For Kate Ceberano, Sweet Inspiration arose from sour times

‘At the start of COVID, I went a little bit bonkers,’ said Kate Ceberano. ‘But then I thought, if I can get off my arse, I can learn some tricks that I never expected to learn at this age.’

Singer-songwriter Kate Ceberano at home in Sydney. Her new album, Sweet Inspiration, was recorded between lockdowns and is released on Friday. Picture: Nikki Short

After decades of devoting herself to artistic expression, both on record and in concert, Kate Ceberano keenly felt the absence of those two outlets during Melbourne’s lockdowns last year.

“Culture and art reflects the community; it reflects the life we live and the times we’re in,” the singer-songwriter said. “And if you’re not allowed to document that, or tell the story — or have at least an audience to receive your experience — it seems that the artist doesn’t exist anymore, and they just vanish within themselves. That’s how I felt, like I was going into soft focus.”

What brought Ceberano back into sharp focus, as it were, was a decision to reframe the unexpected downtime as an opportunity.

“At the start of COVID, I went a little bit bonkers. But then I thought, if I can get off my arse, I can learn some tricks that I never expected to learn at this time of my career or at this age,” she said.

Those tricks included live broadcasting on multiple platforms, often while accompanied by a young guitarist named Kathleen Halloran, who had recently moved into a small house on Ceberano’s block.

The pair streamed home concerts and offered an intimate duo performance of her 2003 song Beautiful Life for The Australian’s Isolation Room video series.

As well, she began streaming online dance classes from her backyard, run by a friend who had just lost two years of work as a dancer on a cruise ship.

“I realised that I’ve got a lot of resourcefulness about myself, and that’s what brought me into sharp aperture,” said Ceberano, who recently relocated to Sydney.

During a brief window between Melbourne lockdowns last winter, the singer and her fellow musicians met at Sing Sing Studios, formed a circle and laid down 12 tracks that would become her 28th album, ­released on Friday.

Across three taxing days, they captured two originals — title track Sweet Inspiration and Hold On — as well as 10 covers of some of her favourite songs.

Her cover of Leonard Cohen’s 1984 track If It Be Your Will opens the album, but was the very last song she sang in those sessions before just about collapsing with exhaustion.

“That song seemed to contain the answers to any artist in this time, which is that when you are in the service of the arts, it’s out of your hands when you will or won’t sing,” she said.

“It’s more that you must sing. You must.”