Paul Dempsey isn't afraid to admit that he never would have had the guts to stand up with an acoustic guitar in front of an audience and perform If I Could Turn Back Time 30 years ago.
Cher's late '80s power-pop anthem is quite the stretch from Something For Kate's moody and cerebral alternative rock.
Three decades ago, Dempsey was writing Something For Kate's angsty debut album, Elsewhere For Eight Minutes (1997) and singing with a morbid intensity on songs like Pinstripe and Captain (Million Miles An Hour).
At times, he sounded like he'd explode with anger.
But on If I Could Turn Back Time the 50-year-old is buoyant, especially as that iconic chorus kicks in.
Dempsey's Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II also features a joyful rendition of Don Henley's Boys Of The Summer.
"It used to take a lot of guts," Dempsey says. "The first time I ever played a solo show, I couldn't even quite believe I was doing it. I was so scared.
"I used to be a lot more nervous and at this point there's not really too many nerves at all. I'm far less self-conscious or worried about whether people think my song choices are stupid or what.
"I'm just having too much fun and am grateful that I've been doing this for over 30 years now and I'm still doing it and it's still going really well."
Something For Kate fans were a notoriously passionate bunch and even a touch pretentious. Fans hung off every lyrical clue dispatched in Dempsey's songs.
Dempsey says those fans have also grown up too.
"I'm at the point that I'm having a good time; the audience is having a good time, so I don't think it's going to ruin it if I decide to play a Phil Collins song," he says.
"I don't think anyone's going to be like, 'That's it, it's over, I'm done with Paul Dempsey'. I guess the further into your career you get, the safer you feel, knowing that you've got a supportive, loyal audience.
"You also at the same time feel really free to maybe be risky."
Dempsey's willingness to take risks means he's created a varied career portfolio.
I'm at this point that I'm having a good time; the audience is having a good time, so I don't think it's going to ruin it if I decide to play a Phil Collins song.
Besides his Shotgun Karaoke covers act, he's released successful solo albums Everything Is True (2009) and Strange Loop (2016) and in 2024 he and Powderfinger frontman Bernard Fanning formed their Fanning Dempsey National Park super-duo and released the album The Deluge.
Then there is always Something For Kate, the revered rock trio that also features his wife Stephanie Ashworth (bass) and high school friend Clint Hyndman (drums).
Dempsey has turned his attention to writing songs for the band's eighth studio album and first since their superb 2020 comeback record The Modern Medieval.
Does he believe the Shotgun Karaoke vibes will influence the next batch of Something For Kate songs?
"I'm not someone who, when I'm writing, thinks about any other music," he says.
"I don't think about other songs or other music that I like and kind of go, 'Maybe I should try to do something like that'. It's just not the way I think.
"I tend to just pick up a guitar or sit down at the piano and just try and like empty my head and just improvise. I try to just do it with absolutely no intentions whatsoever and see if I can surprise myself.
"I know how to play all of the chords and I've been doing this for a really long time. So, all that's really left is for me to shock myself or surprise myself or do something that I didn't consciously pre-empt."
Songwriting workshops are all the rage in modern music, whether they be duos or larger groups. It's not a songwriting method Dempsey would ever contemplate.
"I don't consider them," he says. "I don't have anything against them.
"I've got friends who write for film and TV and they're writing to a brief. So, it's much more of a nuts-and-bolts approach where you know what you're aiming for and what the end product should sound like.
"I'm just the opposite of that. I'm not writing to a brief. The only brief I have is that I want to be surprised and happy with it at the end. So, I try to avoid nuts and bolts.
"But look, having said that, I have been guilty of turning up; I've been asked to speak sometimes at songwriting workshops.
"Most of the time though, I just show up to tell them that they might be wasting their time."
