do Me Too’, the EP’s final track. “Honey, get your dress on, get your boots on / There ain’t no staying inside” sets the tone for what’s to come, and there’s a decent chance you’ll be up on your feet by the time the chorus rolls around: “I’ll be going all night long, drinking from the bottom shelf.” The pace is quick, the guitar’s chugging, and there are no fussy backing vocals to distract from the “getting rowdy” swing of Berki’s voice.
This closing track does a pretty good job of introducing Berki, and the EP, for the uninitiated. Loop around to the opening track, ‘In the Neon’, and you’ll find a bluesier, grittier angle on the bar as a place of healing – and drinking. “Put a quarter in the jukebox / Hook it up straight up to my heart,” Berki pleads, trying to kill a heartbreak with music, a corner booth and a beer. But love comes knocking in the sweetly optimistic ‘Looks Like’, which Berki released as the EP’s second single earlier this year. The melody is a gentle one and is perfectly handled by her understated voice, which serves the song rather than relying on acrobatics. As she goes “out where the grass grows tall” with a new lover (it’s based on Berki’s early days with her now-husband Pat), there’s space in the scene and in the song – a slower unfolding of country-rock, drum fills for emotion, and some gentle pop touches to sugar the mix.
First single from the EP, the retro singalong ‘Twice’, shows Berki’s gaze towards the American market, with some classic imagery to resonate with US audiences: a fickle lover messing about with a “southern belle”, his lies “bigger than Tennessee”. It’s a smart move – there’s a loyal country audience in Australia but an even bigger one across the Pacific. ‘Twice’ has attitude, a little stab of vengeance, and it all rolls along with a fiddle to thread the backing together. Third single ‘Cowboys Do It Better’ brings the American listeners along for the ride too, a bluegrass-y banjo helping Berki pay homage to “the good ol’ boys” who are “soft and loving, but hard as nails”. It’s a celebration, but its minor key adds a hint of melancholy and a feeling that this story isn’t finished – the cowboys might love you better, but they might break your heart a little harder too.
At its core, In the Neon is a feelgood EP with polish and heart. For some unpretentious storytelling, with wit and romance thrown in, it’s hard to go past songs like these. Berki doesn’t need theatrics because her voice is loaded with natural charm, and it’s not overshadowed by extravagant production. So if it’s open spaces and hopeful hearts you’re looking for in a wild world, you’ll find them here.
Sara took time to chat with Women In Pop’s Shalane Connors about the EP, her long-term love of writing and what’s next on her songwriting horizon.
Hi Sara! I know you didn’t grow up in a big city – you’re from Queensland, right? Did you grow up with country music all around you? Country has a big audience up there.
Well, I was born in Bundaberg [in Queensland], but I’ve been in New South Wales for a very long time. It’s funny because my understanding is where you were born if who you should go for in sports. So I still go for every Queensland team. I don’t remember anything of Queensland, really, but the Queenslanders like to claim me as theirs.
It’s funny – people always assume that you listen to country if you sing country music. But I have so many layers! My dad was pretty much Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. He’d listen to old Motown stuff too, or he’d listen to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He had really good taste in music. But then Mum was very folk – she would listen to Fleetwood Mac, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Rodriguez. So I remember it never being country music. But I grew up in a pretty rural area, and we’d ride horses and be out on the bikes until the street lights would come on, and my friends’ parents were listening to country music.
So you just ran with it. You’ve been playing guitar since you were a kid?
Yeah, I was very, very young when I started it. I was so interested in how people could make [a guitar] sound like that. Like, “What are you doing to it, to make it sound like that?” I was a sporty kid, but music just overtook whatever I was doing. Then in high school I started writing music and understanding the structure of a song, and being able to put pen to paper. It wasn’t always songs, though. It was a lot of poetry, and putting down thoughts. And as a teenager I’d go for three-hour bushwalks by myself. Mum was always like, “Sara, I hate you doing this”, but I’d pack a bag and something to eat, and I’d pack my book and I’d just write about what I would see. That’s kind of where it stemmed from.
Was there a particular influence or idol – pop or country – who you aspired to?
Back then, I was listening to a bit of country, but also folk. Folk is in my core, and it’s been more of a noticeable thing in the past six months of writing. My mum and dad had always said, “You know, we named you Sara without an ‘h’ because of how it’s spelled in the song by Fleetwood Mac.” So I think I was heavy on Stevie Nicks, even to the point of trying to mimic that quiver in her voice – I definitely have vibrato! So I’d definitely say that Stevie has always been in the back of my mind. But I think when I was listening to country music and writing and I was nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, there was [US country singer/songwriter] Cam – she’s a phenomenal writer and performer. And Caylee Hammack as well – I really, really love her. I always seem to gravitate back to those two.
Where did you kind of cut your teeth as a performer? What sort of venues?
I used to play anytime that I could in high school. I was that kid who, at recess and lunch, would walk to the music room, grab a guitar and just go and sit in the quad playing, and whoever wanted to could sit around and watch me play.
Really? That’s super bold …
I’m actually such a nervous singer now, but I wasn’t back then. I used to play weddings for, like, 100 bucks when I was fifteen. It was always my high school friends, their older siblings’ weddings or something like that. And I’d play for four hours. But then I started playing pubs and bars around town. RSL clubs – just anywhere that I could play.
Your EP In the Neon is out now – and you’ve released three tracks from it already. My personal favourite is ‘Twice’. It’s just sassy. And it sounds different for you – it’s almost got a surfie vibe …
‘Twice’ has that almost cruising [atmosphere] – when I was writing that, I saw [the character] driving a car, and palm trees. She’s checked herself into an old motel, and she doesn’t give a damn: “You’re not getting me back, even if you try and call me.” That was the storyline. It was pretty easy to write, and pretty easy to make – the producer, Liam Quinn, and I had the same idea.
But you’re right, it’s sonically different to the other stuff. When I first brought out the early stuff for Sara Berki – like Heartline [Berki’s 2023 EP] – I thought that’s what country just needed to sound like. The producer who I was working with then, Simon Johnson, asked me, “What do you hear it sounding like?” And I was like, “I don’t know, just make it sound country.” So we had a lot of strings and the traditional elements. It was quite straight-shooter, Australian country, and I’m really proud of it. With In the Neon I was keen to show my diversity. But who’s to say that in years to come I won’t bring out a twelve-piece bluegrass-style album? I’m adaptable!
Who cares about genre, right?
Yeah! People just expect you to just stay with one vein. But this opens up a door to people who might not like traditional-sounding country. They might like a more produced sound. It was really fun to do and to make, and it just it felt right. I didn’t try to make it sound like [a particular style]. It was just like, “I like this, so this is what we’re doing.” Sometimes that’s the best way.
What is the ultimate feeling that you want people to walk away with from In the Neon?
I want them to listen to it from start to finish, and just feel like, “Damn, that’s a that’s a really cool EP, that’s different for Sara, and I like it.” It’s not something super “feely”. My main goal with being an artist is to have connection with people and to make them feel something … it actually moves them. That is to come. In the Neon is more about listening to it and going, “I want to listen to it again, because it’s so fun.”
I love that approach. You’ve said you’ll release a second half of the project, a different side to it, maybe a second EP? What made you decide to do that, to split the project in half?
My manager, Dan, actually came up with the idea. There were in-depth songs that were originally going to go on In the Neon but it didn’t make sense to me. The next lot of stuff that I’ve been writing for the next album to come, it’s a very raw, in-depth, full kind of writing, making people think about what I actually am writing about. So Dan had the idea of doing a Side A and a Side B. I just thought that was incredible. It’s showing that I have these sides to me – I can do super-hot tracks and also a really raw kind of kind of production and writing.
When you’ve been playing live, you’ve been doing two sets – one solo, then one with the band. Which totally makes sense – all musicians suffer from option paralysis of how we want our songs to sound, and you’re doing both of them.
It was a lot – it was full-on. To showcase those [newer] songs, by myself, solo … they might only be a verse and a chorus, or they might be super meaningful songs to me that I haven’t showed anyone, and they’re hard to play live because they rip people’s hearts out! I really, really love that I have this element. It was such a vulnerable state to be in, but then to play with a shit-hot band – it was a wild time, but it was so much fun.
Amazing. It sounds like you’ve had a fair bit of support. I wanted to ask if there have been people who’ve actively discouraged you within the industry, and what you’ve done to overcome that?
Not in the industry, but I think from the upbringing that I’ve had, my parents are very much like, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your job. You’ve got a job, you’ve got something to do. You need to make money, Sara, don’t be stupid.” From a young age, I thought, “Don’t be stupid. I can’t do this.” And it took me so long to realise that you seriously can do anything you want. It might be hard, but life was never meant to be just easy for everyone. It would be so boring if it was. I think I have experienced being discouraged, and not having the confidence to do it, which does trickle into how I am as an artist and what I think that I’m capable of. But at times like that, I just need to sit with myself … and remind myself I’m still a real person. I’m still doing this, the best that I can.
Your career has really taken off in quite a short space of time. How are you finding that – is it a bit of a whirlwind? Are you pinching yourself?
I’m a very nervous person. I care for other people before I even care for myself, so when things get the better of me, it gets really hard. I mean, it gets really hard for lots and lots of people, and I intended for this to happen. I was working so hard when I first came on to the music scene. But when I look back on the past three and a half years, I think, whoa, no wonder I’m feeling like this – some people who have been in the industry for even five or ten years haven’t had the privilege of doing what I’ve been able to do in just three and a half years. That was a huge thing to realise. I’m definitely not ungrateful. It’s just so overwhelming, and it gets pretty crazy. But I’m so thankful for where I am and having the support that I have. And it’s not even that I need people to be always lifting me up. Sometimes it takes you a while, but you need to believe it yourself.
Sara Berki’s EP In the Neon is out now via Warner Music. You can buy and stream here.
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