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Something For Kate
The band's first demo sold furiously out of Melbourne independent record store Au-Go-Go on the strength of a string of gigs in small pubs that began the world of mouth which propelled the group's career thereafter and saw them signed to Sony subsidiary murmur. The first album was preceded by a mini-album ('The Answer To Both Your Questions'), a stop-gap vinyl EP ('Intermission') and a couple of singles ('Dean Martin', 'Captain'). The album itself was recorded in New Zealand. Three months of constant 'nagging' had seen the band secure American producer Brian Paulson for the record. They found him in the small print on albums by Archers of Loaf, Superchunk, Uncle Tupelo, Slint, Son Volt, the Wedding Present, Wilco and the Jayhawks. He also used to do the live sound for Husker Du and Big Black. New Zealand was chosen as neutral ground. Paulson is a Kiwi-phile, and it suited SFK to get away from home and friends to devote themselves completely to the task at hand. It gave the album the required intensity, but proved the last straw for bass player Julian Campbell. The sessions for 'Elsewhere For Eight Minutes' was the last input for founding bass player Julian Carroll. He left the band and the rock life to get married and live a quieter life. His replacement Toby Ralph came from Sydney prog-rock band Bobtailing. It was bound to be a turning point for the band. Until now Paul Dempsey had not just written the songs but dictated how the band should play them. He felt that wasn't the best way to work and welcomed the inclusion of someone who had written most of the songs for his previous band. But within a month the situation turned sour. Dempsey found himself unwilling and unable to write with Ralph. The differences between the two musicians were both significant and trivial. In the end, after a rehearsal, the bassist quit the band and, frustrated by the turn of events, drummer Clint Hyndman walked out too. For 15 minutes Something For Kate didn't exist. But Hyndman remembered that he and the singer were best friends, and that being in a band together was all they talked about in school. He went back and told his friend what had just happened was stupid and they agreed to carry on. Their original choice to replace Julian Carroll had been Sandpit bassist Stephanie Ashworth. At the time she was loath to leave her band. Twelve months later Sandpit was no longer, and in that same time she and Dempsey had gone from musical acquaintances to becoming a couple. Cint had to deal with the additional consideration that his best friend's girlfriend was joining the band. And, once she joined, much as he wanted to, Dempsey initially found himself unable to write songs with Ashworth. It was agreed that the second album should again be recorded with Brian Paulson, but this time in Toronto. On the way Dempsy spent several weeks in Dublin visiting his father's family for the first time. Ashworth and Hyndman hung out together in Los Angeles, getting to know each other. By the time Something For Kate reconvened in Toronto everything had fallen into place. Ashworth and Dempsy co-wrote half the music that would comprised 'Beautiful Sharks'. The album deals with communication, and continues Dempsy's fascination with astrophysics. The title of 'Elsewhere For 8 Minutes' had been a reference to theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings, the 'modern Einstein', confided to a wheelchair since the 60s. Demsey's words, the lynchpin of Something For Kate's songs, are as profound as the astrophysics and as immediate as the source of the band's name. In a SFK performance, or performing on his own (under his own name or as Scared Of Horses) he delivers the words standing at the microphone while the audience listens hushed, hanging off every syllable. Sonically 'Beautiful Sharks' saw a change in musical direction, from the intensity of 'Elsewhere For 8 Minutes' to something more sparse and open for the voice to express itself In. 'Beautiful Sharks' established SFK beyond their loyal dedicated following. When it came time to think about the next album the band made a list of the requirements and sounds they wanted, and who could deliver those things. Several top-line producers were considered until Paul saw an acknowledgement on the back of a Grammy-winning Sheryl Crow album the band had been listening to. Sheryl had written, 'I would like to thank Trina Shoemaker for being willing to try anything.' That was the spirit they were looking for in their next producer. Shoemaker's credits also included Blues Traveler, Kristen Hersh, R.E.M., Whiskeytown and Queens Of The Stone Age. Locked away at INXS bassist Gary Garry Beers' Mangrove studios on the Central Coast of NSW Something For Kate spent more time on their songs than they'd ever spent in the past. On record the result was the rich and full sound which they haven't been able to capture up until now. Their efforts were rewarded and the band's status confirmed with the first single 'Monsters' becoming the band's first bona fide "hit" and the album achieving platinum sales. For the follow-up album 'The Official Fiction' SFK returned to Mangrove studios with Shoemaker. Paul Dempsy and Stephanie Ashworth had married in the interim, which made what preceded the band's fifth studio album ever harder to endure than had she just been a band member. Dempsy suffers from clinical depression which throughout the band's career had produced period's of writer's block, but never as seriously as this. It was writers block gone way further than before, and had to be treated. The band had written the songs together long before they were recorded, and then Stephanie and drummer Clint Hyndman waited patiently and in frustration for Paul to come through his trauma and return with his lyrics, ready for the studio. In the end Something For Kate have come up with possibly the strongest group of songs in their career, with Paul's naturally dead-pan vocals taking on a new confident passionate edge. 'Desert Lights' was produced by Brad Wood, straight from his success with Ben Lee. As happy as SFK were with 'Echolalia' and 'The Official Fiction' they had a very consistent sound between them. They sounded like a double album separated by two years. They didn't want to make Part Three. Determined not to go "there" again, Paul Dempsy resolved not to stop writing, but the next Something For Kate was going to have to wait. 'Desert Lights' had come nearly a decade on from the band's debut. Completing their existing contractual obligations SFK looked back over their career with a double CD, 'The Murmur Years' released in August 2007. Notwithstanding a couple of one-of reunion shows for their ever-loyal following Something For Kate went into hiatus while their leader concentrated on writing for a solo album.
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