Clare Bowditch has undergone a transmutation since moving from an independent basis to being on a major label; now she’s invited to all the cool parties, like the launch of the Sleepy Jackson’s latest opus, Personality. Put it this way: for the release of her third album, she now knows to ask for muffins at the launch party.

Although, given the amount of touring Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set have done as late, you couldn’t expect that there’s been much time to write. “We’ve still got another song, “When I Thought You Were God”, which we’ll be releasing with a film clip from this album,” she says of the final cut to be lifted from What Was Left, her major label debut. “I’m getting 21 days in a row in a studio to sit and arrange, and do demos. It’s the first time in ages I’ll have time.”

Clare explains that she has about sixty composites of little songs on MiniDisc, on tape, on her iRiver, and these 21 days will be the time she gets to sit and put them together and work out if there’s anything worth keeping in there. Determining whether or not they are comes purely down to ‘a feeling. “It’s just absolutely a feeling that I get, when I know when it is and when it’s not,” she confirms, “and then there’s an in-between feeling and that’s just a matter of sitting with it for another little while before I put it in either bin.”

She explains that sometimes when she is feeling overwhelmed by the task, she can always get a second opinion from Art of Fighting member Marty Brown, who produced the last album and is also her partner and father to her daughter. He’s spent last 3 months making the third Art of Fighting album, indicating that it should be out by the end of the year. “It’s very exciting,” Clare confirms. “I just got to tour with them in Europe and heard many of the new compositions.” As a fan before she became Marty’s better half, Clare indicates that it’s going to be worth the wait.

She thinks it’s hugely beneficial to have her partner as her producer, as he calls her on her bullshit each and every time, but in a loving and honest manner. “I just don’t get away with anything, really,” she moans. “He just keeps it honest, and there’s no fear about stepping over the line with each other because there is no line; what’s felt is said. We don’t often argue, and the only time we do is in the studio, and there the argument is worth having. He probably won’t always produce my albums and he’s producing a whole lot of other albums for a whole lot of other people these days. I find it fantastic, but it has its challenges – who wants to be kept honest all the time?”

Clare says that the differences btw playing in intimate environs vs. festivals can be remarkable, “Quite often you judge it on the day and you see what the feeling is, and you go with your gut about whether to play a certain song or not,” she says. “We do things at our intimate shows that you wouldn’t do at a festival, and we do things at festivals that we wouldn’t do at an intimate show. It is different. We just play it by ear.”

She says that shows like Splendour in the Grass are really exciting. “We absolutely love them and one of the biggest thrills we’ve had this year is to be asked to do it. But I like shows where you can see everybody’s faces, so I’m a fan of both.”

Really, the last year or so has been a bit like that for Clare – she’s gone from playing quite small venues to bigger and bigger rooms with each and every tour. “I think the people who we used to play to are still there,” she says of the early days as to now, “and they’re usually positioned at the front which makes it still feel familiar. It’s just as hard to play in front of a large crowd as it is a small crowd.”

The perception of Clare as a singer-songwriter has changed somewhat since her independent days, but really that hasn’t had anything to do with her changing her musical style – she hasn’t changed as an artist, but the crowds she plays to certainly have. “Some people get a bit more hysterical when there are more people there, but I find that more when I’m a support act for someone like Bernard Fanning,” she outlines. “That’s when people who are keen on getting hysterical will tend to get hysterical, but generally although our audiences are bigger they’re still great.”

Playing with people like Bernie is good though, and Clare says that he was good to her. “He got me in with him every night to sing on a duet and we got pretty close with him and his band,” she says of her experience touring with the Powderfinger frontman. “To be honest I didn’t know much Powderfinger music beforehand, so I was pretty amazed as to how big he is too.

“He wrote a song called “Oh What a Fool You’ve Been” which is basically about him being a dickhead and me being the person who tells him he’s a dickhead,” she outlines. At this point, there’s no intended plans to record it as a duet with him, but every time they’re in the same town at the same time they’ll do a version of it.

Clare Bowditch plays Splendour in the Grass on Sunday in the Grant McLennan Theatre, from 4.15-5.15pm.