Sarah McLeod and Dallas Frasca have spent decades doing what Australian rock musicians do best: driving long stretches of highway, sweating it out in sticky venues, and building careers the hard way — show by show, city by city.

Between them, they’ve seen the highs of sold-out tours and the less glamorous realities of life on the road. Now, they’re using that lived experience to ask a bigger question: what if touring didn’t have to come at the planet’s expense?

Their joint ‘Green Electric Tour’ is an ambitious, deliberately disruptive experiment in sustainable touring, one that goes beyond token gestures and into the mechanics of how live music actually works.

Partnering with Green Music Australia, McLeod and Frasca have introduced a small sustainability levy to fund measurable environmental actions, while supporting Seed Mob, Australia’s first Indigenous youth-led climate justice organisation.

From meat-free catering and eco-certified accommodation to rethinking transport routes and backstage habits, every detail of the tour has been interrogated.

For McLeod — ARIA winner, Superjesus frontwoman, and Chair of Australian Women in Music — and Frasca, whose 2024 album Force of Nature marked a career-defining return to form, this tour isn’t about perfection. It’s about momentum. It’s about proving that artists can lead meaningful change, even within an industry built on convenience and excess. And it’s about bringing fans along for the ride, documenting the wins, the failures, and the creative chaos that comes with trying to do things differently.

Ahead of the tour, McLeod and Frasca sat down for a candid artist-on-artist conversation, talking fear, responsibility, single-use plastics, “water beers,” and why rock and roll might still be one of the loudest tools we’ve got for change.

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Dallas: You’ve toured every inch of this country — what moment made you realise the music industry needs to rethink its environmental footprint, not someday, but now?

Sarah: You sent me two documentaries on climate change: 2040 and Bill Gates’ What’s Next? and I shat my pants.

Dallas: The ‘Green Electric Tour’ is a wild idea on paper. What was the emotional driver for you — guilt, hope, rage, responsibility, all of the above?

Sarah: Fear and the speed with which we’re heading in the wrong direction.

Dallas: Artists are often told sustainability is “too hard” when touring. What’s the biggest myth you want to crush once and for all?

Sarah: It is hard? Everything is too hard until you give it a go.

Dallas: Which part of the going low emission tour surprised you the most — what was easier than expected, and what punched you in the face?

Sarah: What surprised me is how natural and easy the changes could be if money wasn’t an issue, which is criminal when we’re talking about the planet.

Dallas: If every artist in Australia could change one thing about how they tour tomorrow, what would you demand they start with?

Sarah: Requesting refillable water backstage. Grab yourself your own bottle and take it on stage with you, because it’s way less hectic to swig from when you’re in the middle of a show and you don’t have to worry about putting the little lids on or kicking it over and electrocuting yourself. I like to refer to my bottle as my ‘water beer’… I love my water beer.

Sarah: You’ve always been a disruptor — what pushed you to bring your values into the mechanics of touring instead of keeping them separate from the art?

Dallas: Good question, Sarah. I think both of them go hand in hand. We have the opportunity as artists to add our voices to whatever we make, so I guess with the world rapidly changing, our climate, pollution, all of it, waiting for someone else to solve the issues feels pointless. It’s overwhelming to imagine how we change the planet if even our governments aren’t on board, but if I’m going to talk about disruption, I need to live it in the way I tour, create, and show up in the world.

Sarah: We’re both in the middle of redefining what sustainable touring looks like for us. What pushed you to start rethinking the way you operate, and what direction are you heading? You pushed me, who pushed you?

Dallas: I guess, as I said in my previous answer, McLeod, I don’t think any of us can ignore what is happening on the planet right now, so I think it is really my observations as a human, conversations with friends and everything we’re seeing on our screens.

(I see how you recycled that answer too, nice one, Dal. – Sarah)

Sarah: You’ve seen the underbelly of touring for years. What’s the one unsustainable industry habit you’re most determined to break with this tour?

Dallas: Single-use plastics. I think that’s the laziest habit in touring, it’s wasteful, and completely avoidable. If we can’t tackle something that simple, we’ve got no business talking about sustainability at all. Artists can ask for refillable water stations on their rider instead!

Sarah: This tour’s about proving a better model is possible. What’s the boldest innovation you want the industry to steal from us?

Dallas: The boldest innovation? Drawing a line in the sand. Artists setting true non-negotiables like no single-use plastics on riders, choosing venues connected to public transport, encouraging fans to carpool or ride together, committing to sustainable stagewear, and rethinking how we move from show to show. We can’t be perfect, but the second artists start demanding better, the whole industry will have to catch up. We do have power in this space. Convenience is killing us. In 20 years, we’ll look back at single-use plastic water bottles and be mortified, like, watching someone light up a Lucky Strike in an asbestos shed.

Sarah: If future artists look back at the ‘Green Electric Tour’ in 10 years, what do you want them to say we got right?

Dallas: They made sustainability relatable. We showed that making small, smart and responsible choices can be the new standard, not the exception. “From Little Things Big Things Grow”.

Sarah McLeod and Dallas Frasca ‘The Green Electric Tour’

Supported by Music Australia, The Harbour Agency, Spank Betty Records, Green Music Australia and raising funds for Seed Mob

Tickets available at dallasfrasca.com or sarahmcleodofficial.com

Thursday, February 19th
Bended Elbow, Albury

Friday, February 20th
Moyhu Hotel, Moyhu

Saturday, February 21st
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne

Sunday, February 22nd
Pelly Bar, Frankston

Friday, February 27th
Mos Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast

Saturday, February 28th
The Royal Quarters, Nundah

Sunday, March 1st
Imperial Hotel, Eumundi

Thursday, March 5th
Big Easy Radio, Aldinga

Friday, March 6th
Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide

Saturday, March 7th
Mojo’s Bar, Fremantle

Sunday, March 8th
Indi Bar, Scarborough

Wednesday, March 11th
La La La’s, Wollongong

Thursday, March 12th
The Baso, Canberra

Friday, March 13th
The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle

Saturday, March 14th
Stag & Hunter, Newcastle