In September 2015 Sarah Blasko resurfaced with a new album that was literally a world away from the string driven opus of her last album I Awake. Gone was the 52 piece Bulgarian orchestra and intense songwriting, replaced with the decadently plush 80s synths and big, pop hook of I’d Be Lost.

“It was pretty simple,” she tells ripitup.com.au ahead of her appearance at WOMADelaide, one of her first live shows since the release of Eternal Return. “I’d been working on the synths when I was making a soundtrack for a film.

“It was just as simple as the keyboard that I was writing on. And loving,” she says of the Prophet synth whose fingerprints are all over the album. “Like a lot of things it just felt right. It’s an analogue keyboard made in the 70s, so I guess it carries with it those kind of sounds,” she explains. “It wasn’t necessarily ‘I’m going to make an 80s sounding record’, it’s just those classic sounds kind of came out of the keyboard.”

But even without several dozen players to wrangle, it was still an at times rigorous creative process. “Either way you do it there’s complexitites and difficulties, one minute you think it’s this and the next minute it’s that. You’re just stumbling around trying to work out what you’re doing until you hit it, she says. “Whether it’s with an orchestra or with keyboards or a drum machine.”

While the buzzing hum of synth certainly adds a distinctive sheen to the record, Eternal Return’s beating pop heart sound was the product of Blasko’s disciplined effort of polishing of the songs into glistening nuggets. “With the last record the challenge was trying to write parts that would work with an orchestra, and for this it was trying to write really succinct songs that were very easy to grab ahold of, were full of melodic parts,” she explains. “It’s hard to do, it’s hard to edit yourself in that way.

“And that’s why I wanted to work with a producer, someone who was going to hold me to that. When you do it on your own it’s easier to drift, [but] to write a really tight pop record takes a lot of editing and constant refining, making things catchier and stronger.”

Enter Burke Reid, the former Gerling member who has become one of Australia’s go-to producers in recent years, cutting records with Gareth Liddiard, Oh Mercy, Jack Ladder, Liam Finn and Courtney Barnett, all of which sound completely different but brought out an entirely new side of each artist. Other new collaborators like Sydney’s resident 80s cheese king Donny Benet and PVT’s Laurence Pike meant that even though Eternal Awake is Blasko’s first album recorded in Australia, the process was still an exploration.

“I’d never worked with Burke, I’d never worked with Donnie, so because we were all living there and cooking together… it’s funny, the studio space ends up feeling like a world unto itself,” she says. “So in a way it felt like we could have been anywhere – it felt familiar and yet really new and different at the same time.”

Due to give the album its first live airing in South Australia at WOMADelaide, Blasko can’t wait to show off her new bandmates. “It’s actually a really incredible band,” she says. “We did one show in October last year to sort of debut the album, and I feel like it’s… I mean I don’t want to be cruel to anyone I’ve played with before, but I feel like it’s probably one of the best lineups I’ve had.”

“You probably couldn’t have more keyboards on stage, so it’s quite an overpowering sound. So I’m really excited, I think it’s going to be a great show. I love the band.”

She’s even looking forward to the slightly unpredictable nature of an outdoor festival. “It’s going to be a really nice way to get started,” she says. “I think these songs are a bit more danceable. There is an absolute difference between festival audiences and doing your own show.

“There’s a bit more of a thrill in some ways at a festival – there’s more that can go wrong, so everyone’s on edge because you don’t have soundcheck and all that kind of thing, people are outside and a bit rowdier. But I kind of enjoy not really knowing what the crowd’s going to be like, and then you find out and have to learn how to adapt to whatever atmosphere.”

Whatever goes down on Sunday, at least she won’t have to contend with the extreme weather of her last WOMADelaide appearance. “I’m just glad it’s not going to be 45 degrees like it was last time!”

Sarah Blasko performs at WOMADelaide on Sunday, March 13. Tickets viaWOMADelaide.

WOMADELAIDE 2016 LINEUP

De La Soul
Sarah Blasko
Asha Bhosle
Ainslie Wills
Ajak Kwai
Marcellus Pittman – DJ
숨[su:m]
Tek Tek Ensemble
St. Germain
All Our Exes Live In Texas
Alsarah & The Nubatones
Asian Dub Foundation
Calexico
Cedric Burnside Project
Debashish Bhattacharya
Djuki Mala
Ester Rada
Hazmat Modine
Husky
Ibeyi
kev Carmody
Miles Cleret
Mojo Juju
Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro
NO ZU
The Once
Osunlade
Quarter Street
Radical Son
Ripley
Sadar Bahar
Sampa The Great
Spiro
The Spooky Men’s Chorale
The Strides
Surahn
Tulegur
Wasted Wanderers
47SOUL
Angélique Kidjo & the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The Cat Empire
DakhaBrakha
Diego el Cigala
Edmar Castañeda Trio
The Jerry Cans
John Grant
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Mahsa Marjan Vahdat
Marlon Williams
Orange Blossom
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Songhoy Blues
Violent Femmes
Problems
Zeequil
Mortisville Vs. The Chief
Datakae

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