SOMETHING FOR KATE
Shark Attack
Something For Kate are about to embark upon their first national headlining tour since the release of their second LP, Beautiful Sharks. The only problem is, there's still a few loose ends to be tied up from their last national tour. Things were going well as SFK played the country as guests of Powderfinger - big crowds, shows sold out long before the tour got under way, bands getting along famously. Then PF vocalist Bernard Fanning ran into some throat problems, causing the tour to be postponed. The Melbourne shows have now been rescheduled, not all that conveniently, within a week of SFK's own shows.
"I'm actually looking forward to getting back together with Powderfinger because it was really enjoyable, but yeah, it would have been kinda good to finish it and that be that, yeh," says SFK bassist Stephanie Ashworth. "Although we all became really attached on the tour and it's been really sad to end it. But we've actually got Darren [Middleton] from Powderfinger playing guitar and keyboards for use becuase Wally [Gunn] who's been doing it for us isn't available. So we'll actually have a bit of Powderfinger on stage."
This time 'round SFK have also gone out of their way to choose a venue that's a little different - RMIT's Storey Hall.
"The reason we chose it is we've played the Hi Fi Bar so many times now, and we've got another three shows there with Powderfinger as well, so we kinda thought, 'Well, let's go somewhere a little bit bigger, a little bit more comfortable for everybody and somewhere just a little bit different'. Just to get people a little bit more inspired."
The tour will be a good chance for people to see how well SFK slip from the quieter Beautiful Sharks material to some of the more raucous older songs. "I don't have a problem with it," says Ashworth of having to continually adjust. "I know that sometimes Clint [Hyndman] on the drums, depending on the night, might find it difficult to go from a song like Captain to going to play something very fragile, but I think he's kind of really enjoying holding back."
Because he does hit them pretty hard. "Yeah, he does," laughs Ashworth. "Although when we were just away with Powderfinger, their drummer Goggsy was just saying 'Ahh, what a wuss. He looks like he hits them hard, but he doesn't actually hit them hard, it's all in the arm movements'. He's a grandiose drummer - he looks like he's hitting them hard but he's not. Although my ears... my right ear is completely rooted I have to say from being on stage next to him. There's a lot of variety on stage as far a tempo and hard-hitting stuff and mellow stuff, and I reckon that's really good, it makes it interesting for people."
The current singe for SFK is Hallways, one of the rockier tracks off the album. Was it hard trying to pick a song to follow up first singe Electricity? "Yeah, it was really hard actually, because if the truth be known I don't think that we as a band were very into that as a single," says Ashworth. "But yeah, what we'll do with the next single is just sort of maybe illustrate another side of the band other than the guitar kind of stuff. I would personally really like Beautiful Sharks, the title track, to be a single, 'cos I like it. If I had to pick a song on the album that I like best it would be that one."
As always, the single comes with plenty of interesting b-sides, including a remix of Easy by Geoff Barrow from Portishead, and an early instrumental version of the Beautiful Sharks closer, Photograph, giving an insight into how SFK construct their songs.
"What generally happens is we write the music first and Paul [Dempsey, vocalist/guitarist] has a bunch of notebooks that he's continually scribbling on in very strange places, you sort of go 'My God, what's he doing?' We're driving in a car at 3:30 in the morning from Coffs Harbour to Newcastle and he's sitting in the front seat with a torch writiig these bloody lyrics."
A collection of SFK vids will also be appearing in shops soon, and will feature all the band's videos to date along with some rarer footage. "We have a network of people around the country who for some reason document everything on film," explains Ashworth. "They turn up to in-stores and Live At The Wireless and all those kind of things and they film everything. They've got bootlegs of every show and they've got some amazing footage, so we thought it would be interesting to put some of that together and show a side of things that is perhaps a little more amusing. It'll be funny, but I'm dreading seeing some of the footage because I know some of it's going to be a bit cringey."
So where to from here for SFK? "We've started to write the next album," says Ashworth, "which is going to be completely different from this one. And that's really exciting, because a lot of people heard this album and went 'Oh wow, so you guys are going really mellow', but no we're not at all, that's just what we've done at this particular point in time. Some of the new stuff is very different from this and the first album again."
- By Shane O'Donohue
Something For Kate play this Saturday 11th September at RMIT Storey Hall. The album Beautiful Sharks and single Hallways are now on Murmur through Sony.
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