Timeless and enduring, Kate Ceberano is one of Australia’s most loved performers; a star of stage and screen, whose music career has spanned over 25 years and 18 albums. As the newly appointed Artistic Director for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2012-2013, Kate is spreading her creative wings and returning to an old love, cabaret. Ahead of her much-anticipated show at Her Majesty’s Theatre, I spoke to Kate (in between trips to the UK whilst writing her new album, busy girl!) in one of her most in-depth interviews in years.
GB: Becoming the Artistic Director for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival for 2012-2013 seems like such a natural progression for you. How did it come to be?
KC: As an artist, it did feel like a natural fit, as David Campbell and I are often placed in the similar category of the pop/jazz/soul/theatre… ‘What the hell are you?’ category!
The role of an Artistic Director however, is completely new and hugely challenging. I'm finding the learning curve steep and fast moving, but that's on the administrative level. Creatively, it's proving to be inspirational on so many levels. I'm indulging in ‘online shopping’, scoping for artists from all over the globe, discovering greatness under every nook and cranny. Allowing myself to be awestruck, envious and gobsmacked.
There is so much potent work going on out there and I want to showcase it all, if only just for my own viewing pleasure! I've been asking friends of mine in the business, to prepare passion projects, put together performance pieces that they've always wanted to but never had the chance to. It's a lot of fun.
GB: In 1993 you hosted your own cabaret-style television show. What made you want to revisit cabaret at this point in your career?
KC: I've always loved acknowledging other peoples work. Jools Holland has always inspired me, and I always dreamt of hosting a music program for Australian TV like his, I'm working on this! Presenting international and local artists on Max TV and also during my show on the ABC, I feeI was learnt by watching others. And there is never an end to how much you can learn. Expanding your own repertoire and extending and flexing your craft towards new boundaries and areas untried is essential for growth as an artist, and usually the most critical transgression committed by the local industry is, arriving at some imagined plateau and stopping to admire the scenery….you got to keep at it, be uncomfortable and push to know more, create more, challenge yourself.
There's nothing more thrilling than to watch a new artist present something that is just amazing and feel that you are seeing it for the very first time. You only get ‘discovered’ once. I had a dear friend, Clifford Hocking, discover me in this way, and I'll never forget his patronage and generosity! I want to be a part of this culture here because we don't have patrons anymore in the old sense of the word, but we have the festival culture which is creating the audience to support new artists.
GB: What do you plan to bring to the festival that differs from previous years?
KC: I don't know yet. I'm still understanding the personality of Cabaret in its fullest. I have ‘my version’ of the story but it continues to evolve based on what I'm seeing out there. Previous Cabaret festivals have defined a new level each and every year based on what the industry is presenting. Obviously there are the classic all time greats of the Cabaret, but then there are burgeoning new acts, blowing out the proportions, bringing in elements unexpected. Let's just say, it’s a work in progress. When the dust all settles I'll be able to see clearly where I'm headed, but for right now I'm busy making a mess, and loving it.
GB: What is about Adelaide that you find so special?
KC: My whole career has been played out across Adelaide stages, in festivals; WOMADelaide, the Fringe, Adelaide Festival, playing with orchestras, theatre companies, in plays, in stadium-style rock concerts. Benefits and birthdays, shows at wineries, A Day on The Green, you name it, I've done it.
But my love of Adelaide goes deeper as far back as five generations, my most favourite being my grandma Kath. My aunt just mentioned to me a funny story too. She opened the first Adelaide Festival synchronised swimming contest; they didn't take into account that the Torrens was brown and you couldn't see underwater… mayhem! That made me giggle.
GB: Your career has spanned so many different platforms; music, television, charity work, theatre. How do you find a healthy balance?
KC: Is there such a thing? I just have an interest and pursue it avidly and get all the parts to fit like Tetris, on the go. It’s not necessarily the perfect way, but it's the only way I know.
GB: As one of Australia’s most well-known and respected performers, has it been difficult achieving such longevity and relevance in your career?
KC: You have to be able to roll with the punches, that's for sure. My mother says one of my defining virtues is that I recover fast, and she's right. You have to become the queen of reinvention; you need to be willing to learn new tricks, fast! And you do better if you know that you don't know it all. It's more fun too, since there is always mystery.
GB: You once said that it frustrates you to see people give up too soon in this industry. Is this true for Australian musicians and performers in 2011?
KC: I'm not sure what I was banging on about in that interview. Sometimes it can seem as though the choice is not ours, I mean if you fall out of favour, or out with the ‘in crowd’, you can't be blamed for not trying. You give it your best and you stay in the game if that's what you love to do. If you fall out of love, then it's probably a good time to get out!
GB: You’ve recently signed with Sony Music; can we expect an album of new material soon?
KC: Yeah, I just got back from London this weekend writing with some of UK's best.
Oh my god, they were amazing. And being there in London this time, 25 years later, in my own skin as a grown up, with the support of my label Sony Music and my family at home and waiting for my return… oh it was so different. The new material is exciting. I can't wait to release it.
GB: You’ve written and performed such iconic songs, describe the process you go through when writing music.
KC: It's a weird old thing, song writing. So intimate and strange. I hear a melody often, and then I marry that up with some thought that's been banging in my head and then offer it up to a musician to finesse the arrangement and voicing of the chords and harmony, as I write on the piano usually, very simply. We then record, discard and keep bits, improve and obsess over it and then with beating heart give it away and hope someone ‘gets where you’re coming from’ and when they do, it's better than sex!
GB: Having released 18 albums throughout your 25+ year career, is there anything you feel you’re still yet to do?
KC: I'm doing it now. Making the music that I hope to be singing well into my 80s and have it not seem ridiculously age inappropriate. I mean, ‘young boys are my weakness’ is not going to seem cute at 80.
Kate Ceberano performs at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Wednesday, November 2. Tickets on sale through www.bass.net.au
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