CAMERON ADAMS talks to a young band who have masterminded their own success

MELBOURNE trio Something for Kate have a career trajectory most younge bands would kill for.
Signed up when singer/songwriter Paul Dempsey was in his late teens, they've been allowed to develop at their own pace on a major label - a rare luxuary.
They've chosen their own producers, nver succembed to the obvious hit they'd be embarrassed by, and have cultivated one of the most loyal and intense fan bases of any Australian act.
The steady grownth in their popularity gave their second album Beautiful Sharks, a Top 10 debut; their latest single, Monsters, entered at No. 15 without any commercial radio support to speak of; and their recent national tour sold out many venues several weeks in advance.
That's unusual for any local band.
And it's because Soemthing for Kate's shows are becoming events
Their core follwoing - not mainly male any more, they say - know all the words and are not afraid to sing them.
"Enough has been made of the fact that at Something for Kate shows people kind of stand there and sing along or listen so girls can just come down the front, small people can come down the front, there's no fear of having someone roll over you head," Dempsey says.
"People know it's not a threatening situation," bassist Stephanie Ashworth says. "It's a very civilised event. Some peope mention that's it's almost a gospel-choir vibe with people singing the words so loudly when Paul's on acousitc guitar.
"There's this incredible silence between songs, it's like being in church or something ..."
Dempsey winces at such reverential imagery.
"We're just playing music, people like it and they sing along," he says. "We just try to create an atmosphere where we're not on the stage being performers and the audience is down there."
"There are a whole lot of people in a room, some with instruments, a whole lot without intstruments, but it's about hte sound in the room."
I don't thin we alienate the audience with rock and roll antics or try to blind them with a light show or deafen them with guirat mayhem or dazzle them with manoeuvres."
"I thin that's why they sings along, because they feel relaxed."
"We just want everyone in the room to get on the same wavelength. How many other places in life does that happen? That's why people go to shows - they want to be momentarily transported somewhere. But enough of the religious connotations"
Ashworth interjects: "I just meant the way it sounds, when that many people sing along..."
"A few things have been writeen lately about the religious nature of it," Dempsey contines, slightly miffed. "The story in Juice about us being the musical messiahs, it's nothing like that."
"People like the music enough that they want to sing along, want to shut up and listen, maybe close their eyes, stand on the spot and sway a little. That's really good."
And while we're laying preconceptions to rest, what about Paul Dempsey: Serious Young Man?
"I get jittery and serious in interviews because I'm jittery and serious about what we do," he says.
"I'm 6ft 6in, I've got black hari, a furrowed brow, a deep voice and I sing songs of an emotional nature: I must be a basket case. That's a simple conclusion to jump to, and it's not accurate."
Echolalia, their third album, is tipped to break Something for Kate as a major act. It's certainly their most direct release, lyrically and musically.
They're not about to become Powderfinger, but the niche they've carved for themselves in the local music scene is about to welcome more vistors than ever.
"We want to be heard by as many people as possible," Dempsey says. "We've had letters from women in regional areas with families who heard Monsters on the radio. They say, 'It's refreshing, it made me think about my life'", Ashworth says.
Dempsey enjoys the feedback
"It's nice to have anybody turn around and go 'I got something out of that'. It makes you feel like you're not yelling out gibberish in the dark."
"It makes you realise there are people out there who want more than words that don't mean anything, people who want to connect with something on a human level, not just a hip-shaking level."
"It's good to shake your hips, but it's also nice to feel like some complete stranger heard you on some level and you could do something little for them in their day."
"If we were just trying to write catchy songs to grab people's ears, it wouldn't translate, we'd be bored. The record would be like a deli platter, with something for everybody."
"We'd be caterers, robots, not getting anything out of music except an ego reward of having hit singles."
The pair have their own favourite moments from Echolalia. Ashworth opts for You Only Hide
"it's really simple and it's one of those songs that I'd like people who have a preconception of Something for Kate being this dark, heavy, masculine band to hear because I think it subverts that."
"It's quite an emotional song, which is no surprise coming from us, but I like its spareseness"
Dempsey's favourite lyrics is found in Twenty Years
"They think I'm down, they tell me I should brighten up because they don't know an explosion when they see one," Dempsey quotes himself.
"When I wrote that line I felt I had explained myself in some way."
"That line can be related to the perception of me as a moody bastard, but it's more general. It's a comment about me, but also about them."
Something for Kate's website not only has the usual tour dates and lyrics, it also offers the band's recommended reading and listening.
"It was just such a regular question," Dempsey says.
"So many peope asked us what we were reading, what we were listening to."
While they state songwriting has become mroe democratic, Dempsey (who plays solo when SFK are between albums) still takes a predominant role, right down to his handwriting being their trademark font.
"I wouldn't call myself a control freak," Dempsey says. "I'd call myself something of a director."
"I won't go, 'It has to be done like this', but I guess I do steer a bit. But I don't want to."
It's one of the reason their fans feel so close to them, buying their records sight unseen, investigating the books and records they love.
Despite landing in the Top 20 (they hadn't heard of most of the acts with whom they briefly shared the chart) Something for Kate basically remain an anomaly for their parent company, Sony, which is finally getting returns for years of investing in the band.,br> "I guess we've got a reputation," Ashworth says. "We're not 17 and inexperienced, we're very hand-on about everything, probably to the point where it drives people mental."
"But if it's your career and you care about it ... we could never understand how bands could say 'Whatever'.
"How could you? It's cuch an emotional involvement"
"I don't care whether people think, 'Oh God here comes Something for Kate, they're going to be really anal about this or that', because if we weren't we'd be complacent.
"And who need another compacent rock band?"

Echolalia (Murmur/Sony) out now. Something for Kate sign CDs on Saturday, Gaslight, 1pm. Someting for Kate, Forum Theatre, Auguest 17, 18.

FORMED in Melbourne during 1994, Something for Kate took their name from Paul Dempsey's dog, kate, for whom he had to get something from the shops.
Dempsey, drummer Clint Hyndman and bassist Julian Carroll signed to Murmur, then best known as the home of silverchair, after a good response to their domo, which was being sold in Au Go Go records.
After the EP The Answer to Both Your Questions and several singles, their debut album, Elsewhere for Eight Minutes, was released in 1997, featuring the single Captain (Million Miles an Hour).
Carrol left and was briefly replaced by Toby Ralph before current bassist Stephanie Ashworth, from Sandpit, joined.
Their second album, Beautiful Sharks, made its debut in the Top 10 in 1999. It included the Top 40 hit Electricity. One track, Photograph, appeared on the Dawson's Creek soundtrack.
Dempsey released a solo record under the guise Scared of Horses, and sold out such venues as the Corner for his acoustic shows alone.

ECHOLALIA was produced by Rtina Shoemaker, best known for her work on the most recent Sheryl Crown albums, for which she won a Grammy.
"You can't pick fault with the sound of those records - they're awesome. And varied," Paul Dempsey, a Sheryl Crow fan, says.
"There are all kinds of drums and guitars, all recorded beautifully, and Trina recorded them.
"One of the thankyous on Sheryls album says Trina was willing to ry anything, which is what we were after.
"She's done Sheryl Crown, Queens of the Stone Age, Emmylou Harris, Pearl Jam, Iggy Pop ... she obviously just digs all kinds of music."
One of the most obvious changes on the album is the warmth and progress of Dempsey's vocals.
"I think his vocals have finally been captured in a way that does them jusice," Stephanie Ashowrth says.
"It wasn't just Trina's influence. Stephanie was there all the time going, 'Put a harmony on that line'," Dempsey says.
"And I didn't feel any pressure to get the damn thing on tape. We did vocals whenever I felt like it. The mood was right."