Sahara Beck goes behind the scenes of the lazy I Haven’t Done A Thing Today

After her stunning sophomore album Panacea in 2016, Sahara Beck is back with new music, releasing the irresistible art-pop anthem, I Haven’t Done A Thing Today. Written on a lazy day with her brother in their family home, the song reveals a dizzying stream-of-consciousness that flits between wry observations and random thoughts about partying too much, unjudged sexuality and making mistakes among others. At the song’s core lies a bright beating heart and a joyous tribute to love. It’s the first taste of music we’ve gotten from Beck since the beautiful Here We Go Again, and since her performances at BIGSOUND and her supporting slot on Bishop Briggs’ Australian Tour.

She has worked beside the ARIA Award-nominated Tony Buchen, who’s worked with acts like Mansionair, Courtney Barnett and Montaigne, which has already landed a semi-final position in the International Songwriting Competition based in the US, and she has received two nominations for the 2019 Queensland Music Awards. “Deep down, this song is about accepting yourself and everything around you with effortless love,” Beck explains. “I’m saying trust that you can be vulnerable and expose your love. Don't be afraid that you will be left hanging as love is everywhere.”

With plenty of support slot and festival experience, including slots at Bluesfest and Falls Festival, and support slots with the likes of Ball Park Music and the legendary Paul Kelly, the track comes right before several festival dates that see’s Sahara Beck play at Ipswich Festival and ALTFEST. Listen to the single below alongside some behind-the-scenes shots, walked through alongside explanations from Sahara herself. Find more info on the festival dates at the end of this article.

This photo was taken shortly after we had rocked up to start the shoot in my favourite overalls and Violent Soho shirt. It looks like I’m applying more lip gloss here… There are no words for how big of a fan I’ve become of lip gloss for photo shoots.

I always ask every 20 shots or so if I can see what I look like to the camera. I’m not a model, but I have a clear idea in my mind how I want to come across in my imagery and what I want to look like in the photo.

So seeing it in “playback” is an important part of the process - it allows me to adjust what I actually look like on camera, rather than what I think I look like when I’m posing.

What is happening in this snapshot is part of the concept for this setup. Jeff encouraged me to pose in as many different shapes and bends I could with my body in different directions while expressing different emotions with my face for each shot. The idea being that a few shots would then be combined, overlapping slightly, kind of fading in and out of each other. But I really like how these ended up even just as individual shots. The way the blue and the red contrasts in the final shots is very satisfying to look at and makes all the crazy twisting of my spine so worth it!

So I am a fan of Jean Luc Godard, a French filmmaker. I like the way he puts his movies together and the people he chooses to put in them. He has a promotional shot that I actually found on an Instagram hashtag that I follow which just instantly seemed so iconic to me and moved me with its power. So I suggested that we had to replicate this shot in his honour.

Above is Jeff Anderson sticking together the letters I cut out to the background paper roll while I applied my make up for this look.

This look is based on an Andy Warhol art piece where he took a photo of Elvis Presley from one of his classic cowboy films and made it block coloured, giving it his iconic Pop Art treatment. Instead of a gun in my hand, we used a TV remote. This one was Jeff Anderson Jrs idea actually, and I thought it was very quirky and fun. It wasn’t til afterwards that we actually looked at the photos and realised how much they would work with the concept for the single I Haven’t Done a Thing Today - that sentence often revolves around a TV remote!

This photo was taken while we were playing with a shadow idea, where we were trying to get each other's hand shadows chasing me in the picture. Because of the way we set up the lighting I went with this outfit so it would shine and sparkle more under the lights.

I don’t remember this exact moment, but I can assume by my expression that I must have been tuned out staring at a corner for a moment and my manager Rachael must have just caught my attention... I need to learn how to focus better!

This is behind the camera of the GODARD shot we did. I borrowed the suit from my good friend Lloyd Crackett; he’s very good at styling. In the Jean Luc Godard version, he just had GODARD written above his head, but I knew I couldn’t just say BECK… I feel like there’s already an artist going by that name????

Here we are sticking up my last name for the shot. And I seem to be on... smoko? I’ve recently switched to this little vaporiser instead of smoking cigarettes because, hey, smoking is a gross habit… Also, ya know, I gotta be able to keep singing! We did a few photos with me using it as though it were a pipe for the photo. Just for a bit of fun. I'm also wearing that delicious purple suit that Lloyd put together for me. It was a bit big but nothing a few clips can't fix for the shoot!

Tour Dates:

Fri, April 12 - Ipswich Festival, Queensland
Saturday, June 29 - ALTFEST, Adelaide

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