There are many words to describe Paul Kelly, but one that seems particularly fitting is ‘prolific’.
The singer-songwriter is an Australian music legend, having first performed in little old Hobart back in 1974. Since then he’s had a staggeringly successful career, with over forty years of industry experience under his belt, and more than 20 studio albums to his name. His latest, titled Life Is Fine, was released just last year, with another on the way already.
Nature is a celebration of the natural world, and Kelly’s love of poetry. The twelve-track record is a compilation of poems close to Kelly’s heart, by poets he’s ong admired, such as Gerard Manly Hopkins, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, and others.
“I first read Gerard Manly Hopkins at school, and I love his density and the use of his imagery, and his adventurousness in language,” says Kelly of the late English poet. “He sort of made up compound words and loved alliteration. It all seemed interesting to me as a teenager to see that words could be pushed and pulled around in that way.”
Often described as a lyrical poet himself, putting poetry to music is nothing new for the singer. Six years ago, he was involved in a project with the Australian National Academy of Music, where he first combined the two mediums.
“I worked with a classical composer and we put poems to music,” Kelly explains. “Before that I’d never thought it was possible to, for me anyway, to put poems to music. I thought having the words first would be too restrictive for the music, but I was just completely wrong. After I’d done that, I just got into the habit of every now and then; if I liked the poem, I’d put a tune to it.”
This newfound way of songwriting resulted in his album of Shakespeare’s works, Seven Sonnets and A Song, as well as inspiring last year’s Life Is Fine, and now, Nature.
“It’s become another way for me to write songs. Sometimes I write my own words, and sometimes I just use other people’s words; it’s all sort of mixed in together now. For me there’s not a great distinction between those songs I write with other people’s words and those ones I write with my own. They’re just different ways of writing songs, as far as I’m concerned.”
Making Nature even more special for Kelly is the fact that it was brought to life by some of his close friends and family, including his daughters Madeline and Memphis Kelly.
“I love the sound of their voices together,” he says thoughtfully. There’s something about family singing together, the way the voices sort of blend, that you can only get with a family.
“To me (it’s special) they sing on this record, which Vika and Linda also sing on, because Vika and Linda were kind of like their mentors. They’ve been part of the family and my daughters really look up to them a lot and are influenced by them a lot. So, I’m very pleased to have them both on the same record.”
The album also features the vocals of Alice Keith, another friend of Kelly’s, and Kate Miller-Heidke, whom he’d never worked with before.
“It’s funny, because I’d been trying a song out with different singers and it didn’t quite work. I went to Alice (Keith) and asked, ‘do you want to have a go singing this chorus?’ and Alice said, ‘why don’t you get Kate? Kate Miller-Heidke?’. It was a really great handball from Alice and I thought Kate was perfect for it. Sort of right in her range, and with that ethereal quality I was looking for.”
With the album release around the corner, and the Making Gravy concerts lined up for another year, Kelly shows no signs of slowing down. At 63 years old you might think he’d be ready to hit the brakes on his musical career, but music is simply an extension of who Kelly is.
“I don’t think I’ll stop,” he says assuredly. “I play music when I’m not playing in front of people, it’s the same as what I do at home, so it’ll always be there one way or another.”
