November 23rd, 2024The wisdom of Sage
Sage Roadknight 19, is a singer from the Macedon Ranges creating in her own words, ‘futuristic folk music’.
She comes from a musical family, has been involved with music for pretty much her whole life and first started with the piano at age six.
The last time we featured Sage in 2021 she had just won the Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s Battle of the Bandwidth competition and since that time she has continued writing and producing music with vulnerability and insight delivering messages focusing on political, environmental and existential issues.
Now it’s three years later, a very long time in the shifting world of pop music. But Sage is ticking along, producing albums and singles while attaching an increasingly sophisticated production quality to her growing repertoire.
“The last couple of years I’ve been juggling school and music,” she says, “but I’ve managed to get a couple of notable things done. I was short listed in the environmental music prize in 2022 and after that I had this song called Trust the Dead that I produced for a music industry class, selected for the VCE Season of Excellence and exhibited at the Melbourne Museum.”
Sage has also completed her first full studio album Living Thing released in June 2023. Coming in at around 42 minutes, it consists of 13 tracks delivering a highly emotive and transporting experience asking you to confront the question: what is it to be a living thing?
“The response to it has been absolutely incredible and It’s lovely to have things I’ve written out there accessible to the public.”
However Sage is not one to sit back now this major project, four years in the making, has been completed. She has recently released Wake Up. It has a different feel to what she was doing with Living Thing.
That work was essentially an epic concept project featuring fairies, robots and an apocalyptic flood. But Wake Up is a 80s electronic pop work inspired track with a serious message regarding contemporary class struggle.
“I hope listeners see the seriousness. With a lot of songs, people choose to not listen to the lyrics and that’s their loss. But with that song it is pretty prominent, I’m not really hiding anything or being metaphorical. It’s all out in the open.”
Having amassed such a strong back catalogue, Sage is now at a point in her music career where she wants to merge the character of her studio productions with that of her performances. Presently her live shows are a simple affair, that of a single guitar accompanied by her ethereal voice.
“I’m looking to start a band. We’ve been talking it over in the household saying: ‘I really need to make my stage act a little bit more pa-pow!’ It is currently very acoustic and I would like to have a bigger sound.
“What I’m aiming for right now is to be able to grab my mic and dance around on stage instead of being stuck in the same spot with my guitar.
“It would be nice to get a bit of movement around because I am really starting to feel myself on stage and the vibe and energy of the audience.”
As 2024 concludes, Sage is busy collaborating with producers Ricky Ray and Shane Ray on her next studio album which is slated for release next June.
If you want to see Sage play, her next live appearance will be at the Newstead Folk Festival in January. After that? Well, who knows.
“As for remaining around regional Victoria or Melbourne, I guess we’ll see. If something happens and there is an opportunity for me then I’ll go where the wind blows me.”
Words: Tony Sawrey | Image: Jaqueline Rae
