A great cover can change the world, and sometimes a great cover just changes your world.
No stranger to changing lives and brain chemistry forever with beloved Australian alt-rock band Something For Kate, Paul Dempsey finds himself unable to sit still for too long.
As Something For Kate enter the writing phase for their next album, Dempsey's fingers yearn to strum another tune to another crowd.
Enter 'Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II', with covers like you've never heard them before. "The idea began about 12 years ago," Dempsey shares from his Melbourne city home.
"Something For Kate had been on tour for months and we were doing this silly thing where, every evening after soundcheck, the band would challenge me to learn a cover on the spot.
"They would film me on an iPhone in the venue toilet or whatever, and put it up on YouTube. By the end of that tour, there were around 25 cover songs on our channel and we called it 'Shotgun Karaoke'.
"Everyone was like, 'these are pretty good, you should go in the studio and bash them out'. So I did, just voice and acoustic guitar recorded live. Then I put the record out and did a tour, and it was a lot of fun.
"Right now, we're working on a new Something For Kate record, writing and all that stuff, but I like to be actually out there playing. I don't wanna sit at home for a year writing, so the Shotgun Karaoke tour's a no brainer.
"It's really easy to play shows like this, and I love playing these songs, some of my favourites. I think the audience enjoys this switch as well, it's a nice circuit breaker. It also gives me this mental space to write, but also go out and play and have fun without having to think too much."
With the 'Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II' album featuring hits like 'If I Could Turn Back Time', 'Boys Of Summer' and 'Losing My Religion', it's clear Dempsey has a penchant for challenging vocal ranges and pub-house belters.
He muses on what makes a good cover. "It's subjective, but for me, I have to genuinely be in love with the song. It has to have already hit me on some deep level where I feel a deep connection that enables me to channel it on a level that does it justice.
"The important thing is that you're not trying to better it or just copy it. It has to sound like you, but you have to translate some essence that was in the original."
Despite the impressive list of covers on his roster, it still takes an army to give Dempsey the courage to approve his own renditions, and many sold-out crowds are delighted they did.
"Every cover I've ever done, I have started off feeling unsure about whether it would work. Usually, Steph or Clinton [from Something For Kate] or someone convinces me that it was good. I probably talk myself out of more covers than the ones I end up doing."
Moving between musical formats from band to solo to covers, Dempsey enjoys the varying audience responses to the works, something that also helps keep performing fresh. "I've always played solo acoustic shows for as long as Something For Kate has been touring.
"I love playing with my band, but I also really enjoy being alone onstage with just the acoustic guitar and being able to really hear everything, to really hear my voice and the guitar without amplifiers and drums; and you can also hear the audience. It's a much more intimate experience.
"When I play my own solo acoustic material or Something For Kate material, the audience tends to be dead silent. They just want to hear what I'm doing.
"I noticed when I played covers that it was the complete opposite, everyone wants to sing-along, it's really fun. That's probably the most obvious difference. I'm lucky that I get to do so many different musical things. It keeps everything interesting."
The Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II tour kicked off last weekend in Frankston, and continues throughout the winter with nearly 20 concerts booked across Australia (even a two-date adventure to Tasmania) bring joyous sing-alongs to many regional centres.
As someone recently enjoying a lot of others' lyrics, Dempsey remarks on the place of ambiguity and interpretation in music. "Part of the beauty of music is that no two people will interpret a lyric the same way.
"I don't aim for ambiguity, but I do enjoy word play. I enjoy, in lyric writing or poetry or literature, someone can take a whole lot of conventional words and ram them together in such a way that they sound completely unconventional, but beautiful in a whole new way.
"Writing lyrics can conjure something magical and beautiful that doesn't make any sense except that it is magical and beautiful.
"When you see it on a page or hear it in a song and it affects you in some way while another person might give a completely different response. That's what's wonderful about it. I think the most important thing about art is that it's not specific. If art was quantifiable or measurable, then it would be boring.
"I love playing to a room full of people and, when it's all going well and it's a good show, you can tell that no one is thinking about their day or their week or their job or their boss. Everyone's just together. It's non-specific and immeasurable, but everyone's together."
To the question of avoiding specific topics in lyric writing, Paul considers for a moment, confirming a place for stream of consciousness and the place of conscious choice in his craft.
"I can't think of anything that I consciously don't or wouldn't write about. Bits and pieces come straight away, certainly not anything finished. A few words might just come out of nowhere and I'll write them down, but to get to the point of the finished song is a slog."
As one continuously surrounded by music, it's surprising Dempsey is most influenced by some surprisingly non-musical devices. "Literature," he states emphatically.
"I read constantly and voraciously. When it comes to writing lyrics, I'm more influenced by stuff I read than the particular things I listen to.
"The other constant thing that has always influenced me is the history of science. I think art history and science history are more connected than you might think.
"Art is usually the first thing to respond to any great scientific discovery, and great art movements have really come off the back of a revolution in scientific thought."
Paul Dempsey 2026 Tour Dates
Fri 8 May - Theatre Royal (Castlemaine)
Fri 15 May - Forth Pub (Forth)
Sat 16 May - Altar Bar (Hobart)
Fri 12 Jun - Barwon Heads Hotel (Geelong)
Sat 13 Jun - Whalers Hotel (Warrnambool)
Fri 19 Jun - Kings Beach Tavern (Sunshine Coast)
Sat 20 Jun - HOTA (Gold Coast)
Fri 26 Jun - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Sat 27 Jun - The River (Margaret River)
Fri 3 Jul - Meeniyan Town Hall (Gippsland)* sold out
Sat 4 Jul - Meeniyan Town Hall (Gippsland)* sold out
Sat 11 Jul - Bar On The Hill (Newcastle)
Sun 12 Jul - Finnian's Tavern (Port Macquarie)
Fri 17 Jul - The Playhouse (Canberra)
Sat 18 Jul - Anita's Theatre (Wollongong)
Thu 23 Jul - Tanks Arts Centre (Cairns)
Fri 24 Jul - The Warehouse (Townsville)
Fri 31 Jul - Woodport Hotel (Central Coast)
Sat 1 Aug - Hoey Moey (Coffs Harbour)
