I'm listening to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist, which has introduced me to a lot of new favourite songs. The song is Rock My Boat by Dntel​. I like it. Generally, in terms of artists and albums, I've been listening to the new record from Bat For Lashes, The Bride, b'lieve i'm goin down... by Kurt Vile, and I'm almost always listening to Arcade Fire.

Describe your sound.

Has aspirations towards epic orchestral video game soundtracks but is distracted by the whimsical emotionality of '80s pop rock and new wave.

Tell us something about where you grew up and how it influenced your sound?

I spent my first five years in Canberra then moved to Sydney, where I moved around the Hills District until the age of 18. It's a somewhat quiet, upper-middle class suburb in the north-west of Sydney where many families and Christian churches reside. I grew up on a street in Castle Hill with seven other girls (my sister makes eight) about the same age and we were all very active and played out on the street almost every day. The street got basically no traffic except for residential, empty most of the time. I started writing – just generally – when I was 10,  there, and started writing songs when I was maybe 11 turning 12. We moved to another house in nearby Kellyville when I was 15 and it was around that age that I started to take my songs and songwriting more seriously [and] stopped throwing lyrics away. That area is quite peaceful and solitary, doesn't get much traffic, my family still lives there. The solitude made me into a meditative person, but sometimes I yearned for greater excitement. Combine that with a love for alternate universe video games and movies. Those tensions and influences have coloured and shaped my lyric writing and tendency towards orchestral production, I think.

What's your earliest musical memory?

I'm not sure, really. My true memory has been tainted by old home videos of my sister and I, ages 3 and 5 respectively, singing karaoke to Britney Spears' Lucky in our living room, and tape recordings of my parents trying to elicit songs out of our throats at a similar or younger age. I can't remember, but my parents have thankfully documented those things so that I don't have to.

How do you prepare for a gig?

On the night of the show, I warm up thoroughly, I plan my meal times, I work out what the hell I'm going to wear – most painful aspect of tour. I hydrate well, make sure I'm healthy and all that. Before the show, I come up with the set list, we rehearse, chop and change lots, I figure out my "choreography", I liaise with management about any "extras".

What's your greatest memory from on the road?

I don't drink alcohol anymore – I don't like it, and this experience probably also influenced my staunch sobriety. But last year, after the show on the last night of my first headline tour, I got a little too inebriated, was escorted safely back to my hotel by my tour manager because I was tired. I took off all layers but my underwear in my room, sat on my bed with a towel beside me, then at some point must have passed out. I woke up – still drunk – in the corridor outside the hotel room with nothing but my underwear, the towel over my shoulders and fastened between my hands, and I really needed to use the toilet. I didn't have my room key. I roamed around the floor for about two minutes before concluding that there was no available toilet, then took the lift to the foyer. I approached the concierge, who looked alarmed, and I asked for a spare room key. I don't think he believed I was staying there. As he asked for my name, and I gave it, my whole band walked in not expecting, I imagine, to see me there almost naked. It was a pretty awkward lift ride up. To this day, no one knows for certain what happened, but I imagine I probably sleepwalked out the door. I find it hilarious. It's probably the most outrageous thing that I will ever do. But it also might not be, who knows what the future holds, hey?

Who are your musical heroes?

Bjork​, David Byrne, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Owen Pallett, Arcade Fire, Annie Clark, Regina Spektor, Marina Diamandis, Coldplay – pre-Ghost Stories.

Who would you most like to tour with?

Either Arcade Fire, Lorde or Florence and the Machine.

Montaigne plays at the Beyond Festival, Stromlo on Saturday, October 1. Tickets on sale at beyondfestival.com.au. All ages.