SOMETHING FOR KATE'S BASS PROVIDES STEEP LEARNING CURVE
It was outside Prahran Central. It was 2.00pm Wednesday afternoon, The weather was fine and veteran Something for Kate member Stephanie Ashworth was not only lugging her morning shopping to the bench, she had her hardy mobile in one hand and her mind with Buzz in the other. It was going to be tough but she could handle it.
Something For Kate had already undergone a succession of bassists and Stephanie was the third attempt (after Julian and Toby) and is now the most successful, having been with the band for about a year and a half. So what was her main influence on the band?
'Probably musically. I don't know what to call it, there's definately been a change between the last album and this one. That's because Paul and I co-wrote, whereas he was used to writing by himself. He wrote the first album completely alone and virtually told the others what to play. When I joined the band we virtually wrote the whole album along with Clint the drummer.'
Was it easy for Paul to relax with somebody else or did it take a while?
'It was suprisingly easy for him. He talked a lot about how he didn't know he was going to react to co-writing.. Before I joined the band Paul and I had actually co-written some stuff together anyway and I had played on a couple of tracks for his solo album. He didn't know how easily he could give up having an entire vision for his song and surrendering it to somebody so they could play their part. But when it came down to actually writing together, often things would often come from the bass and he would put something on top of the bass, where the bass was actually the first thing that was written. It ended up that he really loved it. He realised he wasn't in total control anymore and that interesting things came out of co-writing with somebody.'
Paul had a totally different take on music, having played since he was nine years old and having perfect pitch, Stephanie found the initial contact 'quite intimidating in some ways.' Stephanie coming from a punk rock background meant that she was used to taking things from a different perspective. Also an early age musician Stephanie learnt the trumpet, moved onto classical guitar later and then went to bass where she is completely self taught. 'I come from a punk kind of background as far as my influences are concerned,' she concedes.. 'For me it was all about the adrenalin rush you get when you play bass with a guitarist in the same room, where for Paul music is something that he has an incredible understanding of, that it's not a mystery to him at all. Paul can tell you what note, what key or anything he hears down the street. Working with someone like that is very different.'
So how different is Stephanie from the other bass players?
'I'm very different from Toby. Toby's style was very much more aggressive than mine, he very much whacked the hell out of the bass. I like some of the things he did, I really do, he was much more direct than me. I am probably a little bit more like Julian. I tend to be a bit more naughtier in that I write guitar parts more than I write bass parts. Julian was definitely a bass playing man. Often I'll play the bass as if it is a guitar, so I often play very high up on the neck and Paul will often say "Hey wait, we need a bass line here, not another guitar." I can write something on the bass we'll turn into a guitar part and then I'll write another bass line.'
So from trumpet to classical guitar to bass. It was university days that saw the great conversion for Stephanie. Somebody needed a bass player in a bit of a hurry, 'so I picked up the bass.'
Favourite track would be 'Beautiful Sharks'. Stephanie thinks it something very different for Something For Kate. 'It's much more intricate and subtle and fragile. So much of the other Something For Kate stuff is much more direct and right in your face where I think this song is held back a little more which I really enjoy.'
So how did the Portishead track 'Easy' get to be included on the Kate release?
'Geoff from Portishead heard the album and picked a couple of songs he wanted to remix, but somebody else was already doing them so he picked 'Easy' and that's how the story goes. He was attracted to that because it was more a bass and drums song. We loved what he did with it.'
'We just write how we feel at the time. This record is a fair bit mellower than the first record.. We've started writing the next record already and it's a fair bit different again.. A lot of different instruments are going to be used. I couldn't say it was in a particular direction or a particular genre but as we get older and we keep writing together we're really open to a lot more. There's no taboo instrument and we'll use anything from a cello to a timpani whatever we want to get the sound we want.'
Is it daunting to play with two such musical talents as Clint and Paul?
'In a way. I have to always remember that he can't be inside my musical mind and I can't be inside his. Paul can play the guitar part and I can play the bass part and he'll say "How the hell did you do that?", he'll really love it because it's not ovvious to him and I don't take the obvious route that he might use. That surprises him everytime. It's more of a creative thing for me. Paul has taught me a lot as well.
Is it hard for a woman to make it in the Australian rock industry?
'Not if you know what you are doing. Sure it is male dominated. There is a lot of rock and roll guys out there living the rock and roll dream, but at the end of the day it's the songs, it's about the songs. If you concentrate on that whether you are a woman or a man that's all the you need to do. Basically I'd tell any young female getting into the industry not to take any shit from anybody. That's all you need to remember. It's knowing what you want to do and having faith in yourself. This is what I was meant to do.
The nicest thing about being a Something For Kate member is the fact that I get to spend my time with Paul and Clint. Not only are they fantastic musicians, but they're really nice people that made me feel really welcome when I joined the band. I get to spend my whole life with those two guys and I really adore them. That's the best thing for me.'
Something For Kate tours nationally in September 'We'll be playing a lot more of the new album but we will also be playing stuff off 'Elsewhere for 8 Minutes' and songs from the earlier stuff that hasn't been played in a while.' Stephanie went back to the catalogue and found stuff that she would like to play off the earlier releases. It will all be there when Something For Kate tours near you.
'All the people that yell out for those songs will now be able to hear them,' she says. 'Some of them will be very faithful to what they were, others are perhaps a little bit different because it's been such a long time since they were played.'
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