How was you recent your of America? Did it generate much publicity for the band?
It was great, we played to some really receptive crowds and got a great response at each show. We're in the process now of trying to get our stuff released over there and going over there and playing has helped a great deal.

You recent solo show at the Black Box was a huge success, you seem to really enjoy playing acoustically, how does a Paul Dempsey solo gig differ from a S.F.K gig?
Playing solo means that I can go off on my own tangents and play a song in a completely different way if I feel like it. It's also a lot easier to hear myself sing without a drum kit there so I can sing in a much more relaxed and improvised way. It also seems to be a lot more intimate. Without a wall of noise coming from the stage the crowd seem to move in a bit closer and get more involved. With SFK it is a lot more intense because there has to be a real energy and chemistry between three people if it's going to come together well. We have to really play off each other and depend on each other so it's much more edgy, kind of like a dare-devil act that we do. It is either really great or we all go down together.

Would you ever consider releasing a solo album?
SFK is really flat out and we just have so much music to make right now that I'm not even thinking about it yet.

To an outsides, your lyrics seem very open to interpretation, very ambiguous. Is this your intent? A way of singing very personally yet not revealing too much?
I say the things I need to say the was I want to say them and the rest is up to the listener. The reason I make music is because it enable me to say things that sometimes words can't express or things that just can't be communicated within the confines of a discussion or conversation or whatever. A note on a guitar or a combination of words that would sound ridiculous in conversation sometimes work perfectly in a song and manage to say so much that I just can't figure out how to say in any other way. My only intent is to get things out of my system, things that I can't find any simpler or more articulate way to get out.

When will there be another S.F.K album?
Early to mid 2001

After the succes of "Beautiful Sharks" do you feel much pressure to live up to a certain expectation from your audience?
No. If we worried about somebody else's expectaions then all honesty would go out of what we do. We'd be "catering".

At the Black Box show, you played some new material that sounded fantastic. Is that how you predominately write new songs, with just you and an acoustic guitar?
Not predominantly, sometimes it's a keyboard or something Steph does on the Bass.

"Beautiful Sharks" featured some interesting effects and different instruments. How did this come about? Will this be something that's explored further on your new album?
We are always tring to find new things to do with our instruments and we are getting to a point where we are just putting them down and picking up other instruments, sometimes a guitar just can't give you the kind of sound you're imaging in your head so you have to try other things. There will be much more experimenting with other instuments as we go on. Incidentall, there is no theremin on 'Beautiful Sharks'.

Does the band listen to similar styles of music? Or is it varying musical tastes that make S.F.K sound so unique?
We all have very different tastes. There are a few things that we agree on but for the most part we all like different things.

It's great that you take the time after shows to meet and talk to your fans, but is this type of adulation something that scares you? Or are you slowly coming to terms with being a familiar face?
I try to talk to everying and spend a bit of time so that I can hopefully dispel a bit of that adulation. If people get to talk to you then they realise pretty quickly that you're just a normal person and that's good. People thinking that you are somehow superhuman or something scares me. I really have a problem with the whole cult of celebrity, people thinking that actors and musicians and other public figures are somehow living on some other plane in some other 'special' kind of existence.

At live gigs, it's rare to hear anyting performed pre-dating "Elsewhere for 8 minutes". Is this a personal choice made by the band, or do you just feel that newer fans will be unfamiliar with older material?
I don't think that a lot of those songs really lend themselves to the acoustic vibe. I guess I just feel a bit more involved with more recent songs aswell. I play some of them sometimes.

Are there anymore all-ages S.F.K gigs coming up?
Not at this stage. We are really focused on writing and getting our new album done just now.