“I want the audience to walk away with full hearts.” That is the intention. Not just applause. Not just a good set. Full hearts.
At her upcoming Open Heart Concert, musician Sarah Black is crafting an evening that moves like an emotional arc rather than a conventional gig. The setlist itself reflects that journey. “The lineup is pretty exciting because I get to play my old songs, which are not out, which are going to be out. I also get to play the premiere of Maname,” she says.
The first half of the show will unfold live with her band, Joseph Jerome, Skandha Jay and Sam Daniel. The second half transitions into her pop tracks, offering a shift in energy. “The audience gets a little bit of everything, and I think it’s really going to be an experience.”
What sets this performance apart is not only the music but the conversation threaded through it. “I’m going to be talking about my songs before I sing about it and give them all the tea,” she laughs. Each track arrives with context, the emotional state behind it, the backstory and the reason it exists.
In a time when concerts often rely on spectacle, LED walls and choreography, she is choosing narrative. “It’s really the small rooms that make you feel something,” she says. “So no matter how much I love and enjoy giving a full-blown performance on a big stage with lights and the firecrackers and 2,000 people in front of me singing my song, I don’t get to see each one of you but it’s in small spaces I get to look at my audience. I get to speak to them. I get to have conversations even.”
During the show, the audience can write questions on small chits. She pulls them out between songs and answers them in real time. “Performing is different from just singing and being yourself. And in this way, I get to be myself in the purest form.”
Vulnerability remains her anchor. “I don’t think my vulnerability has changed at all. I think I’ve always been very vulnerable on stage. That helps me connect with the audience much, much better. That’s the only way I know how to connect.”
Some songs are harder to revisit. “Certain songs are harder to perform live because I am sometimes emotionally attached to them,” she admits. Her new single Maname, premiering at the concert, explores loving without expectation. “Maname is basically about how much you love a person, or can love a person without expecting anything in return. I think it’s the pureness of it. It’s a gut feeling that you go with. And that’s what Maname means, which all of my life forms speak for you, even against everything.”
If her earlier work leaned into melancholy, her newer sound is more expansive. She has experimented with language, rhythm and rap. “Learning to write rap really changed the way I look at it,” she says. “Now I don’t stick to just writing with one rhythm. I kind of just go all over the place and figure out in the end if I like it or not.”
Ultimately, her wish remains simple. “I want them to feel. I really, really just want them to walk away with a lot of feelings. Good, good feelings.”
Open Heart Concert takes place on February 13, 7.30 pm onwards, at Medai The Stage, Alwarpet. Tickets are priced at Rs 499.
Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
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