Washington's playlist

Mon 8th Nov, 2010 in Features

Megan Washington may be an ARIA Awards winner now, but as an eight year old girl she was proudly pulling on pink chiffon and flailing around her bedroom to Mariah Carey’s Music Box.

In the lead up to the ARIA’s and to celebrate the release of her debut LP I Believe You Liar, FL sat down with the effervescent Ms Washington and quizzed her on the albums she broke up to, grew up to and inspired her to cover Do The Bartman.

FIRST ALBUM YOU BOUGHT
Mariah Carey’s Music Box and The Australian Cast of The Hot Shoe Shuffle.

Both these albums were on rotation in my life from six til nine. I did a lot of ballet and I use to get all dressed up in my pink chiffon number and flail around my room to Hero and my sister use to sit on the bunk bed and give me pointers, she was like my ballet coach.

FIRST ALBUM HANDED DOWN TO YOU
My sister Sarah was really into Paul Simon’s Graceland album and I listened to that a lot. I also swiped her New Kids On The Block cassette, and The Simpson’s Sing The Blues on cassette and it had Do The Bartman on it. I should cover that song.

FIRST BREAK-UP ALBUM
My first break up I was so lucky, someone gave me Damien Rice’s O and then I got dumped and I was like cracking Damien Rice singing Cheers Darling and just hating on the world. And the other break up album I had was Awake Is The New Sleep by Ben Lee which is a break up album. There must be this insane radar that when you break up your radar kind of finds break up album for you. Like no is going to break up to Thirsty Merc, you know. No one is going to break up to that new Lady Gaga, although maybe when you have to part ways with your disco ball and it is really really traumatic for you you can play that record and stomp on the mirror ball and shit and your tears are just made of glitter.

GUILTY PLEASURE ALBUM
Life In Certain Motion by Mika. “I could be brown and I could be blue…” ( sings) There is just something about that record, but I just can’t help that I like it. It’s terrible but he is a great songwriter and I just can’t talk about it! And there are a few Scissor Sister songs – although I don’t think they are uncool are they?

I went to this great party in Brisbane a few years ago and my friends had arranged this dance that they were going to do, They had choreographed this routine – this is Scott Reegan from The Gin Club – they had arranged this entire routine to Feel Like Dancing and it came on the juke box and then they all started bopping synchronised around the room and then they came together in this club and did this amazing Saturday Night Fever disco dance, all these hairy bearded men.

FAVOURITE AUSSIE ALBUM
Woodface by Crowded House or Foggy Highway by Paul Kelly, Angels and Rascals by Andrea Keller Quartet. Oh, look that’s not fair. I can’t choose.

MOST OBSCURE ALBUM IN THE COLLECTION
Someone gave me an Andre Rieu album as a joke – which I put on once and was like for the love of Christ. What do I have in here…the essential Willie Nelson. Maybe the Fred Hersch ensemble but that’s not that obscure.

ALBUM YOU WISH YOU MADE
Any of the above. Maybe, Release The Stars, anything by Rufus – what about Rufus Wainwright’s Best Of, which doesn’t exist yet.

ALBUM YOU ONCE LOVED
Slim Shady LP by Eminem or I was really into Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissete and what was that Presidents Of The United States album? That album I played to death. I was angry and misanthropic and REALLY pissed off about my English essay oooohh. I would go down the skate park, smoking durries, listening to Eminem feeling totally badass and then going home and going to ballet class.

LAST ALBUM YOU BOUGHT
Tame Imapa’s Inner speaker – I like it! I just got this new stereo and have been buying heaps of stuff and playing it. Things sound better on CD than MP3. I also just re-bought Autumn Bone by Clare Bowditch. And I have her new album it is really good, I just remembered that when I first got into Clare Bowditch it was in the Autumn Bone era and I ran into her and I thought I should listen to the old one before I listen to the new one, and the old one is just so great. It has this incredible song on it called Buddy and it just makes me die inside when I hear it, it is amazing.

WASHINGTON – I BELIEVE YOU LIAR
I am happy with it, it is everything I wanted it to be I think that is why it took me three years to finish the fucking thing. You know – it has to be right! But I am actually going back into the studio tomorrow to start recording some new stuff. Making a record for me stopped being an activity and actually became a lifestyle because I did it for so long, it was all that I did for three years expect for tour. So when I’m not doing that I don’t know what to do with my time and with my writing, I don’t know how to have a song and have the demo for six months and just sit on it I don’t know how to do that, it is kind of engrained in me now. I have kind of made my own rod for my own back now.

THE ONE SONG THAT DEFINES I BELIEVE YOU LIAR?
The obvious answer would be the title track I Believe cause that was kind of the summary to the record, my fave is probably Spanish Temper, I seem to like the songs that come together really quickly and that I don’t labour over. I wrote both those songs extremely quickly so there want any time to panic or over think so I think those songs for me are the cleanest or the most truthful, you know.