Meg Washington’s great southern nights

MEG Washington is one of Australia’s finest singers, the voice of Calypso in the juggernaut Bluey, and one-half of the genius adapting Paul Kelly’s iconic song How to Make Gravy to the big screen.

She’s also making a fifth studio album and touring in the 17-night Great Southern Nights festival, stopping at Byron Theatre on March 21.

The four-time ARIA award winner is on a work trip in Sydney, out of breath speaking with this masthead while running up the big stone steps of The Rocks beneath the Harbour Bridge on her way to lunch.

There is no trace of the stutter that plagued her childhood, which she famously spoke about so eloquently in her 2014 TEDx talk.

“The new album began as a rejection of the contemporary form,” she said.

“I’ve been working in the popular song context for so long, and I’m disillusioned with the anodyne, perfect quality of so much music that I’m hearing.

“The edges have been squared away, and my soul has been craving the feral edges of humanness.

“It’s a love letter to nature. It’s full of flaws, asymmetry and natural beauty.

“There’s so much sameness, so, as we’re putting this record together, every time we make an artistic decision, should we fix this? Then we don’t,” she said.

With husband Nick Waterman, Washington took on the challenge of adapting Kelly’s How to Make Gravy to the big screen. Waterman directed, Washington wrote and curated the music, and they co-wrote the screenplay for the film, now nominated for 14 AACTA awards.

The artist/filmmaker said completing the project was a relief.

“It was sheer, blissful, end-of-grade-12, handed in your Master’s thesis type relief,” she said.

“I considered how much the song means to Australia, and I was also very conscious of Paul’s opinion, like, would he think it was cool?”.

As the voice behind schoolteacher Calypso in Bluey since 2018, Washington said she loved the show.

“Aside from how deeply meaningful it is to so many people, I love its punk soul and how it’s just unapologetically itself,” she said.

“It’s idiosyncratic, and as a filmmaker, that’s inspiring,” she said.

Byron audiences will get a peek at Washington’s new album material.

“It’s that act of coming together to make and listen to music and to commune together inside the shimmering bubble of the song,” she said.

“Music and singing are right next door to something spiritual and powerful, for me, but in a universal sense.

“I get the sense more and more in this capitalistic, manic productivity of life that just spending time in stillness is quite a subversive act. So, it might be a little bit of church.”

Visit byroncentre.com.au/theatre-events/great-southern-nights-presents-meg-washington