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Coronavirus: Something for Kate’s ‘ode to the black swan’

Something for Kate frontman Paul Dempsey’s song for our Isolation Room series is an ode to the unexpected.

Singer-songwriter and Something for Kate frontman Paul Dempsey at his home in Melbourne for The Australian’s Isolation Room online video series. Picture: Aaron Francis
Singer-songwriter and Something for Kate frontman Paul Dempsey at his home in Melbourne for The Australian’s Isolation Room online video series. Picture: Aaron Francis

While working on new ideas with his rock band Something for Kate last year, singer-songwriter Paul Dempsey dreamt up a song about a character who tries to plan ahead by analysing all possible scenarios and foreseeing all potential pitfalls, yet still finds themself tripped up by something unexpected.

“You could see it as an ode to the ‘black swan’ — those un­predictable events that really pull the rug out from everybody, and darned if we aren’t all getting a taste of that right now,” he says.

“I guess that’s what art tries to do: reflect back what is around us, and at the same time try to offer a way forward.”

Dempsey has recorded an exclusive­ solo version of the song, Situation Room, for The Australian’s Isolation Room video series.

Filmed in a spare bedroom at his Melbourne home, the video captures Dempsey at his full-throated best as he opens up one of the most distinctive voices in popular Australian music — yet until recently such a sound was rarely heard in that space.

“I’m quite a loud singer. I’m worried the neighbours can hear me, and I’m worried that I’m annoyin­g Steph downstairs,” he says, referring to wife and bandmate, bassist Stephanie Ashworth.

Dempsey has resolved to make the most of the situation by staying creative.

“I didn’t expect to essentially be writing another record so soon because we haven’t even put out the record we just finished. But I think I would really be kicking myself if, whenever this is over, I didn’t have something to show for it.”

Read related topics:Coronavirus
Andrew McMillen
Andrew McMillenMusic Writer

Andrew McMillen is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brisbane. Since January 2018, he has worked as national music writer at The Australian. Previously, his feature writing has been published in The New York Times, Rolling Stone and GQ. He won the feature writing category at the Queensland Clarion Awards in 2017 for a story published in The Weekend Australian Magazine, and won the freelance journalism category at the Queensland Clarion Awards from 2015–2017. In 2014, UQP published his book Talking Smack: Honest Conversations About Drugs, a collection of stories that featured 14 prominent Australian musicians.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/coronavirus-something-for-kates-ode-to-the-black-swan/news-story/dbb53a1ca7b66a83997b404021ebfc77