Self described "piano-slayer, singer, writer, blogger, lover, freak" and now newly married (to author Neil Gaiman), Amanda Palmer is in Australia touring her new album Amanda Palmer goes Down Under.

Mandy: How are you enjoying Tasmania?

Amanda Palmer: I'm fucking loving it. We're had a really really wonderful time. We're kind of stealing Tasmania as our honeymoon because we didn't really get one because we got married and I hopped on a plane the next day.

That must have been tough.

yeah... but, you know, not for that, we spent about 10 days apart and Neil flew down here to meet me and it's actually been perfect, I don't think we could've planned it any better because it's kind of the perfect place to have a honeymoon. We didn't really plan when we were going to get married, we sort of decided to do it at the last minute, so the fact that we wound up here is really perfect.

So your gigs at Mona Foma went fairly well I hear?

It was brilliant. It's a really fantastic festival and it's kind of everything I fantasized it would be. Brian Ritchie asked me to play Mona Foma last year and I couldn't fit it into the schedule because by the time he asked me I was already down here and all my travel plans had been set so I just couldn't make it. But it sounded so fantastic that I committed to coming back. I actually scheduled my entire tour and album release around doing Mona Foma because I was so keen to do it. And we got to see Philip Glass last night and he was sublime. I haven't seen him since I was 18 years old and he was my hero. Neil and I both turned to each other after the show was over and said "it was really nice of Phillip Glass to play our honeymoon concert". Then I grabbed some food and ran across town and caught the John Spencer Blues Explosion which was about ... if you had a straight line of musical stylings you probably couldn't get much different than Philip Glass and the John Spencer Blues Explosion, but they were both perfect gigs.

Your new album's just coming out, it's available for download now isn't it?

It's just about to come out and possibly by the time your article runs it'll be up. I think it goes up the 20th or the 21st. As soon as it's up for download it'll be making the rounds, I'll be definitely posting a blog and you won't be able to hide from it. It'll be coming and visiting you in the night.

We're already seeing a few things from it like the Map of Tasmania video which is really great

Yes, the video was really fun. I've never made a video quite like that and probably never will again, but it was really fun to pretend to be a pop artist for a day.

You recorded most of this album in Australia at live gigs and in the studio?

The entire thing is recorded in Australia and New Zealand.

And you would've done some in Adelaide at Mick Wordley's studio?

Yep, the studio tracks, everything that's not live is recorded at Mick's, with one exception. The percussion on the song "In My Mind" was actually recorded in Brooklyn New York by Brian XX?, the drummer from the Dresden Dolls. He added the drums on top of that remotely from New York and they sound just beautiful and I was really really happy that he wanted to be included on the album. It was a healing moment for the Dresden Dolls. laughs

Was this the thing that led to the reunion tour?

Well, you know, Brian and I desperately needed a break from each other and, you know, after going in completely opposite directions for a couple of years and doing the equivalent of ducks flapping out their wings when they get into a duck fight I think we were ready to like swim over to each other and make duck friends again.

It sounded like that tour went very very well for you.

Yeah, it was fabulous. You know, Brian and I have always had the most incredible onstage chemistry and that's never been one of our problems. The Dresden Dolls had pretty much never played a bad gig in the history of the band. In the course of a couple of thousand shows I think we've had one or two bad gigs. The problem has never been that the shows haven't been great. It was just we were driving the other absolutely nuts, you know, being stuck 24/7 day in and day out for years and years of touring so we really needed some space.

It's hard when there's only two of you as well.

Yeah, no, it was an intense relationship and a lot of pressure. So, you know, after enough time apart we're sort of ready to re-examine how we can work together. I think now it's just a question of finding a balance of how we can work without driving each other nuts. And it's like any other relationship, you just have to go in there, tackle it and figure it out.

You have so many Twitter followers and they must feel like they all know you so well from that. Is that ever a problem?

No, actually, it isn't a problem. What's interesting is that people feel like they know me, but the truth is they actually do know me. (laughs) You know, because I'm not projecting a persona. I'm actually just sharing my life. So the only thing that I think can feel a little strange is that people know me so well and I don't know anything about them. It's not like your typical friendship, but then i don't think I really have the space in my brain to intimately know 500,000 people on Twitter. So I do what I can and I like knowing everybody a little bit, but I also in the spirit of sanity keep my intimate friendships down to a very small handful and I make sure I stay really tight with my 3 or 4 friends who actually really do know absolutely everything about me. I think it's really important, especially in the age of everyone being super connected on facebook and twitter and everything that you remember that there are different kinds of friends. And you need REAL friends. And, you know, 5 million followers on Twitter do not even come close to being as valuable as one friend who really understands and loves you.

I guess Neil would be finding the same thing, because he's got a huge amount of people following him too.

Yeah, it's not small reason why Neil & I get along so well that we really understand and respect that part of each other's life. It would be hard to explain to someone who doesn't live it and doesn't do it, but we also both have the same pitfalls. just yesterday we were laying in bed and talking about it, god, it sounds so typical, (laughs) we were laying in bed and talking about some of the really crazy insane, not nice crazy, people who were spamming the comments on my video. There's a handful of really unkind crazy international people who actually make full time occupations of writing really mean and terrible things. That's just part of the territory. When you're dealing with having a huge online presence it's just one of those things you have to emotionally take it on and you have to cope with, read with and make decisions about that stuff just as much as anything else. And that's kind of a weird problem to explain to someone who hasn't had it because in one sense it's totally not personal and obviously these people are crazy, but in the other sense you're still a human being and you take everything personally. Neil and I find ourselves having to dodge around the same land mines. It's really nice to have a partner who understands your weird life problem. You can sit around and discuss with them and feel understood.

I saw that last week someone (on Twitter) said they were going to blog something about you and a lot of people just jumped on them. It must be hard sometimes to not just put something out there and not realise that people are going to react to it in that way.

Well, it's interesting because the Internet has some rules, but, you know, in some sense its like the Wild West. It's like you're just out there making things up minute by minute and trying to figure out how to cope with certain problems. There's no government. The Internet doesn't have any law and order to it and so it can feel kind of dangerous, but also what makes it so incredibly exciting is that you can make up the rules as you go along. That's one of the things that I love about it so much.

How are your Vegemite experiments coming along?

(laughs) At the festival show two days ago at the end of the Vegemite song somebody threw something at me onstage and it really deflated my ego, I've played some really, like, rowdy festivals and had like bottles and quarters and stuff thrown at me and I was like "ooh, the Tasmanians hate me and they think I'm a bitch for knocking their breakfast condiments", but actually, it was a fan throwing a Vegemite sandwich that they'd specially prepared for the gig (laughing). I didn't find this out until two songs later when I wandered downstage and was like "oh, that's what that was, they don't hate me, yay".

Did you eat it?

No I didn't fucking eat it, are you crazy? (laughs)

Do you think people overseas will understand the whole Vegemite thing or is it just Australian that really get it?

You know, I think only Australians like Vegemite. There doesn't even seem to be a Marmite Vegemite crossover. Watching people discussing the Marmite/Vegemite divide it's almost like listening to two religious crazies arguing about who's right. From the outside they just both seem insane.

But Neil's a big fan of Marmite, isn't he?

Neil has a couple of dozen jars of Marmite in his, uh, closet at home. I think it happened by accident. He wanted to order one jar of Marmite from the Internet, but you could only order a box and when he complained about it on his blog he got gifted with another couple of boxes of Marmite from some kind stranger and now he's got a lifetime supply of Marmite. I told him I won't move in with him until he eats it all and gets rid of it and we never have to look at it again.

With the Evelyn Evelyn act, you're bringing that to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival?

Yeah it's going to be the first official Evelyn Evelyn show in Australia.

I'm hoping to go over and see it because I've got the album and it's just fantastic.

Oh, thank you, yeah, I'm really really proud of the record and it didn't get any promotion whatsoever in Australia. I mean my hardcore fans know about it, but the record didn't come out down here. Jason is coming over to do his own tour so it only made sense to try and squeeze in one show. It's very complicated because I'm down here with three records under my belt since last time I was here. I put out the Evelyn Evelyn record and I got the Radiohead record and now I've got the Australian record so it's a little confusing ...

...and so different too, everything is very diverse.

Yeah, when I look back at the last couple of years, Who Killed Amanda Palmer record, then the Evelyn Evelyn record and now this [the Down Under album] make me seem absolutely schizophrenic, but I think musically I think I get really really bored doing the same thing twice. I've been having fun getting my Yah Yah's out and doing whatever comes to mind.

Do you think you'll slow down for a few years or will you keep putting out lots of different things like you've been doing recently?

No, my next big project is to take a break. I think it's time to stop. If I went straight into making another record I probably just wouldn't have the brain power and the energy to keep going. I feel like I've been running around making a big glorious mess that I actually have to clean the kitchen before I can start cooking again. (laughs) Otherwise I'm not going to be able to find anything.

It seems as though a lot of these things have been sitting around waiting for you to just get them out there.

Yeah, I mean I think after taking a break from the Dresden Dolls I had the slowly dawning realisation that I could do whatever the fuck I wanted and I was slap happy on freedom for a couple of years. Just running around like a kid in a candy store, but I think if I do one more spontaneous silly project I might actually fall over from a sugar overdose.

Yes, you've done a lot. Your next gig isn't for almost a week now.

Neil and I are, as we speak, packing for an official Tasmanian honeymoon. We're actually renting a car and driving out of Hobart and we're going to spend two solid days completely offline and away from everybody actually talking to each other for the first time since we got married.

I hear a rumour that we might be able to convince you to stay in Australia more.

Those aren't rumours, that's absolutely true. I love it down here and you won't be able to get rid of me.

The amount of new acts that I've discovered through you bringing them around Melbourne and places like that has been really interesting.

Oh, thank you. Well that's my pleasure and that's what I love doing and actually I think that one of the things that I'd love to do more of is get more of my friends from the States and from Europe to come over here . I think I have a good idea what turns Australians on musically, especially with the lack of major label action going on. There's stuff you guys have never heard of and never seen because it's so expensive to get to Australia and tour if you're a small independent band. I'd love to start luring and dragging people over here .

That would be fantastic.

I could pull a Brian Ritchie in Melbourne

That would be great, he's a very clever man. Have you seen him with his new surf band?

He's incredible. I'm going to see him on Wednesday night, he's opening up for Nick Cave.

I wanted to ask you about Tristan Allen. That seemed to be so spontaneous and work out so well.

It was completely spontaneous and did work out really well. What I absolutely love about the Internet these days is that I can literally meet someone on the street, throw together a record and put it out a month later without a whole lot of beauracracy. It's really astounding how efficient and quickly you can get things done and the best part of the story actually happened last night. You can clearly hear it in his music that one of Tristan Allen's absolute heroes and influences is Philip Glass and last night I got to tell Philip Glass the story and give him Tristan's CD (laughs) and that was like a dream come true for me to be able to say to Tristan that Philip Glass has the CD that we made together. That makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

Thank you for your time today, it's been really nice talking to you.

Thank you. Make sure you let everyone know that people should follow me on Twitter (@amandapalmer) because I'm going to be doing some secret gigs. Pretty much the only way I'm going to announce them is through twitter because I want to keep them small.

[Photo taken at The Forum, Melbourne 26.02.2010 by Mandy Hall]