Why She's Not Ready For A 'Best Of' Just Yet

There's been a wave of 'popular music meets the orchestra' concerts for a while now. Everyone from Split Enz to Metallica has had a crack — generally with the orchestra serving as an ornate backing band while the contemporary artists play their greatest hits like you've never heard them before. When approached by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to collaborate, however, Megan Washington wasn't quite having it go down like that.

"Yeah, I thought a lot about it, and for one thing I thought that a retrospective was a bit premature," she laughs. "And I also just, I'm much more excited by the idea of, you know, going forward. I can't imagine, you know, Beethoven doing a 'best of' at 30. Not that I'm comparing myself to Beethoven, but intention-wise, with my intention I want to look forward, and I want to show everyone what I've been doing lately, not what I did five years ago. For me, there will be a time and a place to do a 'greatest hits' or a 'best of' or that kind of thing, but it's not now. And I was really much more energised by the idea of playing all this new music because I'm really proud of it and I think it's really good."

If you're already a fan of the singer-songwriter then you'll know Washington loves to jump a boundary. However, it's pretty damn gutsy to preview a brand new album with, as it were, a brand new band. "Quite deliberately, I'm not using my band at all in this process," she explains. "I'll just have my guitarist, because we'll do some songs without the orchestra, but I really didn't want it to be me playing a show with my band and the orchestra just playing along in the background, just plucked along. I really wanted all the articulations of the songs written throughout the sections of the orchestra. I wanted it really to be them, me singing with them — I didn't want them to be superfluous, I wanted them to play a really important role, I really stressed that. So the orchestrations are quite sparkling and rippling and really features the orchestra. The orchestra's really playing, not just long notes and chords."

Writing for an orchestra, or imagining music to be played by a huge group like this, takes clear ambition. However, it's something Washington takes as part of the broader way music can be constructed. "I feel like, for me, the DNA of a song, the true essence of a song is in its melody and its lyric. And it's harmonic composition, to a point. And my whole life, I've always felt like genre is a choice. So in the same way that I can take you and dress you up either in your Sunday best or your Saturday afternoon flannies — you're still you, but you're just presented for different occasions. And in the same way I think you can take a Taylor Swift song and adapt it for your bluegrass band, or whatever," she says. "But it's also been a really interesting choice to do this because I all this music is unreleased. So it isn't going to be like the Split Enz thing where you know and love Six Months In A Leaky Boat and then you hear it like you've never heard it before — you'll have never heard any of this fucking music. So the first introduction that it will have to world will be in this very ornate, elaborate, dark way."

With the preparation for the tour including intensive work with the SSO, then movement to other state-based orchestras (including Melbourne's wonderfully named Impossible Orchestra), there is no doubt a bit of nervousness hanging around for Washington. However, it's an energy she's drawing on, even if it means splitting her time a bit more than she might like. "It's this funny dichotomous thing, because the more successful you are at something — the more successful you are at being a singer — the less time you spend singing. Like, you spend more time talking to producers and thinking about the art and whatever. And for me, as a human being, I became a musician and a songwriter because I love to sing. And more specifically, I love to show off how good I am as a singer."

Here she pauses to laugh a little — but damn, you called it lady — indeed you are freaking great at it! "I do, I love it. I love it so much, so for me to be on stage, it's literally my happy place. I feel really safe, I feel really strong, and I feel like I've got a lot to give. So the idea of performing this whole new album of work that I'm really proud of is really appealing."