A reluctant frontman, thrust before the mic out of necessity by his bandmates in Something For Kate, Dempsey came across as someone uncomfortable in the limelight, only fulfilling his lead singer duties because it meant he could live out his dream of playing music, but unsure how to deal with the bells and whistles that came with it.
He wrote earnest songs and sung them with an equally earnest voice that's probably the most distinctive and instantly recognisable Aussie voice outside of Jimmy Barnes.
But somewhere between the somewhat monochromatic debut album of his band Something For Kate and the present day, Paul Dempsey blossomed into an affable genius of the Australian music scene, with a charming stage presence to match his remarkable talents.
No longer the Very Serious Young Man, Dempsey has become many other things - Aus music elder statesman, extraordinarily ranged vocalist, under-rated songwriter, equally under-rated guitarist, charismatic frontman, and an alt-rock icon for those in the know.
But perhaps the most unexpected transformation is Dempsey's appointment as Australia's King of Covers.
Maybe we should've known this was coming back in 1998 when Something For Kate covered Jebediah's Harpoon on a split EP, or Duran Duran's Ordinary World as a b-side to The Astronaut in 2000, or even their much-loved cover of Truly by the relatively unknown American band Hazel on SFK's Intermission EP.
But it didn't become truly apparent until later, and the exact moment differs depending on who you are. Maybe it was covering David Bowie's Ashes To Ashes on the Moving Right Along single in 2004. Maybe it was his astonishing cover of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball on Triple M, or doing Middle Kids' Edge Of Town on triple j. Maybe it was those closing credit duets on Rockwiz.
Either way, it's all proof he is the righful heir to the throne (who he overthrew, I do not know). In those covers and many more, Dempsey had unlocked something - a profound gift for picking wonderfully melodic songs and rendering them in a manner that was every bit as earnest as his original material. Some of them have been pop hits - the type that would have been readily dismissed by those who fell in love with Something For Kate from the moment they heard Captain (Million Miles An Hour) or Subject To Change in the late '90s - while the others have been uber-cool deep cuts, opening up whole new musical worlds for many of his grateful fans.
This has been his real talent as a cover artist - the ability to sound like he means it, no matter what he's singing. From Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time to Grant Lee Buffalo's Mockingbirds, from INXS' Never Tear Us Apart to Hüsker Dü's Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely, from Michael Jackson's Billie Jean to Middle Kids' Edge Of Town, from Hall & Oates' Out Of Touch to Wilco's Jesus Etc., from Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball to The Smith's There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, each song is brought to life with heart-rending honesty, despite coming from disparate ends of the mainstream/alternative spectrum and delivered by a man who didn't write them.
It's easy to just put it down to that voice. Dempsey distinctive vocals are smoky and sincere, helping him sing it like he means it, with that huskiness adding a raw tinge that helps sell the emotion. And those who don't like Something For Kate typically say it's because of his voice. Apparently it's a love-it-or-hate-it voice - the coriander of vocals.
But his voice is a goddamned weapon - more habanero than coriander. In his chest voice, he boasts a Christ Cornell-like range. He calls it "stunt singing", but that's classic Demspsey Dismissiveness - the ability to sing-scream the middle eight or key change in If I Could Turn Back Time or the chorus of Boys Of Summer is incredible and not something to be dismissed as a mere "stunt".
Holy shit, when he bursts into the chorus of Sheryl Crowe's If It Makes You Happy...
... that's a helluva range. That's spine-tingling shit right there.
Somewhere between Something For Kate's debut Elsewhere For Eight Minutes and their second record Beautiful Sharks, Dempsey's songwriting and indeed the whole of SFK burst into technicolour. Along with this, Dempsey's voice gained extra hues. By third album Echolalia, he was starting to figure exactly where his voice could go - that falsetto on opening track Stunt Show wasn't something we'd really heard before, but it was a sign of things to come.
Those who can't stand his voice will never get it, but they're also missing out on his incredible guitarwork, his surprising under-stated wit (sample lyric: "You're not the first to think that everything has been thought before"), and his generally remarkable musicality.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying Dempsey's covers gig at the Palais in Melbourne on November 22 was revelatory. The whole time I had to keep reminding myself "this is just a covers gig - they aren't even his songs!", as one tune after another was brought to life in hi-res emotions by just one man and a guitar. It was powerful - more powerful than it had any right to be.
The 3,000-strong crowd ate it up, and Dempsey obviously knows he's discovered a form of alchemy, as dismissive of his own abilities as he might be. You don't do two covers albums and sell-out tours playing nothing but other people's songs without realising you might have a bit of a gift for this.
It's highly unlikely anyone in the audience wasn't already a SFK fan. But on the off-chance they weren't, they will be now. And there are people out there who still can't get past that voice and, well, all I can do is pity them.
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