Sacred Ground

He's headlining the first night of Homeground festival, a weekend of free outdoor entertainment provided by talented Indigenous musicians and dancers from across the country and abroad, and Dan Sultan is no stranger to performing with Sydney Opera House as a stunning backdrop. “I won an ARIA at the Sydney Opera House and then got on stage with INXS; that was a pretty big thing. So that’s one occasion I’m not gonna forget in a hurry,” he laughs. That was back in 2010 when Sultan actually picked up two shiny, pointy silver statuettes: Best Male Artist and Best Blues And Roots Album (Get Out While You Can).

His latest Blackbird has been nominated for five ARIAs and Sultan says, “For it to be received how it’s been received is affirming, it’s a good feeling.” He’s already decided not to suit up for the ceremony (“I’m just gonna be comfortable this year”). “But I’m not gonna look slack, don’t worry. I’ll still make an effort,” he promises.

After not writing any songs “for a long time”, Sultan found that once he got going again, preparing material for Blackbird, he came up with “45 songs or something like that” in a six-month period. “Obviously there were quite a few stinkers in there [laughs], but the important thing was to just be writing again and hopefully get an album out of it and, yeah! There were a few left over.” Some of these made it onto Sultan’s Dirty Ground EP, which also contains a couple of Paul Kelly co-writes (the EP’s title track and On The Leffy). “I went to Paul’s place and we sat down with a coupla guitars. It was nice weather and we sorta sat outside and had a cup of tea and a bit of lunch and played some music, you know...”

After previous discussions with Sultan about the tendency for music by Indigenous artists to be lumped into the world music category, we ask whether he thinks there’s been any progress here. “No, I think I’ve had to fight really hard to push through that and I feel like I’ve done that, you know, but that’s after sort of ten years and that still doesn’t mean that we don’t have a long way to go. Someone shouldn’t have to forge their own path to get recognised, you know, not as much as I have or as much as some people have here in the industry.” So has Sultan sussed out whether his output is currently filed under rock’n’roll in record stores these days? “Oh, I’m not sure to tell you the truth. I haven’t seen my album anywhere. I go into the stores and haven’t seen it so I dunno where it is [laughs]. But it’s selling alright, so.”