What Kate Did Next
John Mullen
Rave - 3/7/1996

"Definitely. We are a rock band and you can throw in as many prefixes as you'd like, pop-rock, punk-rock, sub-punk new wave rock, alternative rock, whatever, but we're a rock band," insists Something For Kate's guitarist/vocalist Paul Dempsey. "We're not a pop band. A couple of songs on the EP could be regarded as poppy but we're not trying to churn out the hummable tunes."

Just eighteen months old and already recognised as one of Australia's most exciting new rock prospects, Something For Kate obviously have a clearly defined sense of purpose and understanding of who they are: they're a loud, raucous ROCK band and fookin' proud of it. And while Paul Dempsey suggests any number of prefixes are appropriate to describe what he and bassist Julian Carroll and drummer Clint Hyndman do, 'dumb ass' wouldn't be one of them.

As evidenced on their Greg Atkinson (Big Heavy Stuff) produced, debut seven track EP ....The Answer To Both Your Questions, SFK harness immense emotional power in their simple, uncluttered, grunge-fuelled compositions. Coupled with a thickness of sound and a superior sense of guitar dynamics, their songs ebb and flow wilfully, always on the verge of hitting that sublime moment where volume and passion crystallise. But it's Paul Dempsey's primal screams and tuneful raspy vocals that add much to SFK's intensity. At just nineteen years of age he already displays the potential to be one of Australia's most promising songwriters.

"I write the words I write for a reason and obviously singing them is something of a release. But contrary to what the music sounds like, I'm not an angry young man. I'm actually quite a happy, well adjusted human being, but it does feel good to vent a little."

Is performing a cathartic experience for you?
"It depends how I feel when we're playing on stage. Sometimes I'm really getting into what I'm singing and other times I'm just enjoying singing, so sometimes I enjoy what I'm singing, and other times it's a complete disaster."

Let's face it, Something For Kate are a new band and new bands get asked old questions. Music journalist chestnuts like, ermm, where's you get your name? Or in this case where's you get the name for your EP?
Thankfully, Paul obliges without a grimace.
"You could say I came up with that. I actually said to a friend of mine 'What should we call the EP?' and 'What should we put on the cover?' and he said 'The answer to both your questions, pornography' and I ignored the pornography bit and I thought the answer to both your questions sounded interesting, so he kind of unwittingly came up with that. I just thought it sounded good" he says with a laugh and a shrug.

I suggest to Paul that as The Cure are listed as one of your favourite bands on the bio and had an album called Pornography, that maybe there's a subconscious connection with his friend's suggestion.
"Oh, yeah," he says, sounded puzzled before I explain, "I personally have never really pursued The Cure, never really listened to them much, they're Julian's biggest influence over his whole, entire life."

Have you seen what's on your bio?
"Yeah. That was a combination of all our tastes, we all listed three or four bands that we liked and they combined them. The one that is my biggest influence is REM, the NOFXX is Clint's. We have really different tastes and we don't really agree on each other's taste in music. But Julian's into The Cure and Afghan Wigs, you know, a dark vibe, and Clint's into your alleged punk rock, speedy, fast, melodic, psycho drum beats like Lag Wagon and all that and I'm into REM, Fugazi, 10 000 Maniacs, Grant Lee Buffalo, Finn Brothers, anything they're done."

I made a list of my own, I tell Paul most humbly. Vocally, you remind me of Tim Steward from Screamfeeder.
"Yeah, that's been said before."

Then there's elements of Big Heavy Stuff, you share a similar melodic hardness...
"Well, yeah, I take that as a compliment. I think they're the best band in Australia. But yeah, I don't know who you'd compare us to, I suppose it helps to know what we sound like. Something For Kate is pretty much a common ground between all three of our influences and as our influences that common ground could become very silly or whatever. We'd like to try some different instruments in the future, you can only go so far with guitar, bass and drums, that's why we had the strings on the album."

"The music we write is one way or the other but when it comes to putting down the vocals I enjoy singing in tune a lot more than I enjoy randomly singing," he laughs, "But Greg (Atkinson)... I have a huge respect for Greg, I love his music and we approached Greg because of what we heard in Covered In Bruises, that just blew us away, and we found out that he and David Trump had been involved in the production of that."

Often performers have difficulty discussing their work when it's still very new and close to them, saying that they haven't had that distance from it to be able to make a judgement. Well, that's what they usually say.
"As, no, not at all, quite the contrary. I've listened to the EP twice and I'm satisfied with it, we did what we set out to do. We wrote those songs, we liked those songs, we recorded them and represented them in the way we wanted to and I'm just stepping back now and I'm ready to play a whole lot and I've already got a whole batch of songs that I'm getting to know."

What's it like to be in a young band approached by Murmur?
"It was very strange to begin with. In the initial stages I felt a different way about it every five seconds but doing the CD and the whole process of getting to know people, getting into the studio, recording the CD, and then packaging it and getting it out, it's all been really smooth. It has been really smooth and I'm totally happy with it and comfortable with it."

One of the questions that initially plagued Paul was just what priority SFK would receive on the Murmur label, the home of silverchair, Ammonia, Bluebottle Kiss and the like.
"That was another thing. We were approached by some big labels and the question of priority was important and Murmur has less than ten bands on its roster and so we thought that was good. In the end we were approached by a few people and Murmur came out on top, so it was great."

Something For Kate play the Great Northern Hotel the Thursday, this Saturday at Crash and Burn (arvo) and The Roxy (evening) and Mansfield this Sunday.

Back to the Interviews / Articles Page
Back to the Main Page