Tash Sultana on the joy of playing with others for MTV Unplugged
The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist becomes the sixth Australian act to be featured in the MTV Unplugged Melbourne series, screening Sunday May 23.
For Melbourne singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana, music had always been a solo pursuit based on intricate looping and layering, as well as an iron-clad insistence on playing each and every note without accompaniment.
It was that unique style which saw the former Bourke Street Mall busker shoot from a lonely bedroom to some of the world’s biggest stages, thanks to a series of YouTube videos that went viral five years ago.
Recently, though, Sultana — who is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns — has been rethinking that solo approach for the live environment in the wake of their second album, Terra Firma, which debuted at No 1 on the ARIA chart in February.
“I wrote this record myself, played all the parts myself and produced it,” Sultana, 25, told The Australian. “I had no barrier to how far I would take writing parts, changing time signatures, changing keys, having the full-band sound — and then I got to the end and thought, ‘How the f..k am I going to play this shit on my own?’”
The solution lay in trying to play well with others, at last, by enlisting three session musicians on keyboards, bass and drums.
“That’s not a very typical ‘me’ thing, and you know what? I’m f..king loving it,” Sultana said. “It’s the right step in the right direction. For a long time I was worried about making this move because I thought maybe it could possibly take away from what I’ve established. But hell no: it’s absolutely extended what I’ve established.”
As one of the headline acts at Bluesfest, Sultana was gearing up to debut their new band before the festival was cancelled by a public health order on March 31.
“In hindsight, it worked out better, because the performance I had up my sleeve for Bluesfest, I got to showcase at MTV Unplugged Melbourne for the very first time,” said Sultana.
That concert — filmed before a small live audience earlier this month — will see Sultana as the sixth Australian act to be featured in the MTV Unplugged Melbourne series, following Gang of Youths, Amy Shark, DMA’S, The Rubens and Courtney Barnett.
“It was the best performance that I’ve ever had,” said Sultana of the 11-song set, which airs on Sunday May 23 on MTV.
In early October, the new outfit will get another chance to play Bluesfest: the rescheduled three-day event now sees Sultana and co sharing headline duties with Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly and Jimmy Barnes.
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