David Bowie has been called a chameleon so many times that the word almost feels permanently attached to him. Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, the Berlin years and the huge pop reinvention of Let’s Dance all became different pieces of an artist who spent decades pulling apart the idea of what a musician was supposed to be.
For Kav Temperley, though, the doorway into Bowie came before all of that mythology.
At around sixteen or seventeen years old, the Eskimo Joe singer and songwriter discovered Hunky Dory. Alongside The Beatles and Neil Young, the record became part of the musical foundation that helped shape the songwriter Kav would become.
Ahead of the Australian Celebrating David Bowie tour, where Temperley joins Jeff Martin of The Tea Party and iOTA alongside a full band, I caught up with Kav for Crannk to dig beneath the characters, spectacle and constant reinvention and get into the songwriter who existed underneath it all.
For Kav, that is where Bowie’s real journey begins.
Before Bowie Was Bowie
Bowie had already existed somewhere in Kav’s consciousness long before Hunky Dory properly grabbed hold of him.
Growing up in Australia, Bowie was simply there. His songs lived on the radio, his image was part of popular culture and, for plenty of kids, there was also Jareth staring back at them from Labyrinth. Kav compared that presence to The Beatles. You almost do not remember being introduced to either artist because they seem to have existed for as long as you can remember.
It was Hunky Dory, followed closely by The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, that changed the relationship.
“Hunky Dory and then Ziggy Stardust afterwards were very seminal albums for me as a songwriter, especially Hunky Dory. It just taught me so much.”
What still fascinates Kav is the Bowie who existed before the mythology had completely taken over.
“The reason why I love Hunky Dory so much is it reminds us that Bowie, before he was Bowie, he dug deep and decided he was going to be a great songwriter.”
That becomes an important distinction when you start looking at everything Bowie would later become. Reinvention means very little if there is nothing strong enough underneath it to reinvent. The characters could change, the clothes could change and the production could change, but the songs still had to fucking work.
From Hunky Dory to Ziggy and Eskimo Joe’s Own Reinvention
One of the most interesting points in our conversation came when Kav started looking at just how quickly Bowie moved from Hunky Dory into Ziggy Stardust.
He had already broken through with “Space Oddity”, but Kav became fascinated by what happened afterwards. Bowie kept writing, kept changing and was already moving towards another version of himself while Hunky Dory was still finding its place in the world.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, okay, it’s not good enough just to be the singer songwriter. You need to create the character and create the myth.’”
That story hit Kav hard because, looking back, he can see a similar moment inside Eskimo Joe’s own journey.
A Song Is a City arrived in 2004 and pushed the Fremantle band into another level of Australian recognition. The record brought major ARIA nominations and, as Kav laughed during our conversation, they wanted to win the lot.
They did not.
So the question became what the hell do we do next?
“We kind of went home and we’re like, ‘Oh fuck, what do we do now?’”
Rather than simply trying to make A Song Is a City again, Eskimo Joe stepped into something bigger with 2006’s Black Fingernails, Red Wine. The transformation was not only musical. The band consciously started inhabiting the idea of being rock stars.
“It’s not good enough just to be the kids. You have to create a character.”
The black hair, painted fingernails, darker visual identity and entire presentation surrounding Black Fingernails, Red Wine became part of that transformation.
Now, twenty years later, Kav can see Bowie’s roadmap sitting somewhere underneath it.
“You could kind of say that A Song Is a City and Black Fingernails, Red Wine is kind of our Hunky Dory and Ziggy.”
It is a great connection because it pushes Bowie’s influence beyond chord progressions, production sounds or favourite records. Sometimes an artist teaches you how to write. Sometimes they give you permission to become something else entirely.
Three Very Different Voices Celebrating Bowie
That idea of interpretation rather than imitation sits right at the heart of Celebrating David Bowie.
Kav Temperley, Jeff Martin and iOTA are three completely different singers with three instantly recognisable voices. Trying to flatten those personalities into Bowie impersonations would miss the point entirely.
There was, however, one small problem when Kav went in to choose which songs he wanted.
Jeff got there first.
“He’d picked, like, all of the good ones,” Kav laughed.
One of those happened to be Life on Mars?
“That Bowie!”
Thankfully, when you are working with a catalogue this deep, there are still a few decent songs left to choose from.
Kav was able to dive heavily into the Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust material closest to his heart, while iOTA brings another completely different dimension to the show. Kav singled out Under Pressure as one of those moments where iOTA becomes absolutely essential.
“There is no way we could do Under Pressure without someone like an iOTA.”
That individuality is exactly what Kav wants audiences to hear.
“I really want to see them be Jeff and iOTA singing Bowie.”
The same applies to Kav himself. The point is not to recreate David Bowie’s voice. Those versions already exist and they are not going anywhere. What becomes interesting is hearing what happens when three established artists bring their own voices into songs they genuinely connect with.
“The magical thread is gonna be that you’ve got these really individual voices singing these great songs.”
Bowie Gave Them Permission to Move
There is another reason Kav feels comfortable allowing the songs to breathe.
Bowie did it himself.
Across different tours he changed lyrics, shifted arrangements and allowed songs written in one period of his career to become something completely different years later. Kav has been deep diving into those live performances while preparing for the tour and sees that freedom as part of the Bowie canon itself.
“It gives you this permission to kind of do whatever you want to do with it.”
Kav compares that freedom to classic soul music, where the recorded version establishes the song but the stage gives the performer room to move inside it.
That does not mean ignoring what audiences already love about these songs. There will be Bowie diehards in every room who know every little piece of the records, and there will be plenty of people waiting for those moments where the entire crowd can become part of the song.
“If I was in the crowd, I would be singing at the top of my lungs the whole entire gig.”
For Kav, the real challenge is finding the sweet spot between interpretation and recognition.
“You just gotta find that sweet spot between doing your version of it, but also making sure you know the exact places that people are gonna sing along.”
That gets right to the heart of why the show is called Celebrating David Bowie rather than simply recreating him.
“An Artist Has a Seat at the Table”
There is also something pretty bloody significant happening around Kav outside the Bowie tour.
He was recently named one of Western Australia’s nominees for Australian of the Year, with the recognition extending beyond nearly three decades with Eskimo Joe into his mentoring, songwriter advocacy and the work he continues to put back into the creative community.
Kav described finding out about the nomination as “pretty trippy”.
“If there’s a bushfire benefit, you’re the first people who are going to put your hands up and help raise money for the community, but you never expect that the community is going to acknowledge you back.”
For somebody who has spent so much of his life working inside the arts, there was another part of the nomination that clearly meant a great deal to him.
“The idea that an artist has a seat at the table makes me really, really happy.”
That naturally brought our conversation back to the young songwriters Kav now spends time mentoring and, ultimately, straight back to Bowie.
Because when you strip away the mythology, fashion, characters and seemingly effortless brilliance, Kav believes there is one lesson emerging musicians should probably take from Bowie before anything else.
There Is No Excuse for a Lazy Artist
If a young songwriter wants to learn from David Bowie, Kav does not believe the answer is dressing like Ziggy Stardust or trying to write something that sounds like Hunky Dory.
The answer is far less glamorous.
Work.
Kav teaches technique and craft when he works with developing songwriters, but eventually he always comes back to the same reality.
“There is just lots of hard work involved.”
Bowie becomes a shining example of that. He worked on the songs, the recordings, the production, the image and the performance. Even when something worked, he did not simply sit inside the safe option and repeat it.
“He was not lazy. In fact, he was the epitome of there is no excuse for a lazy artist.”
That might be one of the most useful ways to strip away the mythology surrounding David Bowie. Those transformations did not simply happen and those characters did not appear out of nowhere.
“He totally challenged himself all the time and worked his ass off.”
Kav sees the same reality facing anyone who genuinely wants to build a life in music. There is absolutely nothing wrong with plugging in with your mates every weekend and making music simply because you love it. But if the goal is to become a professional songwriter, performer or recording artist, the commitment changes.
“You’ve got to take it seriously, and you’ve got to actually work harder than any other industry, because no one’s going to give you a leg up. You’ve got to do all the work yourself.”
For all the talk around David Bowie as the great chameleon, maybe that is the thread running underneath every version of him.
He kept working.
He kept challenging himself.
He kept moving.
Now Kav Temperley, Jeff Martin and iOTA get to step inside those songs and find their own way through them, not by trying to become Bowie, but by celebrating everything he left behind.
CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE — AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
Friday 6 November
The Triffid — Brisbane
Saturday 7 November
Metro Theatre — Sydney
Friday 20 November
The Gov — Adelaide
Saturday 21 November
Freo.Social — Perth
Friday 27 November
170 Russell — Melbourne
Tickets On Sale Now From:
https://metropolistouring.com/celebrating-david-bowie/
Celebrating David Bowie features Kav Temperley, Jeff Martin and iOTA alongside a full band performing music from across David Bowie’s extraordinary catalogue.
