The Vine interview: Megan Washington, September 2010
An interview for The Vine.
Megan Washington is on the cusp of something big. Her recently-released first album, I Believe You Liar, debuted at #3 on the ARIA charts. During her current album tour, she and her band are playing five sold-out shows at the 850-capacity Melbourne venue, The Corner. Successful album tours aside, she’s booked to play (at least) eleven significant music events for the remainder of 2010. Put simply, people are going bananas for Washington.
Most people, at least. One of TheVine’s critics, Everett True, wrote a contentious review of I Believe You Liar, which was published the day before we spoke. Hours ahead of Megan’s sold-out show at The Zoo, my girlfriend Rachael and I sat cross-legged on the concrete floor of a nearby car park with the singer, who smoked five self-rolled cigarettes over the course of our 50 minute conversation.
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So tell me: what were your first feelings when reading Everett’s review last night?
At first it was…I don’t think it was a particularly compassionate review. I think that you can state your opinion, whilst not being overly hostile. You know what I mean? It was a bit hurtful, but I guess everybody feels like that about their art and the thing they try really hard to make.
Then I read it again this morning and realised that it makes no sense. It starts by saying that pop’s doing fine by itself, thanks very much, ask Katy Perry, blah, blah, blah. Then he said the production is ‘too pop’ on the record. How does that make sense? The production’s too pop, and [yet] pop’s doing fine.
Do you know what I mean? I guess you’ve got to be adult enough to understand that people have opinions and even though if I really thought… he didn’t even mention the songwriting. He said the lyrics were quirky, without actually discussing any of the lyrics. Why are they quirky; how are they quirky? I thought it was more of a vehicle for him to voice his opinion about the state of the music industry in Australia.
Full interview on The Vine.
This was one of the most relaxed and fun interviews I’ve done. It’s another occasion where I’m glad I was writing for the web, as I wanted readers to see it all unfold. I had no desire to cut any of it, and I’m glad that my editor didn’t either.