Merri May Gill: Cover Up.

Merri May Gill plays The Healer on Sunday and the Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay on February 3. That’s Me On The Cover is in stores now.

It seems somewhat surprising that an interstate artist would travel all the way to Queensland for the Woodford Folk Festival, but not stop for some other dates on the way home. However, that’s exactly the case for Adelaide based singer/songwriter Merri May Gill. Having made a date with the last Woodford event, Merri May is back to perform with locals Women In Docs and Pete Murray, acts she had encountered on the road.

“I’ve been to Woodford now twice. I actually first met Women In Docs at the Victor Harbour folk festival, and we caught up again at Woodford a couple of years ago. We just keep running into them everywhere, and decided we’d do some stuff together. I find I meet a lot of people from the Brisbane area and it seems like music still really pumping along up there. Apart from all the pokies…”

Ah, the musicians pet gripe.

“It’s happening everywhere. I think even Melbourne is starting to go backwards now as well. We didn’t have much luck in Sydney, but we’ve finally found a nice venue. It’s actually a cabaret bar, not a music bar, which is kind of funny.”

Her second recording That’s Me On The Cover showcases Merri May’s unique approach to songwriting.

“That’s just my style. If I was going to put another album together it would end up pretty much the same in spirit. These just ended up being the tracks that were getting played the most regularly. It was good to finally get them down on tape. I’ve actually got some interest from a record company in the UK, but they want a few more tracks on it, so I’ve had to lock myself away in a hotel room for a few days.”

Are you the kind of writer that need to lock themselves away from distractions to gain focus when you’re working?

“It’s actually the first time I’ve done that. There’s just been so much happening that I had to get away from. It was good. I think I wrote about twelve songs in those couple of days, but pretty much whenever I get the opportunity I just write.”

Has the material on That’s Me On The Cover been around in the live set for a while, or is it the result of another frantic writing session?

“Some of it’s been around for a while. Contradicting was written pretty much just before we recorded it. There was a few other songs like that, but there’s a few old songs that I’ve been desperate to get onto CD, which was nice. I haven’t had a chance to get sick of all the songs yet. There’s only about three songs from my first album that I still play and that was done about 24 months ago, so it’s had a good life.”

“When I started out I did a business degree, and I just wanted to find out how music all worked. So I was self managed and got some investors to do the first album, and I think I just went a bit over the top. The ABC really liked it, but listening to it now I sort of cringe a bit. But I learnt so much I cold make this one better.”