So you’re back in Melbourne again.

Paul Dempsey : I don’t think I’m ready to be back. I miss LA. It’s weird going outside. We were quite settled after nearly four months in LA.

This record’s been a long time in the making.

Dempsey : It’s been the longest album we’ve made for sure, but it’s been great. Every other album, you do these incredibly long days in the studio ? start at 10am and go till 3 or 4, because 24 track studios are expensive, and you want to use the time as quickly as you can. But this time we made the album entirely on Protools at Brad’s studio, it’s just a whole different process, and we were getting plenty of sleep. The album sounds better for it, because you’re able to remain a bit more focussed because you’re getting a decent amount of sleep.

Something For Kate avoid the glare in LA. Left to right: Paul Dempsey, Stephanie Ashworth and Clint Hyndman

Let’s start at the beginning. Where was the band at by the end of The Official Fiction ?

Dempsey : Right, well? we finished touring the last album in mid to late 2004, and we wanted to go back into the studio as soon as possible. We wanted to have an album out early 2005, and so we got home and started working right away and writing and rehearsing every single day. But it didn’t go well. It went really badly.

What was the hindrance there?

Dempsey : I think it’s been documented enough that I tend to go through a little writer’s block between each record ? and that’s fine, I’ve learnt to accept that. [ Wood starts laughing. ] But this time nothing was coming, nothing I liked anyway. I say writer’s block, but I guess to be more accurate ? I write plenty of stuff, but I just have a standard for myself, and I sometimes, you know, I make that standard impossibly high, which is stupid. Of course I end up not writing anything, and all of a sudden doubt sets in, and before you know it time was just flying past. We got to mid 2005 and I’d still barely written a thing that I thought was any good. 2005 was just a really shitty year.

After coming from the last two records with Trina Shoemaker, what were you wanting to do?

Dempsey : We knew that we wanted to strip things back. We knew that we wanted sort of each song to have a vital core, something that carried the song instead of dressing everything up too much. We didn’t want to repeat our first album, but what I’m going to say is that when you listen to our first album, you can hear there isn’t a whole lot of instrumentation, they’re pretty bare bones. We’re a three-piece band, and we got to the point where we were on the road as five-piece trying to reproduce all the different sounds that we’d put on the records, and we just wanted to make enough noise with the three of us in the room that it felt good.

When did you find out about Something For Kate, Brad?

Brad Wood : I bought Echolalia when it came out, well right actually. I bought it on Amazon, because I’d heard a song on KCRQ. I was familiar with them ? I know a bit about some of Australian bands, but they’d escaped my attention. I’m a fan of Trina’s stuff so I saw that she recorded it, and it’s always good to see what she’s up to. Then later my management got me a CD of new songs, and I was just really, really excited by what I was hearing.

What did you think of Echolalia ? What brought you into it?

Wood : Paul’s voice, first and foremost. He’s got a beautiful voice, it’s really rich. I also like the drumming quite a bit, and um, gosh, I don’t know. For me it was mostly just how Paul sings and what he was singing.

How did Brad’s name come into the mix as a potential producer? I’m assuming you’re a bit of a Tortoise fan?

Dempsey : Absolutely, Tortoise and Liz Phair, Pete Yorn and Red Red Meat? Brad’s made a hell of a lot of records, and I’ve owned a lot of them. We started thinking of who we might work with as soon as we started writing songs, because we were trying to think about what kind of sound we wanted to go for. All the preconceptions we had at the end of 2004 about the record we were going to make, by the end of 2005 they were well and truly ground to dust. We started really understanding what kind of touch the songs needed in the studio, and that was essentially just a really live, organic, sound. All the records Brad’s done have great drum and guitar sounds, and they all feel alive.

How complete were the songs going into the studio? I’m assuming you guys usually go in with songs fully realised.

Dempsey : In the past we’ve always been fiercely protective of everything we do, and we’ve always gone into the studio completely prepared. We have always pretty much have chosen people to engineer ? nobody has ever really rearranged our songs, or changed much about them, because we wouldn’t allow it. But this time around we realised that we didn’t feel like that anymore. It’s our fifth album, maybe it’s time we listened to somebody else’s opinion.

Wood : [ laughs ] It’s nice to try something different.

Dempsey : Yeah, exactly. Because we had had such a difficult time writing the album, I no longer necessarily thought that everything I did was correct, and was really open to somebody else’s ideas. So we went in with this batch of songs and spent two weeks doing pre-production before we even recorded anything. We went through every song with Brad, and he had great rearrangement ideas, great suggestions about where to cut a bit out of a song that was superfluous, trimming the fat, suggesting great little melodies, and that happened right through the process.

When you work with a new band, Brad, do you have particular methods you like to try to start off with?

Wood : It varies for each band, but essentially the methods are really the same, it’s a matter of the band starting to play in the same room with me, and just see what comes to mind. How the direction goes depends on the temperament of the band and the shape that the songs are in. I don’t like to do it over the phone; I don’t like to do it alone, it seems counter-productive. I like to hear bands play, and I like to hear them play while I’m in the room with them, so you hear what their physical strengths and weaknesses are as band members, so that arrangements won’t push too far out of their comfort zone, or they inversely they don’t play just to their strengths. Maybe look for things that are really obvious that are missing, that they’re not aware of simply because they’re stuck in their moment, you know?

Was it an exciting thing for you, Paul, to know someone was coming to the band fresh, not knowing your history?

Dempsey : Oh, definitely. We’re aware that this is our fifth album, that nobody is going to really listen to us with fresh ears, ever. People have had to much time to form their preconceptions about Something For Kate, and you know, like it or not, the fact is that’s what people do. Whether they’re doing it consciously or not, people have heard something off one of our albums and have made up their mind based on that. All we really have to concern ourselves with is making the album we want to make. We feel as fresh as ever, and we constantly want to change. We constantly want to undermine how we think of ourselves, and how other people think about us as well. We’ve surprised ourselves, and we’re really happy about that, and that also comes into why you choose to work with Brad ? just because we knew it was going to sound different.

Something foe Kate recording in the studio in LA		The band checks out the stars in Hollywood

Did you click instantly? Because for both of you, there’s been times when you’ve clashed with people professionally? how do you know it’ll work?

Wood: [ laughs ] I’m usually aware of that before I’ll sign on to make a record. But it does help to see a band play live, or meet in person ? we didn’t have that opportunity, but we did get to talk on the phone at length a couple of times, and I just sort of knew right back then that it was going to be great. Plus the songs ? from what they were saying on the phone as to what they wanted to do, and what they had in their demos ? that matched up. So they were already well on their way with the new songs, and that’s a huge difference, you know? I get really nervous when the talk about what the music should sound like is really different from the actual sound! There are a few times when I’ve walked into a studio, and had personality conflicts. That’s just inevitable.

I was going to ask how close Paul is to Billy Corgan?

Wood : How close? In height, very close! [ Laughing ] He’s about the same height as you are, maybe a little shorter?

Dempsey : I’ll be the first to say I’m control freak! But as I was saying earlier, we walked into this record completely ready for someone else’s input. We went with it all the way, and it was really the right thing to do? Did you say I was close to Bill Corgan, or not close?

I can see you in a black, floor-length leather coat Paul.

Dempsey : Oh great, I’ll look into that.

This record feels like a much looser, yet deeper album, if that makes sense.

Dempsey : That’s interesting. There’s definitely a lot of guitars, so it’s big and live and noisy. There were a lot of guitar parts that were just made up on the spot, and we just went with the one that felt the best. There’s not a lot of compression, but even though it’s dense and there’s a lot of noise, the sounds themselves sound pretty big and free.

Wood : To me this just sounds like a denser record. The guitars are just pretty full frequency, they’re pushing a lot of air in comparison to the last couple of records, they’re just being big sounds, maybe more in line with what you’re going to see live when you see the band play.

?Cigarettes & Suitcases? is an obvious single, it’s a great song.

Dempsey : Oh cool. At this stage we haven’t decided, I don’t know whether it’ll be the first single, I don’t really know what to do about that [ laughs ]. Any thoughts Brad? Have you got any thoughts on an opener?

Wood : I don’t know, that’s tough. I always claim to not have any clue as to what the best sequence should be ? it takes a lot more time and thought and involvement than people realise. There’s times when it falls together, but most of the time there’s a lot of agonising over it, and that’s something I prefer not to do, you know? I think it’s best for bands to sit around, with their management and label ? big and small ? with the people who will listen to the album maybe 40 times in a row. After having listened to each song, like a thousand times, I’m more than content to let the bands hash that out. That first song is difficult, especially when it’s a record where you want to announce change. There’s baggage for Something For Kate, in the sense that there’s a history and you might want to come out saying, ?Here’s what we’re up to now.’

One of the great things about doing your fifth record is you can defy people’s expectations of you.

Wood : I feel bad for the Rolling Stones because it almost doesn’t really matter what they do anymore. When Paul and the band came in they said, ?You have to check out [the RS] record, it’s actually really great’ ? and I still haven’t checked it out! But then there’s a band like U2, who’ve been around for not quite as long, but somehow even now they still manage to grab you. And it seems like a real effort: not just in the songwriting and production, that’s probably the easy part. The hard part for ?heritage bands’ is in the promotion of their music ? just getting people to listen and give things a shot, you know? Sure, Something For Kate isn’t anywhere near that, but it’s still an aspect, and a good kind of challenge. Ben Lee had the same problem in Australia ? and it was really great to see Australians have another look at him, that was really cool.

It is good, because ? not to be harsh about him ? but Ben was rather disliked for a while here.

Wood: [ laughs ] Yeah, that’s the vibe I get! I had to use the word ?vibe’, sorry Paul, I know you hate that word! I think that Something For Kate’s got first and foremost it’s got to be in the music. You can’t just talk about it being different, and I think that’s what ruined it for fans of the Rolling Stones, is that year in year out, they would talk about how they made a big change, and then you would listen to the record, and there really was no change. And like for two decades they did that, and they didn’t really make any dramatic changes, and I feel like Something For Kate did this time, and it’ll be easy for listeners to hear that difference.

I was really hoping for this record to sound like an Australian band. Because some of my all-time favourite bands ? and Paul can back this up ? are Australian. Like obviously AC/DC, they’re imprinted on my musical genetic code practically. And Midnight Oil, I’m a huge fan of Midnight Oil. Sonically they just made brilliant records. And then in came the Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party, INXS ? Listen Like Theives and The Swing are two of my favourite records. Even though they tried different approaches they’re intrinsically Australian to my American ears, there’s no two ways about it. So I was really hoping that, although they made this album in Los Angeles, for it to really sound Australian. I don’t know what that means, but I think we did that.

It sounds like you really put Clint to work a lot in this album too, there’s some great tempos there.

Wood : Yeah, he was baking a cake on the kit there, stirring up all the ingredients.

Stephanie during recording		Paul with keyboardist Mike Garson

It’s going to be a fun album for you guys to play live.

Dempsey : Oh yeah, I can’t wait. We’ve got a couple of shows, just one-off shows coming up in about three weeks, and I’m just really looking forward to getting into rehearsal.

You’re known for writing songs that involve a lot of questioning. Was there any particular thoughts you were in when you finally got to start writing these tracks that you wanted to get across in song?

Demspey : With our last record there were definitely things I was trying to get across, a lot of the songs were of a political nature. I was trying to speak to the listener about something that affects everybody. With these songs, they’re much more like notes to myself. Obviously people are going to listen to them, and I hope that people are going to find some relationship to them?

But really, when the words eventually started to come, I was more in a headspace where I was writing for myself by that point, because it was a little therapeutic exercise to just have these little conversations with myself. So that’s what a lot of these lyrics sound like, to me anyway.

?This is My Life? seems to reference you questioning whether or not you want to do this as a career.

Dempsey : Yeah, definitely. I’ve questioned everything. You know, it was one of those years. The lyrics are very personal and they’re much more? I was trying to pull myself up out of a hole. And I kept saying to myself, is this what I want to write about? Is this really what I want to share with people? I know there’s a lot of people who think my lyrics are just whinging. And at the end of it I just went, ?Fuck, you know ? I don’t care. I just don’t care.’ One way or the other I just had to stop thinking like that. I’m not fucking catering for people, you know? Some people are going to like this, and some people aren’t going to like it, but the most important thing is that I stop worrying about whether they do or they don’t and I just start writing. And that’s when the ball really started rolling, and I started writing a lot of lyrics, and they happened to be pretty sombre. But it was really good for me to get it all out, and I love singing the songs now.

It certainly sounds like you’re pushing your vocals.

Dempsey : They’re really loud. There’s like a lot of falsetto singing. It’s the same thing as the writing, you know? I stopped singing in this careful way and just started singing however felt good, and doing things with my voice that I haven’t done before. Most takes I did of things, I’d try and do something differently, and just keep the best one.

Brad, is that something you really pushed Paul to do ? to go out on a limb lyrically and vocally?

Wood : Absolutely. They’d said that they didn’t want to play it as safe as they had, so that was a key for every instrument, and especially the voice. Paul’s physically big, and has a big voice, it can go way down? I don’t know if you’re a bass, definitely a baritone. But also his voice would travel up into falsetto, way up there, and he can scream all day long, and with seemingly with no ill effect. Talk about a broad power, an open page. Steph had a lot to do with this too, pushing him to consider these high falsetto bits, you know, things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to come out of a 6’5? guy. He’s also a really loud singer, so it allowed me to use a room mic on his voice in addition to the close mic, which, as soon as we set it up, became the sonic blueprint for the rest of the record. It’s on every song, and I think that helps to impart some of that physicality that this guy embodies.

You guys are still with SonyBMG. Was there any interference from the label?

Dempsey : No, not really. Obviously our A&R person was calling up from every now and again from Australia, and asking how things were going, but no, they were really good. I guess that’s one of the benefits of making a fifth album with the same record company, there’s a degree of trust there, they know we’re going to turn something in and it’s not going to be Metal Machine Music .

Wood : Yeah, that’s in the next album. It was an easy record to make from my standpoint. But I didn’t have to write all the lyrics, so? [ laughter ]

So Brad, what would you say you learnt from working with Something For Kate?

Dempsey : A lot of stupid jokes!

Wood : I actually learned quite a few things. I learned that relationships and careers are very similar, and I loved watching how the band related together after all these years. They’re in a relationship more than they’re in a band. There’s a very friendly, productive and forgiving relationship between the three of them, and I can see why they’ve been together for so long. It was a nurturing environment, and it was fun to be a part of that.

What about you, Paul ? what did you discover about making music for yourself from working with Brad?

Dempsey : Probably the biggest thing was that I learnt how much better everything can be when you put your faith in someone else’s ideas, and let someone else into the circle. The relationship the three of us have ? it’s a very exclusive little club, which we haven’t always invited people’s input into, at least when it comes to our music. And I guess I learnt that letting someone else have as much of a say in what you do as any of the three people in that band? you know, I listen to the results of that, and it just makes me so happy. We were there a long time, and we had a great time together.

And did Steph find a good breakfast cereal?

Dempsey : Oh, Stephanie, she did find something eventually, but I can’t remember what it was.

Wood : Los Angeles lacks in good breakfast places, but these guys basically eat sushi for breakfast every morning!

Dempsey : Yep, pretty much.