Something For The Ages

"We've just been incredibly lucky and incredibly fortunate and we don't take any of it for granted.”

That pretty much sums up the perspective of Paul Dempsey, singer-songwriter for Something For Kate, when asked to reflect on the success of the band he formed back in 1994. He admits that he never expected the band would take off the way it did; their grand vision was simply to play a gig, and it expanded from there, to the dream of recording a 7”, and, after being offered a record deal, making an album.

“I was never interested in making pop music or trying to make hit songs. I knew that was never going to happen and I also knew therefore that by choosing to play not-pop, not-mainstream music that I was making it hard for myself and that it would probably never turn into a career if I wanted to play the music that I loved.”

But it did turn into a career, and over the course of that career, the group, rounded out by bassist Stephanie Ashworth and drummer Clint Hyndman, have sold over half a million albums with little fanfare or controversy.

“It doesn't feel like 20 years. I feel like the person who made those early records and EPs and stuff was like a kid. I obviously don't feel like that person any more. We've all changed a lot over the course of 20 years, but we've just kept our heads down and been working hard the whole time, writing records or recording them or being out on tour… It's just odd when you sort of step off the carousel for a second and you realise you've been going for that long.”

To mark the occasion, Something For Kate will be heading off on a national tour in July, playing two sets each night – sets that will include B-sides and rarities. On top of that they'll be releasing deluxe CD reissues and vinyl pressings of all their albums; a short film by Callum Preston will be screened at the start of each show detailing the band's rich history; and a photograph/art book Paper Trail containing a collection of candid behind-the-scenes images will be made available. Then following each show the band will be signing merch and chatting to fans. What a mouthful.

“Tracking the progression of Clint's various hairstyles and fashion trends, it's pretty funny; he really did kind of adopt every trend of every year throughout our career,” Dempsey laughs. “It's an unusual situation to be in, not many people have to have 20 years of their life documented in public but it's funny, I don't have any regrets. You do obviously grow and you change and culture changes and you sort of change with it to some degree.

“When we started out it was very angsty, very angry music, very abrasive, and I didn't know what else to write about except kind of, for want of a better word, expressing frustration because that just seems like the natural thing to go along with the fact that you were like bashing a guitar through 10,000 watts of PA and just making this unholy racket.

“Over time we grew into adults and our taste in music changed and our appreciation for songwriting changed and things started to get a little bit more sophisticated and a little bit more crafted… We are all in our late 30s so we're very different people, which is to be expected. It's sort of frustrating though because there are always people who are still going to judge you based on the music you made when you were 18 years old and that's sort of unfair.”

But Dempsey doesn't pay attention to the criticism. “We've always copped the criticism that we're 'miserable' or that there's something sort of 'negative' about our music. I get a lot of criticism about the sound of my voice and I don't know what I'm supposed to do about that. I guess ultimately I don't really worry about it because you can't please everybody and I'm well aware there's going to be some people who like us and some people who don't like us and that's just life.”

And though it's been asked a million times before, but who is Kate? Dempsey is on the record saying Kate was the name of his dog, but he admits to The Music that's not true.

“We didn't have a name at all and we got our first gig and the guy who booked the gig at the pub called us up and said, 'Oh, I need to know the name of the band now because we're putting an ad in street press and we need to know what you're calling yourselves.' We didn't really have a name and I was living in a sharehouse at the time and I just looked down at the kitchen bench and there was a post-it note that said 'Something for Kate' on it and so I just blurted out, 'Something for Kate' and to this day I still don't know who wrote that post-it note or who the Kate in question even was.

“I didn't think it would stick. I didn't think we would stay called Something For Kate but we did that first gig and it went really well and someone immediately offered us another gig the next week and then we got a gig the week after that and before we knew it we were just playing all these gigs around town and we were called Something For Kate… It stuck but I've never liked it. I think it's an incredibly stupid band name.”