INTERVIEW: Rising star Sara Berki on her new single 'twice': "It is my lifestyle, I do live by it, and I think that it's just embedded in me."
Image: Gracie Steindl
Published: 28 October 2024
Rising country-pop artist Sara Berki released her first single in 2022. Just two years later, she has accumulated four million streams, received a nomination for New Talent of the Year at the 2024 Golden Guitar Awards, and has now signed with major label Warner Music Australia.
She has recently released her new single ‘twice’. Written by Berki with Liam Quinn (Peach PRC, Samantha Jade) and produced by Quinn, ‘twice’ is a rousing, feel good track that brings traditional country sounds together with a pop vibe. Berki sings of the joy and relief of leaving a relationship that you know was bad for you. 'Who knew that breaking up would feel like pure bliss? / Oh, I won't ever have to see you out / Cause I'm a thousand miles from where you are right now,’ she sings.
“It was such a blast creating this one” Berki says. “I pictured myself after a breakup, hitting the road and checking into a cheap motel. It’s part escape and part joy for getting out of a relationship with the wrong person. We wanted it to be fun, imaginative and super catchy and I think it’s exactly that!”
The release of her first single for Warner Music caps off a remarkable year for Berki, which has seen her perform at SXSW Sydney, opening for US breakthrough star Dasha at her Sydney fan show, performing at the Vogue’s Visionary Women’s Dinner as well as having her live version of the John Denver classic ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, performed at the Brisbane Lions vs Carlton AFL match at the Gabba Stadium in Brisbane, go viral with over 5 million views to date.
With a gorgeous voice, addictive music and beautiful lyrics that always tell an intriguing and relatable story, Berki is an exciting new artist on the Australian music scene and has everything it takes to break through as a major star of the future. We recently caught up with to chat all about ‘twice’ and her music career to date.
Hi Sara! So lovely to meet you and congratulations on everything.
Oh, thank you so much. It's been crazy, but everything's been just so rewarding. It's been so good.
So you've just signed to Warner, which is amazing. You've been releasing your music independently for such a long time and I imagine that's a little hard to let go of. What was it about Warner that made you feel like it was the right place for you?
When I had the initial meetings with Warner, from the start they just made me feel like I was going to be in a better position than just being an independent artist, and they were there to help and to guide and to support. There are so many doors that you can't open yourself, you need that extra little bit of help. And with Warner, that's pretty much what it felt like for me from the beginning.
As an independent artist, how did it prepare you for this next stage in your career? Did it bring a sense of confidence or strength?
It just felt like it was going to be the next step for me. Working as an independent artist and being able to achieve what I had, for what seemed like a long time but really it hasn't been very long at all. Three years ago I was a hairdresser, so quite a short amount of time. From the get go, it was my manager and I just grinding away and trying to make something of my music career. So it has always been with Warner, from the start, knowing that that's the next step that I need to take.
Let's now talk about later single ‘twice’, because we've got quite a bop there. There's a real swagger to the track, which I love, it's fun. Talk to me a little bit about this one and how it came about.
It's definitely got this little bit of cruisey coolness about it. I just really wanted ‘twice’ to be super fun and an ear worm. It's quite easy for people to sing along to. I was working in the studio with Liam Quinn, who I'd never worked with before, and he is from the pop world. He doesn't exactly work with a lot of country artists, he knows pop through and through. So that was a huge step for me, because I had just never explored that. He had come up with this little jingle, he kept walking in and out of the studio going, ‘I think we should write a song that's kind of like, ‘you won't be fooling me twice’’. And we just started on it, and it was just so fun to create. I love it! I love playing it, I love playing it acoustic, I love playing it with a big band. It's exactly how I thought it would be.
I think that's great, and I I'm also loving this boundary pushing. What i am seeing is we're getting this resurgence of not just country music, but country music with other genres because it used to be one of these genres that very much stayed in its own camp. You yourself are a young artist, but you appear to have this very old country sensibility about you. Where did that come from?
I’ve always loved traditional country. I love traditional instruments, and I love the roots and the meaning behind what it is to actually be country. Growing up as a kid, I wasn't exposed to it, I wasn't brought up with country music. People think tend to think if you’re a country artist, you must have gone to Tamworth as a kid, you must have busked, you went into competitions, But my mum was very much into Carole King, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood, Mac, my dad was Black Sabbath to Brian Ferry to The Temptations. I didn't know what country was until I was probably around 12, and my friends’ parents would listen to it. But it somewhat has always been a part of me. It is my lifestyle, and I do live by it, and I think that it's just embedded in me. When I got to the point of wanting to pursue music, I thought I can't be anything else. I am country. I need to roll with this, it just feels right. I really appreciate traditional country, but it is 2024 and we got to have that little bit of flavour. So that's why I explored beyond just traditional country.
When you say that it's who you are and you live by it, what do you mean by that?
It's just how I live. I live a very quiet little life in a town that doesn't even have a shop, you know? I gotta travel my way to the city! It's always really been like that. At my primary school, there were about 62 kids in the whole school. It's always been like that for me. So I just live by it.
I love that! Your songs quite often touch on themes of this resilience and love and independence. It’s very much feet on the ground, comfortable confidence. When you're going into writing song, how do they reflect your own personal experiences? Or are you quite often pulling on this notion of classic country, which is beautiful storytelling and going into character?
I would say that it's more going into character and really going to places that I have maybe felt, or maybe I haven't, and I'm just creating scenarios and I am that main character whilst I'm writing. Up until this year, I actually hadn't co written, so everything that I had ever released, had been written by myself. I'm quite comfortable writing by myself, I'm quite comfortable writing with other artists and producers and writers. My ideas go to places that may be uncomfortable, they may be really comfortable, but when I write it, I am that main character, whether I have been there or whether I haven't.
That’s beautiful, and you definitely perform it that way as well. With regards to your musical trajectory, was it always just a part of you, were you always creating music from the get go?
Yeah. From when I was really little, I wasn't much of a sporty kid, I just loved how someone could play an instrument. How did it make that sound? I was just so intrigued by how they could do that. I started playing guitar when I was eight. I would play for hours on end, and I would write songs in my room and not really show anyone, not even my mum and dad. It wasn't until I got a little bit older when I thought, ‘I gotta do something with this, I don't know where to even start, but I gotta do something.’ So music has always been around, I've always written, I've always created. I just didn't know where to start with it.
Beautiful. Going back to this notion of this storytelling and you going into character, it is that narrative that draws a wide audience to country, even if they didn't know they were getting drawn to country. How do you balance having those personal nuances as opposed to a character when you are crafting music? Is it easier to become more personal as you develop more confidence?
I definitely blend. I'm quite an in depth writer. I want people to feel exactly what I feel with the song. So if it's a song about about my mum, I'd love my listeners to feel it about their mum. If it's something about their partner, their husband, their boyfriend, I want them to feel what I've written, exactly what I've written. That means so much to me.
You've performed all kinds of incredible shows, with some very eclectic audiences as well. The live aspect of country and folk music is so part and parcel of the genres because it's so intimate. What excites you and possibly even makes you nervous most about this next chapter in your journey of signing to a major label, and, of course, bringing in those elements of pop?
There's a lot that excites but that always brings nerves and expectation, and I think that is a good place to be in, because it keeps you at bay. It keeps you working very hard, and my brain does not stop. It can be overwhelming, I will say that. I have been chipping away at this on my own, and now I’m with a major label, it's quite a big deal, but there's a lot of great stuff to come with that.
Congratulations on all of it. It's such a long road, but everyone is loving what you are doing, I was reading all the comments on all your videos and stuff and people are just like ‘Oh my God she’s amazing!’
I think the thing is, it's relatability. It's people that either live a life like mine, they are listening to the songs, and they go, that's what I feel. Or they have the courage to contact me to say, ‘your song ‘To Love A Cowboy’ has gotten me through an abusive relationship’, or something like that. This is the kind of stuff that I hear, and I go, I'm doing something right. I'm actually doing something right. I'm talking to them through my creativity, my writing. I don't know how I'm doing it, but it's working.
‘twice’ is out now via Warner Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
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