Safia

When it comes to pursuing many creative endeavours, creators want and need to be engulfed in the industry every day. Musicians however seem to create their best work when they can escape all of those mundane daily pressures. The debut LP, Internal, by Safia really couldn’t highlight this point any more.

As Ben Woolner explained, being based out of Canberra actually worked in the groups favour: “Without the industry pressures of, say, Sydney or Melbourne it allows us to reconnect with real life, which in turn helps with our writing. By detaching from those outside influences we can focus on simply writing for ourselves.”

If Canberra ever needs a spokesman, Ben would be a great candidate as he glowed about the city’s music scene: “Obviously it’s a much smaller scene, but it’s so friendly and supportive. There is a lot of talent down here and without the pressures of the big city it’s helped bands evolve their own sounds.”

Safia are obviously one of those bands which has developed their own sound in Canberra, but recently they have made a grand statement on a national level with the release of Internal, topping the iTunes charts and finishing just behind Nick Cave for a top spot on the ARIA chart.

Ben said that Internal “as we know it” has been in the pipelines for “a bit under a year”, however some of the “early incarnations and demos date back to before we were even Safia”.

For Ben, Michael Bell and Harry Sayers, the hardest part of producing the LP was changing their workflow from focusing on individual songs to writing 12 simultaneously.

“It was difficult at the start, working out how we work best and how you finish 12 songs at the same time while still investing that same love and energy into them as we did with singles in the past,” explained Ben.

In October this year Safia performed in Sydney as part of the Internal tour, but they will return this week due to an overwhelming demand and the fact it was such a standout show for them, which Ben beamed about:

“The last Sydney show for us was incredible. It felt like we were one with the crowd and to be honest it’s actually been one of our favourite gigs ever so we can’t wait to get back there.”

Nov 18, 7pm. Enmore Theatre, 118-132 Enmore Rd, Newtown. $45.90. Tickets & info: www.enmoretheatre.com.au

Follow Jamie on Twitter @Appsy_JAM