High On Their Supply

If you've heard Leave Your Soul To Science, Something For Kate's record of 2012 (and frankly, why wouldn't you have?), then you'll know that the Melbourne trio are happy. The lyrical content might not give up that notion, with Paul Dempsey again traversing a broad range of themes, but sonically, the band have never sounded more stirring and inspired.

“I'm really happy to hear that,” a genial Dempsey responds, his voice offering the same smoky rasp that floats across the threesome's catalogue. “A lot of people would make jokes or doubt that a Something For Kate record was capable of doing that, so I'm really happy to hear that you find it uplifting. We all feel the same way; we feel that way about all our records, but particularly this one. We had a great time writing and recording it, and we're having a great time playing it live. There is... It sounds really cheesy but this whole thing has been a real feel good kinda thing.”

A former metalhead who grew up listening to bands like Sepultura and Slayer, Dempsey formed the original incarnation of Something For Kate in the early '90s with high school buddy and longstanding drummer Clint Hyndman, recruiting first bassist Julian Carroll via an advert at a local record store. The trio signed with Sony subsidiary Murmur and went on to release a couple of EPs and their debut record Elsewhere For 8 Minutes which spawned the much loved fan favourite Captain (Million Miles An Hour), all by 1997.

Almost immediately after they had released their debut, Carroll left the band. A first replacement on bass, Toby Ralph, didn't connect with the founding pair, and within the year Stephanie Ashworth had worked her way into the fold. Finally, the Something For Kate line-up became concrete, and although Dempsey didn't realise at the time, he had just met his future wife. Since then the trio have gone on to be one of Australia's most successful and celebrated rock acts, with platinum sales, two number one records and a back catalogue littered with iconic and instantly recognisable songs. Debuting at number five in the ARIA charts, Leave Your Soul To Science is yet another triumph to mark down in the annals of the band.

“We're incredibly fortunate and lucky that we've had the career that we have,” Dempsey understates. “We're incredibly lucky to have this audience that is still sticking with us and we're still finding new listeners and new people coming to our shows. It's just all really positive, wonderful stuff and we're [so fortunate], and at the same time we also feel like we have been able to tick off all these, whatever monkeys were on our back or whatever baggage.

“After being in a band for nearly 20 years you carry around this... All this stuff gets placed on you, you carry around this reputation and all these judgements and prejudices... I'm making it all sound really terrible, it's really not that bad. But, y'know what I mean, it's really good when you can shrug all that off and go, 'Y'know what, it doesn't matter, we can do whatever we want. We're so fucking lucky, let's just do whatever we feel like doing',” He beams.

“And if we feel like not doing it for a while [then so be it]. Something For Kate is just something the three of us can do when we want to do it.” Dempsey mulls on his thoughts for a moment, trying to come up with a way to articulate his feelings about it all. “It's just our thing that we can do that we don't have to do.” A gift and not a chore? “Yeah, exactly!” he agrees. “And I guess that's why it's really good we took a break when we did, and it's good that we all did other things for a few years. We're all just feeling really good about where the band is at; I guess that's the simplest way of saying it.”

Up until mid last year, Something For Kate were on a bit of a hiatus. The band's fifth studio record, Desert Lights, came out in 2006, and following the touring cycle for that album the group threw themselves into other projects. Dempsey cut a solo record (2009's Everything Is True); Hyndman became co-owner of The Woods of Windsor, a homely bar and eatery on Chapel Street, Melbourne; meanwhile Ashworth used the time to take a more active interest in photography.

“We could have very easily kept rolling on and made another Something For Kate record, but I'm glad we've done things the way we have,” he admits. “It was really good for me to do a solo record. It was a really good experience for me to write and record a whole [album] all by myself, and then to go out on tour by myself and have these different backing bands that I had in Australia and America and play music with lots of different people. It taught me a lot and it was a really great thing. At the same token, it was really great for Clint and Steph to have some time away from the band and pursue their own interests.”

But although they forged on through new, individual chapters, the Something For Kate door always remained open. Eventually, the trio regrouped and began penning basic tracks, eventually decamping to Dallas, Texas to record with producer John Congleton in his studio situated in Oak Cliff, a low rent Hispanic neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city. Dempsey says that the choice to venture across the Pacific was a positive one for the band, allowing the three-piece to concentrate solely on making a record without the distractions of day-to-day home life. That focus is obvious when listening to Leave Your Soul To Science. For what you hear in the songs, and what you feel through the record as a whole, is a band that's not so much reawakened as one that's simply been reminded just how great it is to make music together once more.

“I don't know what [this album] would have been like if it had just come hot on the heels of Desert Lights?” Dempsey ponders. “But I guess that's an unanswerable question. But where we're at now, we couldn't be happier with this record and we're all itching to get out on tour together and we're having a whole lot of fun playing live. And that's what you want. It really does feel like a new beginning. And it also feels... By taking a five-year break as well, you sort of just remove all the pressure and baggage and expectations, and it's like all that just got tossed overboard. We feel like we can do whatever we want at this point.”