A Quick Chat With Sasha Summers

Belladonna was created in a 25-minute writing session with Ben Stewart of Slowly Slowly. Do you remember the moment you knew the song was something special?

I initially felt like it was too big for me. I felt intimidated by the production, when the drums and guitars kicked in I remember thinking, oh shit what if i’m out of my league here… That’s when I knew that I had to finish it,

What has it been like to write with Ben, who is such a well-respected Australian musician and producer?

Ugh… him… KIDDING! Ben is like this weird production mastermind. He can speak a language that doesn’t have words fluently and can see exactly where you want to go as an artist. He really taught me to trust my instincts, especially because I didn’t have much experience when I started writing with him at all. He comes with so much experience and knowledge that working with him is such a privilege because he is so talented and he is also an artist himself so he understands the whole scope of music from that perspective. I’m really lucky to call him a friend on top of my producer.

The bridge "I'll save myself this time. Final girl, Walter White" is such a striking lyric. Where did that come from?

Omg thank you! Well to be honest, I'm a die hard Sarah Michelle Gellar stan so the whole ‘final girl’ concept is something I got from her and the characters she’s played. Same with Walter, the underdog rising up to become a kingpin. I felt the two complimented each other and made sense to me and I felt ready to confront things in my life with a similar fire and tenacity. There were bridges that had to be burned and a strength I had to really harness to do it.

The song sits in this interesting space between grief and empowerment. Was that balance intentional, or did it just come out that way?

It’s both. I mean, I don’t know if you can be empowered without something being a catalyst for that. I’d been so many different versions of myself from the time the Belladonna story initially started until now. I felt like I'd lived so many lives that the feeling of empowerment came from this self acceptance. I started to feel brave and I started to like myself more. Or rather, if I can rephrase: I knew it was time to be brave in a way that I hadn’t been before. The whole thing still hurts if I think about it too much, but we can’t go back in time and I'm not even sure I would want to if I had the opportunity, so it’s really empowerment through grief.

You directed, styled and edited the music video yourself. How important is it to you that your visual world is entirely your own?

Yes, that’s as important to me as writing my own music. I have always expressed myself through clothes and fashion and I've always been obsessed with film and television and pop culture. I’ve really looked up to David Lynch a lot in my life, he really just did whatever he wanted. He made his own rules, he likes to leave meaning up to the viewer. I learned a lot of that from Mulholland Drive. Same with Sofia Coppola and how she would always express femininity through her work and how she worked on set. When I'm writing the words, I have an immediate idea of what I'm going to wear, how I'll wear my hair and why, what accessories I'll carry and who I'll pay homage to. I’ve said since the beginning, if every video can have “Written and Directed by Sasha Summers” then it will. It mightn’t matter to everyone, but it is something that’s important to me.

You're currently studying film. How is that shaping the way you think about your music and your artistry?

Film has helped me find my voice and my storytelling style. It’s the whole reason I became a songwriter. In 2023 I made a film called Sweet as a Georgia Peach and I was lowkey just being anti-social and didn’t want to work in a group (lol). We had to make a film that was uncomfortable and for whatever reason something was guiding me to make a music video-esque, spoken word short film about growing up as a girl in a man's world. I made it with royalty free music I found and wrote poetry to it. When my teacher saw it she said “I really think you need to write music” and I thought she was insane. But film teaches you to broaden your horizons and express things in unique ways and to be fearless.

If Belladonna had a colour palette, what would it be?

Blood red, black, gold and pink. Rich, dark royal vibes. The red is definitely the main colour though, for sure.

The track was written in the winter of 2024 - what made now feel like the right time to release?

Well it was the third song I had written only at the time and I thought I needed to keep writing and figuring out who I was as an artist. I had no idea what I was doing. I also had Halfway to Heaven which my gut was telling me I wanted to release first because I felt like it was a good way to open my story as a person and as an artist because it is so hopeful. Belladonna is a bit different, but I felt a sense of urgency to get it out into the world and to do it now, because everyone should feel like they can rise up. My gut said now was the time to unleash it onto everyone.

Your influences span Lana Del Rey to Portishead to Mazzy Star. What's the through-line for you - what connects all of that?

Well the 3 of them are very cinematic storytellers. Lana from the time I was little and listening to her had a way of expressing herself that resonated with me. I think we were both quite rebellious in our younger years and were living older than we were and doing things we probably shouldn’t have been doing. I share a similar fascination with death as her as well, there’s an underlying theme of death in my songs, similar to her early work. Portishead and Mazzy have a unique way of telling stories as well. Mazzy has this ethereal 70’s and 90’s sound and those are my two favourite decades and Portishead’s cinematic soundscape and risks they take musically is something I have always loved. Not to mention Beth Gibbons’ lyrics are just incredible.

Melbourne has such a rich alt-rock scene. Who are you listening to locally right now?

I don’t know if anyone will know this band but these dudes called Slowly Slowly are pretty cool and their frontman, this guy called Benjamin Stewart has this really cool solo project that’s pretty good too. Queenie, I LOVE, she has a huge voice and beautiful album, I can’t get enough of her.

What do you want people to feel after hearing Belladonna for the first time?

I want them to feel like they can kick a door off its hinges. May this song awaken them inside, may they be reborn and may they slay and look fierce doing it. I want them to flip their bangs like a bad bitch and know that whatever they got going on, they’re gonna be just fine.

Is this the start of an EP, an album, or are you taking it one song at a time?

Right now, I'm going one song at a time. I would love an album at some point too but I think I'm just going to drop the singles out one after the other for now. In saying that, who knows, 2 years ago I didn’t even know I'd be here now! I guess whatever I'm led to that feels right is what I'm going to do.