Something For Kate call forrain

Mon 18th Dec, 2006 in Features

After their fifth album release on a major label in Australia, Something For Kate’s, Paul Dempsey, recognises how extraordinary it all is. Telling me of the band’s journey through rumbles and rattles in the past couple of years, he describes how happy they all are to be back on the road. He is calm and nothing short of extremely grateful, “I’ve been able to um, you know, exclusively make music, I’m extremely lucky”.

At peace with where he and his craft are headed, sitting in his home with a guitar and a head full of ideas, he indulges his passion further, “I’m just at home recording some, you know, rough ideas and things”. The trio, including drummer Clint Hyndman, and bassist Stephanie Ashworth, have just returned from a long string of national tours with fellow Melbourne band Damn Arms and Expatriate, “both those bands are fantastic and you know, great people, great fun to be on the road with”. They plan to continue with some international tours next year, following Australia’s Big Day Out.

Dempsey thoroughly enjoyed playing at Sydney’s Homebake this month, especially with the gushing, torrential rain. He explains that rain and other unstoppable distractions make concerts a whole lot more interesting and memorable. “I think, you know, when stuff like that happens, it just changes everybody’s mood, everyone’s going through something together, and it actually improves a festival I find”.

The process of writing Desert Lights, released in July this year, Dempsey explains, was an intense and difficult one, so much so that the band almost broke up. With this restless and challenging time came the need for change in order to progress, “it was a really shitty year, you know, it was a hellish year and we almost broke up, we kind of got to this huge hump as a band, um, as a band and also individually as people”.

The new record has been praised as a more rough and energetic Something For Kate, like some kind of renewed force. Dempsey explains that this is a result of the band’s discomfort and agitation that almost drove them to finish it for good, that they were just letting off a bit of steam, “if last year was wonderful and if we were all calm and peaceful and happy, then it would be a very different record.”

Their live act has changed immensely over time, he explains, and describes the many set up changes with instrumentation and feelings towards putting on a show for the punters, “we kinda went through a stage, where we were really trying to put on a show, like a concert, now it’s just like, we just get up and play and whatever happens, happens”.

The band have chosen to play the side stage at the Big Day Out in the new year, as they feeling looser and more relaxed, which they believe is more appropriate. Dempsey expresses his excitement to see You Am I and The Drones, two bands in his opinion that never fail to get you going. His interest in BDO newcomers, The Killers, comes as a surprise to him, as he loved their most recent release, Sam’s Town, and didn’t expect that he would.

As for Something For Kate’s set, even Dempsey does not predict what will unfold, “I would say that I probably have no idea what we are going to be like at the Big Day Out, its probably gonna be something else again”. Lets hope for some rain to stir up a little chaos.