Behind the scenes with Sahara Beck!
Sahara Beck today released her new single ‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’, an addicitve slice of pop-rock with a chorus that quickly gets embedded in your head. Women In Pop recently went behind-the-scenes on Sahara’s recent photo shoots, take a look at these exclusive behind-the-scenes shots and commentary from Sahara herself.
All images: Jeff Andersen Jnr
“This was a shot where we were trying to get lots of different silhouettes of me with different emotions and expressions to get an ‘in motion’ type feel. We did a few different looks on this day but these shots in the red suit ended up being some of my absolute favourites. Jeff Andersen Jr is a wonderful photographer and with the planning we put into this shoot the red turned out beautifully. In case you can’t tell - I like wearing red on stage and in photographs!
I think initially with the last single we started speaking about using block colours with my music, something I got inspired by via St Vincent, she’s just amazing.
“I’m not a model by any means but I feel I am good at replicating something, even if it’s only something I see in my head. We knew how we wanted these to look like, we had the mental image and we had some reference shots. I always ask to look back at my previous images while I’m doing a shoot because sometimes I think I look a certain way but it isn’t coming across strong enough on the camera so I check out the image and amp it UP!”
“With this look - you can’t see in this photo - I was moving away from shadows we were creating with hands in front of a spotlight we had set up in the room. It’s funny seeing these behind the scenes pictures and realising how much makeup I have on. I enjoy wearing makeup and dressing up. I also enjoy wearing my ripped up old clothes and no makeup. It’s wonderful that I have found something that I get to express all of myself with, whether it’s dressing up for my music or dressing down for anything!”
“Here I am putting on my makeup for the rainbow makeup shot. I had practiced it a few days earlier and my manager saved the photos in a document for me so I would have something to go off on the day, if you squint real hard you can see my practice goes in the bottom left corner. This shot was taken at the very end of the day when we had about 15 minutes left to get the right shot for this and then race off to the airport!”
“This look is based off a photo of Jean Luc Godard. I thought he looked so in control and powerful. He has such confidence in what he does and I admire that. In his version he just had GODARD written behind him (love) but I figured I couldn’t just write BECK as obviously that stage name has already been taken… and there’s only one Sahara Beck so why not work it! I can’t wait to share the final shots of this look as it’s definitely ended up as my favourite!”
First things first – have you managed to do a thing today?!
Actually this is the first thing I am doing today…ha ha!
What was the inspiration behind ‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’?
I was hanging out with my brother at my mum’s house when I was visiting them a year or so ago. We spent all day talking about absolutely everything you could think of. When the afternoon came we realised we hadn’t actually done anything all day but speak about what was going on in our lives and helping each other think more abstractly about our situations. We had never written a song before so we sat down and wrote the first verse and chorus based on our conversations that day. I then later on added in the part about my brother being so smart that he’s probably an alien ha ha!
Who did you work with on the single?
I wrote it with my brother Ocean Beck initially at home on the Sunshine Coast, and then I did some work with Bernard Fanning who was doing some songwriting mentoring with me, and he encouraged me to develop the song further in a few ways. Then I took it to Los Angeles to ultimately finish it and record it with producer, Tony Buchen.
‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’ was only released today but it has already become a finalist in the International Song Writing 2019 competition – that must feel pretty amazing?
Yeah I am completely blown away by that. When I first found out I didn’t know what to do with the shock and excitement i was so utterly flattered and surprised so I called up Ocean and decided to push it on to him by saying ‘Guess what! You aren’t even 18 yet and you are now officially an internationally recognised songwriter!’ He was kind of confused... I probably should have lead with a bit more information first! We are both very honoured to be listed alongside such great company in such a highly respected, internationally recognised competition.
There has been a lot of debate over the last year or so about gender equality in the music industry. What are your thoughts on this topic?
I believe that everyone should be seen and treated as an equal in all facets of life, i don’t think about these discussions just in the context of the music industry. No matter what gender or sexuality they identify with. I have been very fortunate to have extremely supportive family and friends around me, I have also worked hard to ensure that I have the right team of people behind me - all of whom encourage me to continue to be my authentic passionate self and I feel empowered by that.
I wholeheartedly support women to speak up and speak out.
I wholeheartedly support ANY PERSON to speak up and speak out when they are being treated unfairly, being marginalised and being oppressed.
And I hope that the wider community can continue to become more understanding, more compassionate and more inclusive. I feel I am surrounded by those kinds of people, but i would be naive to think that is where it ends. There is obviously a long way to go.
What else can we expect from Sahara Beck in 2019?
More music! I’m so excited to release this song into the world and all of the others that are to come because I truly put all of myself in to each track. I couldn’t have given anymore!
‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’ is out now. You can download it on iTunes or stream on Spotify.
To keep up with all things Sahara Beck you can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
