From The Inside

Born in the South Korean capital, Seoul, but growing up in Perth, the now Melbourne-based artist Saritah had already experienced a lot of travel in her young life. But two years ago she decided to take on the world, thanks to an Arts Council grant, the result of which is her third album, Dig Deep. “I went on a big 'round the world trip in 2010,” the singer-songwriter explains, on the line from Brisbane airport, “and that travel inspired a lot of songs – they were written in some pretty faraway places.”

Among those locations were a caravan in Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, a beach shack in Mozambique, a waterfall in Bali and five weeks with a shaman in her native South Korea. Not that you'll hear anything remotely as brutal as Korean shamanic vocalising on Dig Deep, a vibrant collection that draws on all her favourite genres – roots reggae, dancehall, Afrobeat and soul – recorded in a studio in the hills of Montecito, California.

“I have a manager who's based in Santa Cruz in California, so when we were putting together the vision for the album, everything just pointed there. He just had really good connections with the studio and musicians and producer, so he just made it all happen.”

The musicians assembled were themselves something of a united nations of music including and Ivory Coast-born New York City-based drummer and Puerto Rican bass player, both of whom have helped create a beautifully seamless sound. And it's harmony, of mind and spirit, that is the essence of this album. “I was so inspired by being out travelling in the world and meeting new people and seeing new places and just feeling so blessed by, really, following that inner voice. Amazing things were happening as I was stepping out of my comfort zone. But then you have other things, like on that same journey I got my whole suitcase stolen. At the time, of course, I was pretty devastated but that inspired the song Heaven, which has the line “It's on the inside where the true gold resides/ They can never take that away”. That's a common thread through this whole album.”