Multi-ARIA-Award-winning Australian singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko will kick off her extended I Just Need to Conquer This Mountain “regional” tour in Canberra in 2025.

She will perform at the Canberra Theatre Centre on 1 February in her first regional tour since 2017.

Raised in a Pentecostal church, Blasko was taught that Jesus would return, and the world would be over before she was 30.

Now in her 40s, with the world still standing and her days in the church long behind her, she has taken stock of her life, her history and where she has landed.

The new album explores topics such as her relationship with the church and its lifelong impacts, addresses dreams, and reaffirms her promise never to give up on her loved ones or herself. It also embraces acceptance in her journey to let go of ideas and people that no longer serve her, pushing her toward new beginnings and mindsets.

Tickets for the tour go on sale at 9am on 13 December at sarahblasko.com, with special guests to be announced.

1. How was your recent visit to Canberra for RockWiz LIVE! and how does it feel to be coming back again soon?
I love performing there because that’s where my family is – my sister (Kate) and her family (partner and three children) and my dad and his partner – they all ended up there by coincidence.

So, when people get online and ask why I’m not coming to Canberra, I say the first people I have to answer to are my family, as they don’t come up to Sydney.

Although my dad (Nikolai Blaskow) did come up to my recent show and his car broke down on the way.

Dad didn’t think there was a train that day as they were cancelled.

He caught a taxi from Sutton Forest which cost him $450 – and his car was towed back to Canberra, so I think it ended up costing him thousands of dollars.

I told him I’m coming to Canberra on 1 February, so I’ll have to make the show slightly different.

My dad’s been in Canberra for the best part of 20 years, but he moved there and then moved away (to Victoria) one or two times for other work.

My sister has been there on and off for quite a bit. She moved back to Sydney, then back. We joke about the cycle paths and the heat, and they (my dad and sister) always complain about the humidity up here (Sydney).

We went to Canberra a couple of times, and we love it now, but when I was a teenager, it didn’t seem like an exciting holiday. Then Mum would say, “We’ll cycle around the lake.”

2. How does it feel to do regional touring again?

I didn’t do much of a regional tour with my last album, Depth of Field, which came out in 2018.

I’ve done a regional tour with pretty much every album, so I was a bit sad about that.

It’s great to get out of the cities. People are appreciative and responsive which is a bit different to the cities. I consider Canberra to be a city and regional. I didn’t want to offend anybody – so it’s regional plus Canberra.

3. What can audience members attending the show expect?
It’s a continuation of the shows, where I want to showcase my new record and a selection from all of my albums.

There’s a pretty strong emotional intensity and emotional quality to this show and the songs all together in this one show.

I’ve been amazed at the reaction of the audience because sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to play out when you play the whole record, which I plan to do but that may change.

I think it’s been impactful and not in a way that I’ve experienced before. It’s special. The first half of the record is about being heartbroken and trying to work out what to do.

The second half, which I based the tracklist on, becomes more obvious and heightened when played live, showcasing the real struggle and release of that part of the record.

4. How does it feel that 20 years have passed since your first album, The Overture and the Underscore, was released, and how do you reflect on the career that has followed?

It feels amazing really and while I hoped I would have had so many records, I never took it as a given that would happen.

So, I’m just glad that I haven’t gotten so discouraged over that time – and there have been many times I’ve wanted to give up – so I think more than anything I’m happy I haven’t given up. I love and appreciate it more than ever.

In your twenties maybe you take everything for granted but not at 48, I don’t take anything for granted.

I feel like I’ve found my voice in a way I didn’t have on the first record and a confidence I have developed over time.

I feel fortunate to have been able to develop in my own time, gradually, and people have come along for that journey. I didn’t come up fully informed.

5. What’s next after this tour?
The plan is to do some overseas shows halfway through and later in the year.

My first two albums haven’t been released on vinyl – I didn’t think I’d ever see the day vinyls would come back – so I might do a series of shows to celebrate that.

I also hope to do heaps of shows and hopefully write a new record. I made this one at the end of 2022 so I’m really looking forward to writing again.

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