Kate Tempest

Perhaps the performance poet, though Tempest herself would argue this isn’t so (lest we forget Anis Mojgani). Writing is always moving, she insists, and no-one can straddle a wave for any real length of time. As she returns to Sydney with her Mercury-shortlisted hip hop album, Everybody Down, Tempest talks of words and rage.

“Hopefully there’s always a literary evolution happening,” Tempest considers, “but it’s never up to the people within that time to have any say on that. The only people that can plot those charts are looking back. You need the benefit of hindsight to see what happened, what was important. Hopefully there’s always something exciting happening in what people are writing. I don’t know if this is it for our time. I doubt it very much, but who knows?

“I definitely feel like I’ve come across some really advanced writers recently – songwriters, rap writers. Some really interesting things are happening in poetry. Oh man, I’ve come across some contemporary poetry that has blown my mind. I think we’re really lucky to be living in a time when we’re so connected, we can experience so much on the recommendation of our peers, not just through the old channels.”

I met Tempest back in 2013, in a hotel foyer while milling about for the Sydney Writers’ Festival. When we were introduced, she bypassed my handshake and went straight for the bear hug and goofy smile. The very next time I saw her – concluding a shared set with Mojgani in a room brimming with transfixed ears – she was in tears from the memory, energy and emotion poured into her performance. They were two striking sides of someone who speaks from their heart in a way that many espouse, but few genuinely attempt. As self-doubt and insecurity seem shackled to so many fledgling slam poets, I wonder how it is that Tempest is able to reconcile laying herself so bare.

“I’m terribly shy and say stupid things all the time. But this is not that. This is my absolute joy, this is what I’ve dedicated my life to doing. I began this because I have a burning, burning passion to say something. It comes from my mouth, I need to speak. So when I go up onstage, yeah, it’s pretty weird and awkward if you think about it, if you allow yourself to land in that moment, but it gives me this space to grow into this very true version of myself. It’s much safer. This is now beyond the kind of realm of insecurity or security, this is about conviction and music and poetry.

“Unless this is everything, then let it be nothing. That sounds dramatic, but when it comes to standing onstage and delivering your words, if this is something you could potentially not do, don’t do it. That’s a pretty hardcore thing to say, because I’m usually like, ‘Yeah man, this is for everyone! Everyone should write!’ And I do believe that. It’s healthy, it’s good for your brain. It’s good for your heart. But honestly, if it’s possible for you to give this up, do it.”

Before diving into Everybody Down, I tried to anticipate how it would sound alongside Tempest’s spoken-word self. My rudimentary suspicion was that the spoken-word would provide the stronger sense of story, would be more narrative. Yet listening to a track like ‘Lonely Daze’, there are characters, there is movement. It is a true testament to the London artist that her command of language is just as strong across poetry and rap, prose and theatre.

“When I’m sitting down now with an idea, it feels very different from [when I started], that stage just before the idea tells you what it wants to be. I know it’s going to be happiest with music or on its own, happiest as a play or a piece of dialogue, happy on or off beat, if it’s an idea for a longer story or a short poem or a sprawling epic. There’s this beautiful moment that I never used to have, because I hadn’t given myself the opportunity to experiment with enough forms. But now, because I’ve experimented in different ways, there’s this interesting new sequence of paths in my brain where I get to see what direction ideas decide they’re going to go.”

Tempest’s Sydney Festival debut will undoubtedly be a highlight among many eagerly anticipated artists, and this time around, she might finally get the opportunity to strike out from creative commitments and see some of the country first-hand.

“When I was there before, I was only in Sydney for a week, maybe less. I didn’t have much time to feel anything beyond this very buzzing, intense vibe that was the literary festival. I guess it’s like I could have been anywhere, you know? I’m really excited about coming back this time because I’ve got a few days before the gig just to be there. I want to see the landscape, to see some of the beauty out there. To see all those normal people who didn’t buy tickets to see me,” she laughs.

[Kate Tempest photo by Jo Metson]