Sydney songwriter BERTIE BLACKMAN pens what some may call confessional lyrics, but she recently went all out, inadvertently revealing all of her darkest, most torrid secrets to the one guy she shouldn’t confide in – SIMON TOPPER, the enemy.

If you’ve seen Cameron Crowe’s homage to ‘70s rock bands Almost Famous, you’ll know three things for sure: (1) The words to Tiny Dancer. (2) Kate Hudson should have stopped making movies right after that. (3) Life on the road is hard, man. Sure, the rock & roll life sounds glamorous to a hero-worshipping kid in his bedroom, but essentially it’s living in the pockets of people you better like and having no privacy.

Everchanging Sydney artist Bertie Blackman would know these three facts better than most. (1) She’s written one of this decade’s highpoints in heart-raising pop, Favourite Jeans, so she must appreciate the majesty of Elton and Bernie’s masterpiece. (2) Her current album Black is a showcase of delicious, raucous rock, tempered with a dangerous sultry brooding, which is a long way off the ditzy dickhead adventures of Kate Hudson’s last dozen falling-over movies. (3) Bertie Blackman virtually lives on the road. Black has been on the shelves of the coolest record stores for not quite a year, and she’s embarking on her fifth Australian tour in that time.

Thankfully, Blackman is in a band with people she likes, so conflict is reportedly kept to the usual minimum standards of “I’m not touching you” and “Why are you hitting yourself?”. However, it’s true there is a verifiable lack of privacy on the road, meaning that Blackman has no secrets. With this in mind, as Bertie Blackman and her band head to town this week, she let slip a few secrets that you can now be privy to…

Bertie Blackman still gets stage fright.

“I get nervous about playing a venue I haven’t played before. The stage for me is like a comfort zone, so I like to know all about that space beforehand. When we’re playing somewhere new I like to get there early and do a long nice soundcheck so I know all the quirks. Performance anxiety – everyone gets it, and if you don’t get it, there’s something wrong with you. But the most nervous I get is before home shows, playing in Sydney, and I don’t really know why.”

Bertie Blackman has secret plans for future recordings.

“Looking at recording the third album next year, but in the meantime we’re looking at putting together a repackaged Black, with some live stuff and a bonus song. Putting a new record together takes such a long time. It doesn’t take that long to record, but it’s just everything else takes aaaaages. I don’t want to be years between record releases. We’re going to start putting out samplers every four months or so, songs that might or might not make the finished record, but it’ll just keep us on our toes and stop us getting stagnant.”

Bertie Blackman really likes playing Brisbane.

“I really love playing The Troubadour. I love playing intimate venues, when you can get up close and sweaty with people. I liked The Zoo too, and I really dug The Columbian when I played there with Bob Evans – that was a cracker, one of my best shows ever. It’s gone now? Shit. The Troubadour is probably my favourite though.”

Bertie Blackman will play The Troubadour on Thursday Sep 6, and Sound Lounge, Currumbin on Friday Sep 7. Black is out now on Morph Music / MGM.

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