For the last five years, the Australian singer has been busy with films, Bluey and even changing her name – as well as grappling with the climate crisis, parenthood and capitalism for her new album, Gem
Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email
Once, in a major label meeting, Meg Washington was given a directive: show us your face.
“They tell you when they sign you that you have to put your face on your album cover and your eyes need to be open, because that statistically sells the most records,” she says matter-of-factly. “You know how posts with sunsets get more likes, or whatever? It’s just some Gladwellian reality that if humans can see the eyeballs, they subconsciously connect more.”
She only half obeyed. On her platinum-selling, Aria-winning debut I Believe You Liar, Washington hid like a ghost behind a sheet – with holes cut out for eyes, to technically meet that requirement. For 2014’s There There, a sketch artist drew thin, pencil renderings of her face; on 2020’s Batflowers, her face was mostly covered by a cartoonish drawing of a flower.
