By Tyler Wright
ARIA award winning singer and Australian entertainment icon Kate Ceberano will be performing in Upwey this July as part of her ‘Sweet Inspiration’ album tour.
Alongside her band, Kate will take to the stage at the Burrinja Cultural Centre on Thursday 21 July to play some of her iconic hits as well as music from her new album, which hit the fifth spot on the ARIA charts on debut in February 2021.
Made up of a piano player who has travelled with the singer for 15 years and young artists from around Sydney and Victoria, the group have already played 50 gigs across the country including Broken Hill and the Simpson Desert.
“I’ve had the most amazing experience,” Kate said.
“A lot of my friends had to go off into different industries [during the pandemic] – so it’s been an amazing thing to come back and be able to get straight back into it.”
‘Sweet Inspiration’ is Kate’s 28th album and has seen her join the likes of AC/DC, Kylie Minogue and Midnight Oil who have achieved Top 10 ARIA albums over five decades.
Pitched to Kate prior to Covid-19 shaking up the music industry, the album was originally going to be made up of covers of songs from the singers’ all time favourite artists including Carole King and Paul McCartney.
But with everyone confined to their homes, Kate realised she would need to pen her own songs to feature on the album.
“It’s [an artist’s] job to tell and give words to these feelings that people have about the times – and so I wrote the track ‘Sweet Inspiration’ while I was in lockdown,” Kate said.
The title track was written alongside fellow musician Rick Price, who was living in Nashville at the time.
“We did it all virtually – we then gathered on the only three days between the second lockdown and recorded [the album] live 10 hours every day,” Kate said.
“When it was released, it went top five. I was stoked, because there wasn’t much else we could do inside our homes.”
With film director husband Lee Rogers, Kate broadcasted out of their studio on Friday nights during Victoria’s lockdown; raising tens of thousands of dollars for Support Act; a charity which provided financial crisis relief to musicians, managers and crew throughout the pandemic.
The impacts of Covid-19 restrictions also hit close to home for Kate’s family,
“My daughter was 16 [when the pandemic started] – she’s now 18 – so she’s living the greatest parts of her teenage years, [where you are] free of responsibility and starting to shape the sound of your own heart,” Kate said.
“All the while she’s learning from separation and distance and not being able to connect with kids her own age – that was messed up.
I wrote a lot about that, and there were a few additional tracks to the album that were penned by myself about what I was experiencing, and it was good to get rid of it.”
Raised in Doncaster, Kate said travelling to the eastern suburbs to perform her upcoming gig on Thursday 21 July will be particularly special.
“I’ve been up and down those thousand steps almost every weekend of my teenage life – in fact I wrote one of my biggest songs ‘Pash’ about Westfield Shopping Centre,” Kate said.
“Gembrook, Lilydale, all over that area – that place just feels really ‘me’.”
With Lozz Benson on the drums, Lucy Clifford on the bass and Kathleen Halloran on the guitar – Kate said the gig at Burrinja Cultural Centre’s theatre will be “amazing”.
“I go and put the word out that I’m coming, and then whoever shows up is a complete joy for me,” she said.
To find more information on Kate’s concert at Burrinja Cultural Centre, visit https://www.burrinja.org.au/burrinja-whats-on/what-s-on-all-events#ceberano
The album ‘Sweet Inspiration’ is available everywhere now.
