Meg Washington sharing 'ancient, awesome' musical moments with Logan
It’s coming up to 20 years since Meg Washington became a recording artist on a 6-track jazz debut, so it’s fitting her new album about to drop next month is named after her – at least, when she looks at her reflection.
Named GEM, Meg explains it represents her name spelled backwards, and her Logan audience on Friday 4 July at Kingston’s Butterbox Theatre will be the lucky ones to hear some of her brand new material before the album’s official release.
‘There’s a song where I talk about the mirror and it’s like, I see the name as I’m looking back at me,’ Meg says.
‘It’s on my record that’s coming out on the 8th of August and it’s my 5th solo record, if you can believe that.’
Frankly, when it comes to Meg Washington’s accomplishments and acclaim in the arts world, anything seems believable.
Her fantastic career kicked off with that first jazz recording going on to win Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album, her first solo album I Believe You Liar winning a host of awards and her streak at success never slowing – we’re talking multiple awards from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and the Country Music Awards of Australia (CMAA) to the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and others.
Then there are the collaborations and performances that Meg has pursued into a whole other realm of artistic expression – from acting and screenwriting to an art book, a TED Talk and becoming the voice of one of characters of Australia’s most famous animated series, Bluey.
On that Bluey role as voicing primary school teacher ‘Calypso’, Meg feels ‘very lucky’ to be a part of it.
‘I’m just a very small part in that universe, but it’s been very inspiring to me to see how they can make such a show from Brisbane and it do just so well and be so pure, and it just have so much good juice in it that it can nourish people around the whole world. I think that’s a beautiful thing to do,’ Meg says.
‘It is lovely to work on things that connect and that are taken into people’s homes and people’s living rooms and into people’s hearts. You know, that’s like the dream as an artist – that what you make is something that people will love.’
Another project of Meg’s that fits that bill is her co-writing the screenplay with her partner Nick Waterman, who also directed, for the film How To Make Gravy, adapted from the much-loved song by Australian music veteran Paul Kelly.
‘It was a large project – I guess it took us about 4 years. We had the idea to do it back in Christmas of 2019,’ Meg says.
‘Paul was very clear from the beginning and let us do our own thing and we showed him various updates of the scripts as it went along. Then he actually ended up making a cameo in the movie.
‘It came out around Christmas and the feedback has been amazing. I mean, you know, the person that I was really thinking about was Paul and, thankfully, he likes the movie.’
As for current inspiration, Meg’s range is so broad that it’s little wonder she is often described as ‘genre-defying’.
‘I listen to everything, honestly, because it doesn’t matter what the genre is. I’m always impressed by the same things, like precision and, you know, tastiness, and vibes. We love talking up different genres in our house.
‘I like to explore all the sort of different ways to be creative because I think that creativity and the ability or the desire to want to solve problems in that way is something that you can do across any genres.
‘I love learning new languages and new ways to make things happen. Like, learning how to write a song is just basically learning how to see the invisible structure inside a piece of music. And then you realise that all those invisible structures exist in all these other modes and mediums, and it’s just a question of figuring out how they work.’
In between Meg’s obviously solid work ethic to keep her body of work rolling onwards and upwards, a recent move to the Gold Coast is allowing for some fun mum downtime when she has a day off between tours, launches and productions.
‘I love a lunch, you know?’ Meg laughs. ‘Yeah, I love a tablecloth with a wine glass and a bowl of pasta with loved people … and a sleep in, walk on the beach and swim in the ocean.
‘But I think something about becoming a parent gave me a surefootedness in my creativity. I mean, I don’t think I’m manic at all – I just sort of chip away at the different things and then the knots untie themselves over time.’
After wrapping up the large ‘Paul Kelly’ film project, Meg is really looking forward to playing some intimate shows at venues including the Butterbox Theatre at the Kingston Butter Factory.
‘I’m calling it ‘hauling ivory’ because the only shows that I got to play in that time were some symphony orchestra shows, which, as you can imagine, are pretty set in stone with set lists decided like 6 months before the gig,’ Meg says.
‘So I am just really loving the idea of playing some solo shows, which is what I’ve been doing all year and it’s been absolutely amazing. I’ve been to all parts of Australia that I haven’t been to for ages and I’ve been having a really good time.
‘Honestly, it is something that I love to do because it’s an amazing feeling to, you know, share a musical moment with an audience – that’s a great, ancient, awesome feeling.’
For information and tickets for the 4 July performance go to: Meg Washington – LoganARTS
By Rachel Syers