Steady rockers get on with business
by Iain Shedden
The Australian, August 12 2003

PAUL Dempsey, one-third of Something For Kate, has a theory about the age-old rock'n' roll tradition of smashing guitars. "There's genuine guitar smashing out of frustration," he says, "and then there's performance guitar smashing."

His theory comes by way of explaining how the Melbourne band has become an Australian favourite largely without resorting to stage histrionics -- or, indeed, controversy of any description. 

"We got that out of our systems," he says. "When we started out we used to have brawls on stage. That was just because we didn't know any better, not because we were trying to put on a show. We used to lose our tempers over stupid stuff like sound problems and somebody going out of tune. As we've kept going we've learned how to keep our instruments in tune and play better together, so there's no need for guitar smashing."

Something For Kate -- singer-guitarist Dempsey, bassist Stephanie Ashworth and drummer Clint Hyndman -- have steadily increased their fan base and critical acclaim, but with a minimum of fuss, during the past seven years with albums Elsewhere in Eight Minutes (1997), Beautiful Sharks (1999) and the ARIA award-nominated Echolalia (2001). They have spent much of this year on the road in Australia and overseas, including support slots with Silverchair in Europe, and are about to tour again on the back of their new album, The Official Fiction, which is released next Monday.

There's a sense of quiet achievement about Something For Kate. Their songs are ambiguous, introspective pop tunes -- thoughtful without being provocative, insidious but without malice. The above could apply equally to the three musicians. In person they are stubbornly congenial -- proud of their success but unwilling to couch it in terms of rock stardom. They do what they do and would rather just get on with it, thanks, than have to explain it.

"We want the music to be the focus," says Dempsey. "We enjoy a drink as much as anybody else, but we do it quietly with our friends. When it comes to how people perceive the band, we want it to be about the music, not what party we were at standing on a table ... that kind of stuff. We're just three people who get enormous pleasure from picking up our instruments and playing together. That's all there is to it."

Not much room for controversy there but you can at least get Dempsey tepid under the collar if you mention the term "intelligent guitar rock". That's a label the band have been stuck with for most of their career and it's not one with which any of them is particularly happy. Dempsey describes it as stupid. "It makes me feel like I should get an IQ test. It's just a term that has been lumped on us. We don't write songs about girls or parties but we take our music seriously and we write about things we consider important. You slap this term on it and suddenly it's a can of soup: 'Intelligent rock -- get it today."'

Rather than cars and girls, the new album's title and songs, such as Best Weapon ("the stripes and suits pushing the numbers through") imply some kind of grand conspiracy or comment on world events.

"That song was written before Iraq," says Dempsey. "It's about a long pattern going back 40 or 50 years. It could be interpreted as being about Iraq or it could be interpreted as being about Stalin."

Something For Kate's national tour begins in Byron Bay, NSW, on September 11.