And that includes shuttling between her Melbourne home and Berlin to follow her creative muse. “Nice position to be a bit of an observer and also having connection with all these incredible artists,” the singer song-writer says of her time in Berlin. “They love the creative life - it's like Melbourne times 50. There is a culture there of going to see bands that you don't necessarily know - from the very beginning people are quite quiet … I played at a Festival in Hamburg and the room was incredibly quiet. It was a very small room and a very small venue so there were a couple of hundred people jammed in, then from the very back door came three Australian backpackers with huge fluorescent sunglasses and backpacks still on their backs - going 'g'day! ARIA!'… and during the show these people were going 'Vat is dis ARIA?' It just became very awkward - 'Are dese your friends?' And I have never met them before.”

Don't fret - we haven't lost her to Europe quite yet with Australian audiences getting her back for a few months of touring - and Brisbane gets a double dose as Clare is playing the upcoming Kev Carmody Tribute show and the Sounds of Spring Festival in September.

“Sounds of Spring will be one of the first times we introduce our brand new band and new songs to an Australian audience … we are shuffling things around - we are an expanded band, but we are still trying to work out how expanded we are. This is not a Feeding Set album, this is a very different type of an album - the Feeding Set (the backing band for her last three albums) are on a hiatus.”

The difference in this as-yet-unnamed album comes down to more than a change of scenery, or a different backing band, but finds her still focused in on what is important to her.

“My approach is really to confront these things (a woman's right to a home birth, climate change etc) via humour…but it is going to touch on the same values that I have always struggled with, the belief that we get confused about what's important.”

Clare Bowditch plays the Sounds Of Spring September 26 at the RNA Showgrounds; and The Kev Carmody Tribute Show - 'Cannot Buy My Soul' August 1 at the Riverstage.