Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II Paul Dempsey

• 1 If I Could Turn Back Time 04:09
• 2 Twist In My Sobriety 04:57
• 3 Boys Of Summer 04:58
• 4 Dog Eared 03:14
• 5 Because The Night 03:20
• 6 Light Pollution 03:16
• 7 Losing My Religion 04:37
• 8 If I Can’t Change Your Mind 03:07
• 9 Way Of The World 03:38
• 10 The First Part 04:20
• Total Runtime 39:36

Info for Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II

After more than a decade of fan requests, Paul Dempsey is finally delivering the sequel that listeners have been waiting for. Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II sees Paul return to the stripped-back, spontaneous approach that made the original 2013 album such a compelling listen – raw, intimate, and refreshingly imperfect in all the right ways.

The concept remains as simple as ever, beloved songs performed live with nothing but Paul and his and acoustic guitar, in the spirit of actual karaoke. He’ll be playing a broad selection of covers beyond the tracks on both Vol I and Vol II. He’ll draw on scores of covers done over the years, diving deep into the rabbit hole a YouTube search for ‘Paul Dempsey covers’ takes you to.

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.

“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’snostalgic “Boys Of Summer,” and R.E.M.’s anthemic “Losing My Religion.”

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.

Paul Dempsey, vocals, guitar

Paul Dempsey
is known to most as the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of highly successful Australian band, Something for Kate. Dempsey has so far released 6 Top 10 platinum and gold records with Something for Kate along with a double album of B-sides and a Greatest Hits collection, selling close to a million records in Australia. During this time Dempsey has also consistantly played solo shows and toured in solo mode when not busy with Something for Kate as well as producing records for other artists.

Whilst having a break from Something for Kate, in August 2009 Paul stepped out on his own and released his first solo album through EMI Australia. Titled Everything is True, it was co-produced by Paul and Wayne Connolly (You Am I, Youth Group) and mixed in Los Angeles at Sonora Recorders by Doug Boehm (Elliot Smith).

The first single released from the album was Out the Airlock, a beautiful, sparse folk- tinged track accompanied by some disarmingly dark lyrics while the second single, Ramona Was A Waitress, again displayed Paul’s lyrical originality as he sings about a futuristic robot waitress arguing about mortality. Further singles from the album were Fast Friends and Bats.

The critical response to the album was overwhelming, garnering 4 1/2 star reviews from publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The Age to The Australian. The album achieved Gold sales in Australia and continues to head towards platinum.

Everything is True debuted at No.5 on the Australian Record Industry charts and No.1 on the iTunes chart. The album has so far spent 15 weeks in the ARIA chart. Paul was nominated for 5 ARIA AWARDS (Australian Record Industry Awards) including for BEST MALE ARTIST, BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM & PRODUCER OF THE YEAR. The album won the ARIA for Best Engineer in 2010 for Wayne Connollys work in co-producing. Paul was also nominated for a Triple J Award for Best Australian album and was awarded The Age EG Music Award for Best Male.

Everything is True achieved gold status in 2009 & was named the Australian album of the Year by iTunes Australia while Triple J listeners voted the album in their Top 10 albums for 2009. Rolling Stone announced Everything is True as one of their Best Albums of 2009.

After completing numerous sold out Australian national tours and a wide selection of festivals since the release of the album Paul then toured in the US, Germany & the UK. Having moved to New York in 2010 where he toured the album for 2 years. Paul returned to Australia in 2012 to release & tour the 6th album for Something for Kate, Leave Your Soul to Science.

After touring widely with Something for Kate in 2012 & 2013 and also releasing his first solo acoustic covers album, Shotgun Karaoke, Paul and Something for Kate celebrated Something for Kate’s 20 Year anniversary in 2014 with a comprehensive sold out national theatre tour whilst also releasing the book, Paper Trail: 20 Years of Something for Kate and a short film. Paul also produced records for Australian artists, Mosman Alder & Mike Noga whilst also doing various solo touring.

In 2015, Paul set about writing solo album number 2. Upon completion of writing Paul travelled to Chicago in September 2015 to record the new album at Wilco’s Loft Studio’s with producer/engineer, Tom Schick. (Ryan Adams, Wilco, Rufus Wainwright, Sonic Youth)

In February 2016, the first single, titled Morningless, was released from the album.

The album, Strange Loop and was released on Friday May 13 2016 through EMI Australia. The album’s opening track, The True Sea was given away as an instant grat track. The first single to be released on Feb 4th 2016 was Morningless.

After a sold out Australian cities tour, Strange Loop was released on May 13th. It received glowing reviews and debuted at No. 5 on the ARIA chart. The album heads towards gold sales.

Second single, Idiot Oracle was released from the album on May 30th.

Paul and his full band featuring Olympia, Adrian Stoyles, Patrick Bourke & Shan Van Der Wertt embarked on a national tour which sold out very quickly.

Paul then did sold out shows in London, played festivals in India and embarked on a solo acoustic regional tour in early 2017.

Strange Loop was released in Germany, Switzerland & Austria in March of 2017 by Grey wood Records whereupon Paul did an extensive tour of those regions as well as more shows in the UK.

Paul spent late 2017 & early 2018 touring the album internationally as well as touring Europe with David Bowie’s band in a ‘Celebrating Bowie’.

In mid 2018 Paul turned his focus primarily on writing for the upcoming Something for Kate album which is due for release in 2020.

This album contains no booklet.