Kate escape
Herald Sun, May 9 2002

Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey enjoys the freedom of flying solo, writes WILLIAM BOWE

WHEN Murmur Records signed up a little-known Melbourne three-piece named Something For Kate, in the mid-1990s, it seemed a safe bet that label boss John O'Donnell had acquired another cultish local act to go with Automatic and Bluebottle Kiss. Though Paul Dempsey's world-weary vocals seemed well suited to the spirit of the times, and the band had learned from the best of the previous decade of alternative rock, their sound appeared too angular and intense to offer much to mainstream audiences. It all seemed well and good for Murmur's street credibility, but it would presumably fall upon Silverchair and Jebediah to continue justifying the label's existence by filling the coffers of parent company Sony. Not for the first time, though, O'Donnell has proved himself a step ahead of the game. 

Something For Kate quickly established themselves as quiet achievers on the back of a lot of hard work and not much airplay, managing five-figure sales for the albums Elsewhere For Eight Minutes and Beautiful Sharks. But it was not until last year's Echolalia album that the band reached a full maturity of expression that made them impossible to ignore. The result was a series of concise, melodic singles that have powered Echolalia to platinum sales and made the band the Australian rock success story of the past 12 months.

"I think the reason our music's become more accessible is that it's become more articulate," Dempsey says. "I think our music used to wander and it used to be quite meandering and strange. We used to have to take a lot of detours to get our thing across, and I think we've just gotten better at communicating.

"Music for me is about expressing something and about trying to capture something and articulate something about your life. I just feel like I no longer need seven minutes to do that."

While the band cannot sensibly be accused of abandoning their principles to pursue this success, their development has brought them into territory compatible with a new commercial radio format typified by Triple M. Playing to a young, male-dominated demographic with a conservative resistance to dance music, these stations have lapped up many of the bland American rock bands to emerge in the wash-up of grunge, helping the likes of Creed replicate their success back home. Such company can't have been what the lanky, intense young man fronting early Something For Kate gigs had in mind as he struggled to emulate the fierce emotional impact of cult heroes such as Black Flag and Fugazi. But Dempsey says he has never been selective about who should enjoy the band's music.

"I don't have a problem being played on Triple M. Some people have gone, 'Oh you've sold out', but I just think it's so silly.

"Our motivation is simply to create music that excites the three of us. Beyond that it's out of our control who likes it, who doesn't like it, who plays it, who doesn't play it, and who buys it or doesn't buy it.

"And if we were to turn around and go, 'Oh no, we're being played on this radio station', or 'God, I don't want to talk to that magazine because it's for idiots', it's just so stupid and it's really snobbery."

However, Dempsey concedes there are limits. There are things the band won't do.

"We've refused to do fashion shoots for magazines and we've refused to do things we thought had nothing to do with our music. And obviously we aim to keep the focus on our music."

The band's focus on their music offers a far more convincing explanation for their rise and rise than the time-honoured sell-out hypothesis. In an industry characterised by laziness and self-indulgence, Dempsey and colleagues Stephanie Ashworth (bass) and Clint Hyndman (drums) stick to a busy schedule of rehearsal that does a lot to explain the remarkable growth in depth and cohesion between each of their three albums.

"We rehearse pretty much every day of the week," Dempsey says. "We just sort of kick ideas around and that's what we enjoy doing. We would like to record another album this year. The real excitement for us comes with completing a song. That's when you really get that buzz, when you've created something new. You can live on that buzz for ages.

"So we rehearse a lot and if it's a bad day and it's not happening, then we don't push ourselves. But we go down to rehearsal pretty much every week day and we just work until we're over it."

Dempsey also manages to find time to step outside the band for side-projects and to perform solo shows, a series of which are coming up as part of a solo acoustic tour with Grant-Lee Phillips, guiding light of 1990s US indie folk-rockers Grant Lee Buffalo. He says he values the shows as an opportunity to "just get up and do whatever I want".

"I can pull out an obscure B-side that the band hasn't played in years, or I can pull out a new song that the band hasn't finished working on yet. Or I can do a cover that the band doesn't know.

"Just that ability to improvise everything and just do different versions - it's fun. It's different and it's also helpful, particularly with the new songs, to just play them with an audience to see how they feel.

"It's just completely selfish and self-indulgent, I can play whatever I want, however I want."

Echolalia (Sony) out now. Paul Dempsey, with Grant Lee-Phillips, Prince of Wales May 16, 17 (sold out). Under 18s show, June 1, Blackbox Theatre (Arts Centre), 4pm.