Sahara Beck
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Sahara Beck

When other 11 year olds were busy working out their timetables and playing video games, Sahara Beck was setting the foundations for her career in music. After setting her sights on becoming a singer, she wrote and recorded her debut album ‘Volume One’ when she was 14. Now five years later, Sahara has put out her fourth release, Panacea.

“It’s very different,” she says of her new release compared to her first works.

“When I was 11 I knew I wanted to perform and play music but I wasn’t really sure how to get the sound that I had in my head out into reality. I guess now I’ve got more experience and I know how to do that more without having to get a producer in to help.”

A lot happened in those few years, but the biggest thing to shape her music, or at least help her achieve her full abilities, was studying the craft.

“Studying music at school helped a lot but I think before that, letting yourself be really open to hearing different styles and working out how they did that [is beneficial]. And then becoming as confident as you can on your own instruments and finding out how to do it through study,” she says.

Formal education mightn’t be a path every musician takes, but Sahara has experienced what all musicians can’t escape in their path to success, and that’s the many different levels of support in their live gigs.

Wanting to share her experiences and inspire those listening to help the live music scene thrive, she took to the stage for a TedX talk in Southbank – something a little bit different from her normal appearances in front of a microphone.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking but I just had to think this is about the present moment and not get worried about what I’d stuffed up or what I could stuff up,” she says.

There were few stuff ups in sight, and instead Sahara presented several minutes of discussion on her journey, why it’s important to support live music and all bookended by two of her songs.

“I gigged everywhere I could, anywhere I could”, she says in the talk. “Sometimes I would get to play to a room of 50 people and sometimes there would just be two and one would usually be my mum…you live for that moment where you get to connect with people, that moment where someone sees you up on stage and they give you this look, and a tweak of a smile as they hear a lyric and go, ‘I’ve been there’.”

Written by Amanda Sherring

Photo: Stephen Booth

When & Where: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood – May 12, Sooki Lounge, Belgrave – May 13 & The Workers Club, Geelong – May 14