QPAC

After more than a decade of fan requests (and probably some gentle pestering), Paul Dempsey is finally delivering the sequel that listeners have been waiting for.

Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II sees the Something For Kate frontman return to the stripped-back, spontaneous approach that made the original 2013 LP such a compelling listen – raw, intimate, and refreshingly imperfect in all the right ways.

The accompanying tour promises to be equally unpretentious, with Dempsey describing the experience as "just a party, just like karaoke should be…”

He'll stop by Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Concert Hall on Friday 14 November.

The concept remains beautifully simple and brilliantly ridiculous: beloved songs reduced to their essential elements, performed live with nothing but Dempsey's voice and acoustic guitar. No overdubs, no fixes, no polish – just the kind of honest, in-the-moment performance that captures the spirit of actual karaoke, minus the liquid courage and plus considerable talent (and presumably minus the crushing embarrassment).

"I don't really care if they work with my style," Dempsey explains of his song selection process with refreshing honesty. "I choose them because I genuinely love the song and think it would be fun to sing." That philosophy has yielded an eclectic track list spanning decades and genres, from Cher's bombastic 'If I Could Turn Back Time' to Tanita Tikaram's contemplative 'Twist In My Sobriety', Don Henley's nostalgic 'Boys Of Summer', and R.E.M.'s anthemic 'Losing My Religion'. It's the kind of playlist that would make your Spotify algorithm have an existential crisis.

The challenge Dempsey sets himself is considerable, and frankly, delightfully masochistic: perform every song in its original key, forcing his voice into territories well outside his comfort zone. It's an approach that strips away the safety net of familiarity, creating moments of genuine vulnerability that conventional cover albums rarely achieve – mostly because conventional artists aren't foolish enough to attempt it.

"Transposing keys bothers me," he notes with the conviction of a man who has clearly thought about this way too much. "By forcing myself to sing it in the original key, I am forcing myself to do things with my voice that may be well out of my comfort zone. It also contributes to the 'challenge' nature of this whole concept."

The timing feels right for Volume II, assuming there's ever a "right" time to voluntarily subject yourself to singing like Cher. Like the original, it arrives during a transitional period – this time between the Fanning Dempsey National Park project and work on a new Something For Kate album. "It's become like a ridiculous palette cleanser between projects," Dempsey laughs, apparently finding nothing odd about using other people's songs as creative Listerine.

Taking the cover concept one step further, Dempsey has continued the theme set with Volume I whereby the album cover is also a ‘cover’ inspired by a favourite cover. Where the cover artwork for Volume I took its inspiration from the book jacket of Hunter S. Thompson’s ’Songs of the Doomed', the artwork for Volume II takes its inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic, ’The Shining’. In both cases, one thing is strikingly clear - it’s Paul vs. the music.

Recorded at home in spare moments rather than in a traditional studio setting – because nothing says "professional recording project" quite like squeezing in a quick Don Henley cover between loading the dishwasher and binge-watching Netflix – the album maintains the intimate, almost accidental quality that made the first volume so endearing. The imperfections aren't bugs – they're features, essential to the project's DNA and probably half the charm.

"There are mistakes and imperfections, and they belong there just like they belong at a karaoke night," Dempsey says, clearly a man who has made peace with public vulnerability. "How boring would perfect karaoke be?" (Answer: extremely boring and completely missing the point.)

On tour Dempsey will take things even further than he has with Volumes I and II, playing a broad selection of covers beyond what’s included on either album. He’ll draw on scores of covers done over the decades, diving deep into the rabbit hole a YouTube search for ‘Paul Dempsey covers’ takes you to!

For an artist who has spent decades crafting sophisticated songwriting with Something For Kate and his solo work, Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II represents something refreshingly different – a chance to inhabit other people's songs, to learn from them, and perhaps most importantly, to simply have fun with without worrying about artistic legacy, critical analysis, or whether anyone will judge him for earnestly belting out 80s power ballads.

"I might learn something," Dempsey muses with characteristic self-awareness. "Maybe I'm just avoiding my own writing."

At least he's honest about it.

Tickets are on sale on Friday 8 August from 12pm via qpac.com.au or 136 264.

The album, Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II, is out on Friday 24 October. Pre-order now here.