From making gravy to making love, Paul Kelly on his ‘toey’ record

Paul Kelly has an announcement to make - he is in love. He is in love with his friends and family, with romantic partners, strangers on the street, and with his community and country. He’s even in love with sleep. “Sleep deserves a love song; sleep is important,” laughs Kelly. “So I wrote the song Eight Hours Sleep.”

That track is from Fever Longing Still, Kelly’s 29th studio album, and his first of original songs since 2018.

Ostensibly, it is a collection of love songs, but for those expecting 12 tracks about heartbreak in the style of To Her Door, think again. “I’ve always thought the Greeks got it right; they have about five different words for different kinds of love,” says Kelly.

“When we started to build this record, I wanted to explore all the love in my life; love gone wrong, catastrophic love, joyous love, unrequited love and the love between a father and a child.”

For all the love on Fever Longing Still, the record kicks off with a shout-out to lust. Album opener Houndstooth Dress sees Kelly thirsting after a lover: “Slip it on, I’ll zip it up before we go … That dress sticks to you like a judge sticks to the law.”

A mural of Kelly on the side of the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda. Credit: Darrian Taylor

An early Guardian review called the track “positively horny,” the exact kind of description Kelly might get a kick out of? “I guess you can call it a toey record; there is a lot of urgency in that song,” he laughs. “Didn’t mean to make it that way, but that’s just how it arrived, straight-up desire, no time for subtext.”

Alongside Houndstooth Dress, the previously released Northern Rivers and achingly tender Going to The River With Dad seem likely to end up as Kelly’s latest additions to the Great Australian songbook, joining To Her Door, From St Kilda to Kings Cross, Leaps and Bounds and Dumb Things. Many artists’ relationship with ‘the hits’ can be complicated, but Kelly is refreshingly realistic.

“There are a couple of ways I look at it. Firstly, when I go to work, I have a toolkit, and it’s always good to know you have tools that will never let you down,” he says.

“But the other thing is that my friend and guitarist Steve Connolly was a big part of songs like To Her Door, Before Too Long and Leaps and Bounds; he’s no longer with us, so it’s like I’m carrying him around. I might sound as if I’m being melancholy about dead friends, but there’s a joyous feeling for me in keeping him alive.”

Kelly will soon share that joy with his biggest-ever audiences when he embarks on an arena tour across Australia and New Zealand in 2025. Earlier this year, he was one of 96,000 people who attended Taylor Swift’s Eras tour at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, quickly becoming a Swift convert and recording a cover of her song, Anti-Hero.

“I knew her songwriting was very strong, but the concert was a wonderful experience, dads with their daughters, friends singing along, the exchanging bracelets thing, magic,” says Kelly.

So, did he pick up any tips on making a vast space feel intimate? “She was playing stadiums; that’s a big step up, but I’ve done arena shows supporting Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen before. I am confident my band can own the stage.”

Before he heads back out on the road, there are two crucial dates Kelly must tick off the calendar. In a few weeks, we’ll arrive at December 21, widely known as Gravy Day, in honour of his most iconic track, How To Make Gravy.

The song tells the story of a prisoner longing to be with his family at Christmas. It is currently being made into a feature film starring Daniel Henshall, Brenton Thwaites, and Damon Herriman, which will undoubtedly add to the song’s mythology. Not that its writer seems to mind. “I always enjoy that day, people text me, and I see lots of homemade gravy,” says Kelly.

“How To Make Gravy has got its own life without me now, which is how it should be.”

And then, on January 13, Kelly will turn 70, a milestone he intends to treat with the respect it deserves. “It’s a pretty significant one. We’ll have a big family party; talk about the good old days,” he says.

Getting older is a topic Kelly also tackles in song, his thoughts on the matter coming alive in the music. “Ooh, get on the floor and dance!” he sings on All Those Smiling Faces. “You don’t have forever.”

Fever Longing Still by Paul Kelly is out now through EMI. Tickets to the 2025 tour are available here.

Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at [e-mail] or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.

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