JH: You’ve spoken quite candidly about your health problems at the end of 2010, including insomnia – how did you cope with not being able to get to sleep?

MW: I tried to turn that nothingness into ‘something’ — like songs or words — something real and finite.

JH: Are you back and firing on all cylinders now?

MW: Thankyou, yes I am.

JH: Insomnia comes from what seems to be a dark and confusing space in your life. Is music — writing and performing - your therapist?

MW: Totally. But it’s less expensive than traditional therapy, I think. I’ve always had trouble trying to outline exactly what role songwriting has in my conscious brain, the most accurate thing I can say is that it’s a blend of memory, fantasy and therapy. As for the performative element, that really changes from show to show. Some shows are absolutely about catharsis, other shows are purely to have fun, about entertainment in the truest sense of it. I think that fluctuation of intent is what makes this lifestyle sustainable for me. I couldn’t just do the same thing over and over.

JH: You’ve said that performing these songs every night on tour would be mentally draining and take away from the writing of the next record. Will that record be the focus for 2012?

MW: Well, I’m fortunate in that now I have a little bit of time to write and record the next album in a more organised way. So while writing is always something that’s on my mind, I’m not busting my chops like I was on the first record to meet deadlines and make film clips in two days inbetween tours. I’d like to be a little more considered this time around. So I’m just going to do some writing experiments, try some different approaches and see what falls out of that. Spend some time shaking the tree. Watch for falling coconuts.

JH: Going back to festivals, there’s more festivals than ever. Some say music-lovers are the big winners, but others say the resultant dilution of acts means many festivals are losing relevance. Where do you sit: Festivals booming of dying?

MW: I really think that argument has been going on for the past 10 years. I suppose that it’s natural that any festival that is artistically centered around a particular movement (dance, electro, folk) is naturally going to have an ebb and flow of interest as that style of music moves in and out of the zeitgeist. There’s also something to consider in that as festival punters grow up and get older, their interest in festivals changes. It’s a bit hard to drop a million pills and party at Big Day Out when you’re thirty-something with kids. For people at that place in their lives, smaller, more boutique-y festivals like Meredith or Boogie are a little easier to manage. Overall, there’s a pretty organic cause-and-effect relationship between the tastes of Australians and the music that festivals are providing that appears to be pretty self-monitoring. What a problem to have! Half our luck.

JH: We’ve got our > own ‘little’ festival here in Albury-Wodonga (Paddy’s Sounds of Summer), which you’re booked to play on Friday. Do you enjoy bringing your show to the regional areas?

MW: Regional shows are just great. We’ve toured Australia so much as a band that it’s really exciting for us to go to a regional area that we haven’t been to a million times and actually see some new stuff. Also the op-shopping is best.

JH: Last time you were in town (in Wodonga in June, 2010), you played support to The Beautiful Girls in front of about 200-300 people. Apart from bigger crowds and stages, what’s the biggest change in Megan Washington’s life?

MW: Since then and now I turned 25, so I no longer have to mortgage my soul to rent hire cars. I know that sounds glib, but it’s not.

JH: Do you remember anything specific from that gig over at the Wodonga Civic Centre? Anything stand out about the venue? (It has since been demolished and a new ‘state-of-the’ centre is nearly complete)

MW: If I recall correctly, that was the last gig that was played there, right? My only memory is that when I was out the back of the venue I saw a lady squatting to pee under a semi-trailer. But I just checked that with my drummer and he says that happened in Adelaide.

JH:Your performance at the 2010 Arias was a real ‘wow’ moment in what was a pretty crummy show. Do you feel your performance of Sunday Best, and subsequent award wins, opened your music up to a wider audience?

MW: I don’t really know if I agree with you on that point. I haven’t actually seen the televised version of that ARIAs because I was there, but I have heard a few people say that the show was pretty ordinary, which to be candid, irks me. That show is a music awards show and in my opinion it’s the responsibility of the musicians who are performing to make the show great. I don’t think that the quality of the show is wholly determined by the people who are presenting awards, or the announcers, or hosts, or even the camera crew or anything like that. Sure, those elements are very important but fundamentally, if the artists who are performing don’t take any risks, or try do something special for this ‘night-of-nights’, there’s not much that any TV producer can do to make that better. And I think that it’s unfair to lampoon those technical people and blame them for a less-than-spectacular show. I think we should be looking elsewhere. As for me, in that instance, I don’t really have any real gauge for how my performance did or didn’t resonate with the rest of Australia. I was asked to perform and when I pictured the best thing I wanted to do, it was that. So on went the tap shoes! On with the feathers! That’s really my idea of glamour, that classic Hollywood things. Top hats and tails.

JH: I know you’ve got a wickedly busy schedule. Finally, have you got a message for the Albury-Wodonga and surrounds fans before you hit town?

MW: Can’t wait to see you! Please bring us lamingtons — we are always hungry.