Tickets are now on sale for your fourth Winter Secrets tour – what can audiences expect this time around?
It wasn’t conscious, but what ended up happening with Winter Secrets was I’m always doubtful of this secret agreement we enter into when we go into a performance space, which is that the performer is somehow special and the audience needs to always be quiet and looking at the performer. I’m used to the stage and I’m comfortable with big rooms of people and I love that, but I also know from years of playing to the same audiences that these people are talented and fun and creative. It’s fun to loosen up and be involved, so the fourth wall gets drawn down on this tour. Of course there are lots of songs that are old classics and I’m performing them as you would remember me performing them, but other ones I draw in the audience. And one of the best parts about it is I get to do that with my mate Adalita this year – I love that woman so much. And also we get to show off someone who’s in the local community; we get to showcase their talents and I’ve just been blown away by people and their courage and skills.

How did you first hatch up that concept to invite a local musician up on stage to perform a song with you in each city?
It started happening because I was touring too much and I’d forgotten my words at a show – I was singing ‘Lips Like Oranges’, I think. So I said, ‘Seriously I’m just stuffing this up non-stop, does anyone want to get up here and sing?’ And this awesome girl in the audience was singing all the words so she put up her hand. She talked me through the song and I thought, ‘Yeah ok, this could happen anywhere.’

Aspiring musicians from all over the country submit their entries; how do you go about selecting the winners?
I just get together with a group of my friends and we see which one slayed us the most, which one killed us, which one we loved, which one we want to hear again. We also see who brought something new to the interpretation and also who’s working really hard on their music career and who could use a break. Then they get to have this night where they’re a star in front of their community and I love that idea, but we really just go on gut and heart.

You’ll be bringing the tour to Brisbane on Friday August 8, is there anything on your to-do list while you’re here?
Well the other reason why we do the Winter Secrets tour is because it gets so grey and dark in winter, so for us it’s just getting some sun on our faces. I always like to go down to Fortitude Valley and see what’s going on down there and if we’re lucky enough to catch a market that’s always great.

You’ve released an incredible number of songs over the years, but do you have a personal favourite track that you’ve written?
One of the personal favourites is a song we’ve chosen for this year’s Winter Secrets competition, which is ‘I Thought You Were God’ from the album What Was Left. My husband and manager Marty suggested it because it’s one that means a lot to people. But I was like, ‘It means a lot to me too – am I ready to give it up?’ And then I realised of course I am, because I want to hear what other people do with that song and their interpretation of it.

Do you prefer performing live or recording in the studio?
At the moment I’m champing at the bit to get working on some of the new songs that I’ve been writing, so I’m excited about that process. But I wanted to make sure that I got out live before I started recording this next album because there’s that element of transformation that happens with an audience and they affect how songs turn out, so I love both. But I don’t tour as much as I used to because it was just killing me to do 200 shows a year – you can’t keep that up every year.

Especially not when you’re also juggling motherhood. How do you balance being a mum with being a touring musician?
I don’t balance it – I think the idea of ‘balancing’ is a furphy, we’ve been fed and sold that. Here’s the truth: family life is brilliant, gorgeous chaos, it just is. And the best that we ever get is a kind of dynamic equilibrium. So one week or one day or one morning, it’s all in its place. Life is not an episode of Offspring – as realistic as that show is, we don’t get the 17 stylists to clean up after us, that’s just the truth of it. All of us are just doing the best we can and as the beautiful Governor-General Quentin Bryce once said to me, ‘You can have it all, but not all at the same time.’ I love that. At the moment we’ve got mothers who give birth and put so much pressure on themselves to lose that weight quickly and at the same time be an amazing mother who can still be bothered having sex and who has no needs of their own and yet is somehow still self-realised and empowered, and it’s just impossible. None of us can live up to that. I think we all have to let each other off the hook a bit. Everyone’s doing their best.

Do you share any special rituals with your kids when you return home from tour?
Well I made a rule very early on that I’m very rarely away from my kids. If I am, it’s just a couple of nights. There have only been a handful of times that I’ve been away from them for more than a week really. So I think we just click back into normal.

You’ve won ARIA Awards and been nominated for Logies, but what achievement are you most proud of?
I think the contribution that I’m most proud of in a public way is Big Hearted Business. Starting a resource for people to tap in to the idea that they can make their living doing what they love – I think that’s the kind of thing that I’d always hoped to do. The fact that we’ve started it – even though we’re just at the beginning stage and there’s so much more that I want to do – we’ve made a start and I’m really proud of that. And I’m really proud of the way that the community is helping each other, it’s incredible.

Yes I’ve heard it described as your ‘lovechild’ …
It is, exactly! My rogue love project that I thought would take about two months of my life and meanwhile 20 months later I’m still in the very deep thick of it!

I love the ‘Inspiration Bombs’ idea, have you had a favourite interview?
Thanks champ! I’ve really enjoyed all of the Inspiration Bombs, they’re all so different. But I’m really honoured when people like Missy Higgins and Claudia Karvan and Brett Oaten and Berry Liberman take the time to have a really great conversation with me – and I think that’s my favourite thing to do in the world, have conversations. And that’s what I love about my live shows too, it’s not just the performing of the songs, it’s the back and forth.

You have such good banter with the audience, you always seem so comfortable on the stage.
I love it and I made this decision early on that there’s actually no point trying to be the kind of performer I’m not … If I can’t be myself on stage, I can’t keep it up.

Were you ever nervous or intimidated when you first started out, or did performing always feel natural?
I can’t even explain the level of terror I had – I went to a psychologist for six months when I first started performing live after I became a mum, because I was terrified of it. I couldn’t look up, I was really scared of the interaction, especially after shows and what people would want from me, I was scared of people’s compliments, I was scared of people’s criticisms – it was terrifying for me. And again, this was one of the reasons why I like having Big Hearted Business in the world because we get to have a conversation with people about courage when it comes to making yourself vulnerable.

You’re also an ambassador for Smiling Mind, how has mindfulness and meditation influenced your life?
I think it’s influenced my life the way it influences most people in the western world’s lives, which is that I always feel like I should be doing more of it! The reason I love Smiling Mind is it’s five minutes a day, and I know through their own research and my own curiosity the kind of benefits that five minutes of disconnect – or connect with yourself – can have, especially on young minds. It’s just a really handy thing to have in your life.

What’s your idea of complete happiness?
I think I have moments of complete happiness every single day, mixed with moments of utter despair. That’s life. I don’t think I’m unique in that way. So for me, complete happiness is really about that boring thing that we all hear about – being in the moment and remembering always this notion of ‘choice’. We choose what we give fuel to. And through the process of making the album The Winter I Chose Happiness, that was my challenge. I challenged myself to do everything that anyone had ever told me would make me happy – so you know, drop coffee, drop sugar, etc. We did it as a family. But I think I’m living in complete happiness any time I choose to; my happiness comes down to choosing to focus on the stuff that’s awesome.

What were you like as a child?
I was intense! I was always cracking jokes, really talkative, playful, boisterous, sensitive, bigger than all the other kids – I was kind of like I am now, but just in miniature! I was deeply curious, like embarrassingly curious …

About everything?
About everything! Like why that person’s nose was so big – my parents had quite a bit of work to do to try to teach me how to manage that curiosity without squashing it, because it has a really important place for a creative person. My childhood was like lots of people’s childhoods – I was lucky to have loving parents, lots of shit went down, that’s life.

What’s your personal definition of success?
I think about this a lot actually and it kind of shifts, but it’s always kind of the same. I think it’s about continuing to act with courage and to think in a long-term way, to have a gardener’s mentality. If we’re always thinking about what we’ve achieved in a single day or so, I’m never satisfied, it’s never enough. But when I have courage, I feel successful.

FAVOURITE WEEKEND SPOT TO:
Perk up … one of the places that I love the most is a little coffee shop in Paris called Merci – they had this incredible crumble and really good coffee. I’m actually going through a stage right now where I don’t drink coffee so my mouth is watering just thinking about it …
Relax … in a hammock under a big oak tree as the sun is going down. That actual scenario has probably only happened four times in my life, but I love it.
Dine … it doesn’t matter so much about the location, but it’s always just about the people, so with my family and my besties and their kids.
Indulge … Kleins Perfumery in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
Catch-up … often in a tour van, on the road.
Be inspired … I’ve got to be honest and say it’s the Big Hearted Business (un-)Conference. Of all the places in the world where I’ve ever been inspired, that room was the one that did it to me the most.