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SOMETHING FOR KATE |
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 On this page:
*Something For Kate interview
*Something For Kate Discography (all available on Whammo)
*Something For Kate Australian Tour dates
SOMETHING FOR KATE - THE WHAMMO INTERVIEW - AUGUST 11, 2003
Something For Kate's many followers may be horrified to hear this, but I wasn't a fan of this melodic 3-piece act until the complex and brilliantly-constructed The Official Fiction album recently landed on my desk. In truth, the band isn’t short of fans and their swelling ranks of predominantly Australian and US die-hards are loyal to the point of obsession. There's a lot to obsess about - insightful lyrics, clever arrangements, emotive songwriting, adept musicianship - and Echolalia, the brilliant LP that elevated them to mainstream success appears to have been 'just the beginning' of the Melbourne trio's development as artists. I recently caught up with Stephanie from the band and, as you'll soon discover, we share a penchant for open honesty that makes for an interesting chat about media misconceptions, the evils of the industry and the band's integrity-powered philosophy toward their music...
Whammo: I only just got the album yesterday, so I gave it a couple of quick power-listens.
Stephanie: Oh, jeez.
Whammo: (laughs) To tell you the truth – and I don’t know whether this will be a compliment – I wasn’t exactly a Something For Kate fan but that may have changed.
Stephanie: Oh really?
Whammo: Maybe I haven’t listened to the band properly or intensely enough because there’s so much to listen to.
Stephanie: It’s pretty ‘dense’ which is the way a lot of people describe this record. There are a lot of layers. I think we make ‘headphone records’ where there are different sounds that rear their heads on different listens. There’s a lot of instrumentation and a lot of little obscure things that you wouldn’t pick up if you didn’t listen on headphones.
Whammo: It came at an opportune moment because I broke up with my girlfriend and 2 hours later it arrived.
Stephanie: (laughs)
Whammo: I think the Something For Kate sound, mainly because of the melodies and chord progressions can be quite melancholic.
Stephanie: Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh when you said that. The only reason I laughed is this idea that we are this dark, depressing, brooding band, which I understand. The funny thing is that a lot of the songs are actually extremely positive.
Whammo: I agree but I think it’s very…emotional.
Stephanie: It is really emotional but the biggest misconception of Something For Kate is that the subject matter of the songs is negative and depressing. If you actually listen to the lyrics you realize he’s singing – a lot of the time – about getting control of your situation and doing something about it; being proactive. It’s about not being apathetic about what’s bothering you and taking charge of your situation. Sometimes a lot of the songs are really characters that Paul creates so that he can discuss a certain situation. They’re not about him and that’s the other misconception, that they’re love songs or relationship songs or they’re about Paul and his personal life. The funny thing is that I don’t think there’s one love song but you want people to be free to interpret them how they want to. If it works for you in your current situation then I’m happy.
Whammo: I think there are some really beautiful, emotive chord progressions. You seem to have the ability to wrench the heart out or put it back in.
Stephanie: I guess when we write songs, we need to be able to get some response to it or we can’t commit to it. It is a selfish endeavor. We’re very harsh self-editors, so if it gets past the three of us then it gets on the record.
Whammo: Ever since Pop Art we’ve always been told that it’s the artist that really decides whether it’s art or not and if you’re happy with it, then that’s the main thing.
Stephanie: With any kind of art - with books, with writing, with painting, with music – there is no wrong or right.
Whammo: There’s a complexity in the arrangements and the production garnishes that I really like on this album and I said in the review that the band is so much more than a great songwriter or great voice. It’s a great balance in that the drumming – especially in the first track, Max Planck – has accents where you wouldn’t normally find them.
Stephanie: It really throws you, actually, that first song. They’re not always easy rhythms. They tend to go against the normal accents. It can be a 4/4 timing but the percussive accents are quite odd sometimes.
Whammo: Strangely enough, I thought of Tool.
Stephanie: Yeah, right.
Whammo: I think it’s important for a band with your sound because it gives it that unnerving edge that keeps it sharp.
Stephanie: It’s nice to think ‘I can’t just sink into this rhythm easily- it goes against the grain a little bit’. It’s interesting that you bring up Tool because, with the early Something For Kate stuff – before I was in the band – Paul was a really percussive guitarist: he’s a drummer, first and foremost and he actually taught Clint to play the drums. So he comes from playing the guitar from a really percussive perspective; from a very Fugazi-type of world, creating every aspect of a song on the guitar instead of just melodies.
Whammo: You must have a real bond with Trina Shoemaker, your producer.
Stephanie: We tried to work with her again because we got along so well and it was so much fun the first time. Before that, recording had been kind of…not fun for us. I’m not saying that we worked with bad people but it was intense, hard and we felt a bit locked out of the process whereas, with Trina, there’s no ego going on there. We co-produced with her on the last album (Echolalia) and this album (The Official Fiction). We now sit at the desk and twiddle knobs and we’ve learnt the process. It allows you to get in there and make a lot of the production decisions yourself. We just thought it was logical to work with her again because we understood each other really well.
Whammo: It’s worked out really well. I think it’s a very rich album. It’s great when you get a surprise, if you get 20 or 30 CDs crossing your desk each week, you need that occasional surprise to stay in love with music.
Stephanie: Otherwise you can get really jaded. I think this is the problem in the way the music industry is structured. Bands get reduced to being one single. Everybody out there thinks that Deja Vu is Something For Kate. Everybody thought that Monsters from the last album: that’s Something For Kate. Well, it’s not. That’s what’s frustrating. For this 3-month period between releasing a single and an album- that’s what you get reduced to. You can’t be represented by one song. We’re an album band not a singles band. We write albums and then the record company picks whatever they want to be the single. That’s what’s really difficult. So for you, you might get a very one-sided idea of what a band’s like and then you put the album on and you go: ‘Oh, I didn’t realize they had this side.’ That’s where I think singles are a real f**ker. I don’t like it.
Whammo: It’s funny you say that because I’ve always considered you to be an ‘albums band’ and I would think that your fans know that.
Stephanie: I think they do but you’re preaching to the converted there. It’s the other people, people like you. You’re surprised now because you’ve heard this record and it’s not what you thought. Think of all the people who think: ‘yeah, that’s that band that wrote Monsters, I’m not into that’. It’s damaging.
Whammo: It’s a good point.
Stephanie: It may work for pop bands, where it’s a really visual thing but it doesn’t work for songwriting bands.
Whammo: I say: ‘all power to the b-side’.
Stephanie: (laughs) Yay!
Whammo: What pop acts miss out on is that they have 5 different remixes of the one crap song. Even if you do decide to put out one crap song – as I’ll be doing soon – you need the b-sides to round it all off.
Stephanie: So you’re going to put out a single and have a few different b-sides?
Whammo: Yeah.
Stephanie: Well, that’s good because it gives you the opportunity on that one release to say ‘here’s something to the contrary’. I think it’s always a good idea to put as many as you can on.
Whammo: Can you dictate that side of it or is it all up to the record label?
Stephanie: No, we dictate everything. That’s the other misconception. I’m sure for some people it’s not all ‘beer and skittles’ but I think that we’ve got a really good relationship with Sony because they took us on so many years ago as a development act and we were allowed to develop. We dictate what we do: every aspect of it. We do the artwork, we decide what goes on the album, we decide what kind of videos we make: every single thing. There were songs on the single that the record company would have liked on the album but we made them b-sides instead. It’s really good to be able to make those decisions.
Whammo: Most of our subscribers and visitors are from overseas, so I know that you’ve got a great following outside the country. I think I have 1,200 Something For Kate subscribers.
Stephanie: It’s funny because 50% of the hits on our website are from North America.
Whammo: I’m not surprised because there’s a lot of lighter, indie guitar music in The States and I can’t really think of many bands who are doing that style of music better than you.
Stephanie: Well, thank you. I’m going to go all red now (laughs). I appreciate that. I don’t know what’s going on in America. We just toured there and there was one band that I thought was interesting but it’s just a different industry over there. There’s so much more pressure to sell records quickly. That’s probably determining what sort of music comes out of that country at the moment. It’s a bit of a horror.
Whammo: Are you conscious of the fact that this record may be the one to take you into the mainstream, not only here but also in the US as well. I think it would do quite well over there.
Stephanie: We just write songs that please us and whatever happens after that is out of our control. We’re not elitist. We’re happy for anybody to buy our records. I don’t mind if a 55 year-old truck driver buys it or a 13 year-old girl buys it. I don’t think that you can make music and then tell people who can buy it and what demographic you want it to appeal to. I think you’re privileged to have anyone buy your record. Even though we’re quite hands-on and we’re complete anal-control-freaks about everything we do, people say ‘how come you let your song go on Neighbours’ or ‘how come your songs are on the Secret Life Of Us soundtrack?’. Well, why go to all this effort to make music and then say: ‘well, no, we’re not letting the general public hear it- we don’t want it on Neighbours because we don’t feel that Neighbours watchers are worthy’. It’s a really elitist attitude. So, we’ll make the music we want to make and if it happens to end up doing well in other areas, like America or Europe, that’s awesome but, like I said, it’s completely out of our control. It’s a bit of a lottery in a lot of ways. We’re just happy if people buy our records and we get to keep doing what we like to do. |
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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cd
Ah, I've just fallen out of love and Something For Kate's long-awaited The Original Fiction has arrived just in the nick of time. This follow-up to the brilliant Echolalia is the perfect soundtrack to the inevitable self-indulgent melancholy I'll be suffering/enjoying for the next few days/weeks/months. The precisely structured chord progressions, creative arrangements and insightful lyrics are already weaving their magic and cultivating the warm gloom of loss. The Official Fiction is a master stroke from the lush packaging to the tiniest detail of production and the moment Paul Dempsey's voice launches into the lyrics on the opening track, Max Planck, it feels like an old friend is there at my side. His voice is instantly recognisable and familiar as he tells the stories that have become a feature of SFK's unique lyrical content. It's the opening song that also proves that Paul Dempsey's talent as a songwriter is hardly the lone attribute of this act. Clint Hyndman's drumming is far from conservative, offering oddly but deftly placed accents and a beat that fights the sugar-sweet melodies to provide a much-needed edge. You'll find plenty of brilliant garnishes on the production, courtesy of Trina Shoemaker who obviously has a strong bond with SFK. While the impressive consistency of The Original Fiction makes it difficult to choose stand-out tracks, Best Weapon, Asleep At The Wheel and Deja Vu, the current single, are all personal favourites. The Original Fiction also features a star-studded cast of guest vocalists, adding an extra depth to the band's fine voices through contributions by Caitlin Cary, Lisa Germano and Grant Lee Phillips. Most fans approach releases of this importance with a fear of disappointment but I can guarantee fans that there's no need to worry. The Original Fiction is what we all expected: a brilliant progression in the evolution of a seminal act.
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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DVD Region:4 Format:PAL
Something for Kate have recently released their award-winning album Echolalia in the U.S. As usual, Whammo enables overseas customers to stay one step ahead with A Diversion, the visual history of this amazing band. When we say history we mean everything: a documentary, 29 live performances, 10 video clips, the making of the videos, photo gallery and interactive menus. A Diversion is the first DVD release of Something for Kate and that may be why it's such a comprehensive package; over three hours of amazing performances and video. Something for Kate fans will have an opportunity to be the proverbial 'fly on the wall', gaining special and exclusive admission into the band's lives, the studios, the film sets and back-stage.
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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cd
Reduced to AUD$21.95 for a limited time only! Includes CD Rom component featuring Monsters video clip, behind the scenes studio footage and exclusive access to www.echolalia.tv. Echolalia was recorded at INXS member Gary Garry Beers' Mangrove Studio with Trina Shoemaker (Grammy-winning producer who's worked with Queens of the Stone Age and Sheryl Crow). Featuring the single Monsters, the album follows on from the massively acclaimed Beautiful Sharks, bringing the songwriting idiosyncracies of Paul Dempsey to the fore once again. In many ways, it marks quite a departure from their past two efforts, moving towards a sparser and richer sound, both in terms of instrumentation and the moods it creates. A dazzling evolution for this vital Melbourne trio.
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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cd extended player
Something For Kate are undoubtedly one of the most interesting and unique bands to emerge from Australia in the 1990s. It’s rock — and very intense rock at that — but there's an added quality of sonic adventure. Something For Kate don’t play it safe, and they never play it by numbers. This album is actually a compilation of the band’s debut EP (The Answer To Both Your Questions) and the single entitled Dean Martin. Tracks featured include Toothpaste, Tomorrow And The Next Day and, of course, Dean Martin.
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BEAUTIFUL SHARKS (ENHANCED CD)
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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cd
According to rock writer Dino Scatena, 'a lot of the beauty in Beautiful Sharks lies in its understated quality Â… so subtle, so perfect, any other songwriter would give his little pinky for a moment of such inspiration, such craftsmanship'. Featuring the single Electricity and built upon edgy indie giant Paul DempseyÂ’s unique songwriting and vocal style, MelbourneÂ’s Something For Kate finds consolidation in album number two.
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 SOMETHING FOR KATE
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The glorious debut album from Melbourne's Something For Kate showed, early on in this band's career, the depth of emotional range at the disposal of songwriter and singer Paul Dempsey. Elsewhere For 8 Minutes features such tracks as Working Against Me and Captain (Million Miles An Hour) and is a crucial initial chapter in the story of this important Australian band.
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SOMETHING FOR KATE: ON TOUR
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*With special guests: Gelbison
September
11....Hotel Great Northern, Byron Bay
12....Sands Tavern, Maroochydore
13....Trocadero, Gold Coast
14....Arena, Brisbane
17....ANU Bar, Canberra
18....University of Wollongong
19....Mingara Recreational Club
20....Enmore Theatre, Sydney
24....Settlers Tavern Margaret River WA
25....The Lookout, Scarborough WA
26....The Globe, Perth WA
27....Heaven, Albany WA
28....Area One, Bunbury WA
October
1.....Inferno, Traralgon Vic
3.....The Forum Theatre, Melbourne
4.....The Forum Theatre, Melbourne
5.....Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc / Mt Eliza
8.....Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart
9.....Saloon Bar, Launceston
11....Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
12....Discovery, Darwin NT
14....Cairns Qld
15....Townsville Qld
16....Mackay Qld
17....Rockhampton Qld
18....Bundaberg Qld
22....Castle Hill Tavern, NSW
23....Newcastle University, NSW
24....Crest Hotel, Sylvania NSW
25....Bathurst University Village Fair NSW
26....Kelts Bar, Blaxland NSW |
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