Paul Dempsey: Solo Man.

Paul Dempsey plays The Zoo on Saturday and Sunday.

It’s safe to say that, right now, Something For Kate is one of the biggest bands in the country. It seems as if, with every new album, the group rises to a new level of popularity and critical acclaim. The interesting thing about this is that their success owes nothing to the normal industry standbys of imaging, hype and having ones photo splashed on the cover of every magazine. It is instead simply a testament to the fact that the group?s angular, unpredictable, emotive, always tuneful music strongly resonates with a whole bunch of people. On the eve of his second solo tour, SFK frontman Paul Dempsey is philosophical about his group’s good fortune.

“We’re extremely grateful,” he begins. “We’re grateful that people come to our shows or buy a copy of our record. You know, a million bands start up everywhere and they all love what they do just as much as we do, and they all have as much passion for it and as much excitement about it, and not all of them get an airing. There’s a lot of bands out there that people haven’t gone to see yet, or haven’t bought their record yet and we’re just really lucky that we’re one of the bands where people have done that, and you can’t really put your finger on why. All you can assume is that enough people have enjoyed it, and we really appreciate that.”

So what’s the motivation behind embarking on a solo tour?

“Well, I did a solo tour in 2000 which was pretty short and sweet” Paul recalls. “I just did one small show in each city and I just really enjoyed it. It really helped a lot of the new stuff we were working on at the time, it really helped it take shape, playing it night after night with a good PA and being able to hear everything really loudly. It just sort of cemented a few things in my head. I just really enjoyed doing it, ‘cause I can not write a set list and sit up there and play whatever I want for as long as I want, so it’s fun in that respect, and it’s also a way to try out new songs that maybe the band doesn’t have completely ironed out yet.”

Joining Paul for the tour is none other than Grant-Lee Phillips, the former leader of the near-legendary Grant Lee Buffalo, so the shows this weekend are pretty certain to be extraordinary occasions. It must have been something of a coup for Paul to have been able to entice Phillips down our way.

“Absolutely,” Paul enthuses. “I’ve been a fan since Grant Lee Buffalo’s first record and just really enjoyed his song-writing, and he’s doing stuff by himself now and I just thought to myself, we should just ask him and see if he’s interested, because maybe if we don’t ask he might not get down here. So we just sent a copy of the record and just said ‘hey, were doing this tour, do you wanna join us’ and that’s all there was to it. He’s made a few of my favourite records, so it’s a real thrill.”

Given his enjoyment of solo performing, I wonder whether Paul is considering the prospect of releasing solo record, perhaps similar to his Scared of Horses side-project from a couple of years ago.

“Well, there’s always stuff I’m coming up with that, for whatever reason, doesn’t suit the rest of Something for Kate,” he admits, “or it’s just stuff that I do by myself that’s maybe a little weird or ambient, or isn’t really stuff that we would play together as a band, and that’s kind of why that album came about. There is music like that lying around and I have thought about some way of getting it out, but then I thought, well, why? Just for the hell of it? I don’t assume that just because I’ve been writing music I have to get it out, I have to make it public, you know. So I just keep it all collected somewhere and I’m sure that it will find its way somewhere and if it doesn’t, that’s okay. Some music I just enjoy at home and I don’t necessarily think that anyone else needs to hear it,” he laughs.

Looks as if we’ll have to wait for the next SFK record for our Dempsey hit, then. In the meantime, you’d be mad not to be at the Zoo this weekend.