ABC News (AU)
· collected 2026-10-10 · by Leisa Scott and Vanessa Gorman
As ARIA award-winning singer Katie Noonan sat in the audience watching author Trent Dalton's book Love Stories coming to life on stage, her own love story was falling apart.
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story → win → stage
That day, Katie found out that the 26-year partnership with her jazz saxophonist husband and father of her two children was all but over.
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partnership → find → children
"I remember that day so vividly," Katie, 49, tells Australian Story.
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Katie → remember → Story
"It was quite intense actually, watching that play and the searing honesty of how hard [it is] in the trenches, being married and being artists."
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it → watch → trenches
After the show, Katie bumped into Trent, the author of the international bestseller Boy Swallows Universe, and his wife and co-writer of the play, Fiona Franzmann.
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Katie → bump → play
Katie and Trent had known each other since 2001, when they were enthusiastic young creatives from Brisbane; he was a fledgling journalist who had come to interview her, the breakout star with the ethereal voice from the indie pop rock band named george.
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who → know → band
Now, as they caught up over a drink, Katie told Trent how much the play had touched her. How beautiful the writing was and how real it felt.
And that her own marriage was in serious trouble.
"
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marriage → catch → trouble
She really let me know she was going through one of the toughest times in her life," Trent recalls.
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Trent → let → life
"And that was where my relationship with Katie kind of got a bit more poignant."
Six weeks later, Katie was out of the family home and living alone in a new place on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
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Katie → get → Coast
"There have been days that were catastrophically hard and dark and lonely and depressed and all those things," Katie says.
But music has always been her best friend, and so she turned to it.
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she → say → it
Exploring different music genres is a hallmark of Katie's career.
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Exploring → explore → career
One of her projects is the Australian Vocal Ensemble [AVE], an a capella quartet that celebrates the work of Australian writers such as Tim Winton and the late David Malouf.
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that → celebrate → Winton
She knew Trent and his writing would be perfect as AVE's next muse.
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Trent → know → muse
"I reached out to him and said, 'Do you have any words?'"
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you → reach → words
He had plenty.
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He → have → plenty
He had 153 pages of thoughts, lyrics and dreams he wrote as a lovesick young man falling for Fiona.
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he → have → Fiona
He said Katie could have them.
uncertain
Katie → say → them
The result was not just a new piece for AVE but an album about love — the wonder and the heartache — and a creative outlet that has helped Katie on the road to healing.
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that → help → healing
'Bravery and lunacy': Music her way
Growing up, music filled the Noonan household.
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music → grow → household
"One of my fondest memories," Katie says, "[is] sitting in bed with Dad Saturday mornings, listening to ABC Radio, listening to The Goons and the Jazz Show while Mum was teaching."
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Mum → say → Goons
After leaving school, Katie studied opera at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (often called The Con) while living in a house "full of thespians, actors and musicians and incense and patchouli oil and a lot of djembes and fire twirling and crystals".
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Katie → leave → djembes
This potent mix led to the formation of the band george (sporting a lower-case g), with Katie's older brother Tyrone on keyboards and guitar.
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mix → lead → keyboards
As Katie explored her musical options, switching to jazz at The Con, the band started touring and building a loyal following.
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band → explore → following
The 2002 debut album Polyserena reached number one and stayed in the charts for 15 weeks, buoyed by the support of radio stations such as the ABC's triple j and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ.
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album → reach → j
"We were sort of the seven-year overnight success because we'd been touring and touring and touring," Katie says.
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Katie → tour → ?
By then, Katie had met the man who would become her husband.
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who → meet → man
"I adored and was madly in love with him," she says.
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she → adore → him
Within 18 months of marriage, they had two boys, and although Katie's husband played in her next band, Elixir, Katie had the capacity to earn the most.
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Katie → have → most
She became the primary breadwinner, touring widely with a range of bands and different musical genres, while he stayed home to look after the kids.
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he → become → kids
"As a wife and mother and making so many sacrifices to be the breadwinner, it puts a lot of pressure," Katie's mother Maggie says.
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mother → make → pressure
From the outset, Katie was determined to do music her way, without surrendering to commercial interests. When a record company executive told her to lose weight early in her career, she told them "no" in a rather colourful manner.
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she → do → manner
"I've never been afraid to have an opinion," she says.
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she → have → opinion
"I'm always going to speak up for things that matter to me."
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that → go → me
Having artistic control in such a fickle industry was so important to Katie that 15 years ago, she started her independent label, an "act of bravery and lunacy in a lot of ways".
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she → have → ways
It's a tough way to make a living.
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It → make → living
Albums don't sell in big numbers anymore, she says.
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she → sell → numbers
And the streaming service Spotify gives very little, if anything, back to artists, a subject Katie has often spoken out about.
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Katie → give → artists
So the answer is to tour — and keep touring.
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answer → tour → ?
"I will play anywhere," she says.
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she → play → ?
"I love playing little, tiny halls … and then I get to play the Opera House.
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I → play → House
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia