Abbe May Unveils New Single & National Tour Dates

Acclaimed Aussie musician Abbe May has been keeping furiously busy of late as support for Paul Kelly's current tour — keeping us posted with some brilliant and candid diaries while she's at it — but the Are We Flirting scribe isn't about to put her feet up any time soon.

Rather, May has unveiled not only a new single in the form of soulful, gospel-infused new cut Doomsday Clock — the newest taste from her forthcoming fifth studio album Bitchcraft, though written as one of its earliest songs — but an accompanying run of national tour dates in honour of the fresh cut. 

Getting under way at Sydney's Newtown Social Club on Thursday 17 November, Abbe May will take her roadshow to stages in Canberra, Wollongong, Melbourne, Mornington, Queenscliff, Geelong, Adelaide, Byron Bay, Brisbane and Perth, where she rounds out at Jack Rabbit Slims just less than a month later, on Friday 16 December.

Unsurprisingly, given May's repeated demonstrations of intelligence and thoughtfulness in her writing, there's real depth behind the new tune, which she says stems from her personally feeling "disturbed" by the contemporary political climate in the country.

"We seem to live in a country that is more concerned with #censusfail than about our government’s horrifying abuses of the human rights of refugees," she explained in a statement. "We have lost our way and it bodes very badly for our future.

"We are being told to fear refugees by the very people we should be focusing our suspicions on — the vast majority of politicians and the big business they work for. They are the ones keeping everyone hungry. They sold us the trickle-down lie. Not the refugees.

"History has shown how conservative governments deliberately fan the flames of the fear of the ‘other’ to keep control and to distract us. They deliberately gut funding for the arts and for education so as to keep us uninformed and therefore unarmed against their policies which are overwhelmingly geared toward creating massive class divide. This is not a time for artists to be silent. We have a job to do."

Doomsday Clock is available now via Luxury Cat Records. Bitchcraft will be released later this year. For more information, see the artist's website. 

For a full rundown of tour details, including dates, venues and other booking information, see theGuide.