Listen hard and you will hear the humour

Visiting Australian band Something For Kate are a serious bunch and so are their songs. REBECCA BARRY reports


Don't be fooled by Something For Kate's rock-star veneer. Frontman Paul Dempsey might be a brooding poetic type. And Rapunzel-haired bass player Stephanie Ashworth - long rumoured to have been asked to play for Hole - certainly appears to have poached her blood-red outfit and fishnets from Courteney Love. But the Melbourne band shudder at the thought their integrity could be compromised by image.

"We've never had our faces on soft drink cans and stuff like that," says Dempsey, who claims to avoid the camera lens unless he's on stage.

It's hard to imagine either of the poised duo, or drummer Clint Hyndman, hanging with the likes of Love anyway. Rather than conforming to the Aussie tradition of ballsy pub-rock, they play pop that hovers between confessional post-grunge grandeur and sonorous emo-rock.

That said, they shy away from any kind of description, preferring to be known as a band "serious about songwriting" and honoured by countless accolades in Australia and multi-platinum album sales.

So far, their new fourth album, The Official Fiction, looks likely to repeat that success, the string-laden Deja Vu already getting reasonable airplay (here, too) and the band about to go on tour with David Bowie.

But not everyone is impressed. Over the years they've been called dull, angsty and, worst of all, "excessively ordinary".

Ashworth insists their music requires a concerted listen, preferably through headphones. A closer inspection reveals acres of lush instrumentation and interesting chord progressions, although it also exposes countless cliches: "Tell it like it is ... Light at the end of the tunnel ... Into the eye of the storm".

"We are certainly an emotive and intense kind of band," says Dempsey. "Even if the music talks about certain subjects or more kind of thoughtful things, I don't think it does it in a messagey sort of way. There is no message in our music, it's just there. Just because [of the subject matter] doesn't mean everything you say in real life is po-faced and weighty. It's not. There is humour in the songs if you listen hard enough."

Somehow, though, SFK seem more determined to find meaning in a turbulent world than crack a joke. Dempsey's explanation of Deja Vu's line "Until one of us makes the other one come true" sounds more like an ode to quantum physics than love.

Through their website the band recommend books such as Stalin - Breaker of Nations and Globalisation and its Discontents.

The Official Fiction was affectionately named after the American Government.

So it seems bizarre that SFK was forged from Dempsey and Hyndman's mutual affection for hardcore, American punk. It was 1993 and the pair were at school in Melbourne when they first started trading CDs and talking about forming a band. The name Something For Kate came from a note someone once left on the kitchen table.

Ashworth and her long blonde hair joined in 98, inadvertently increasing their marketing potential. The fact she is reportedly dating Dempsey hasn't helped them stay out of the tabloids.

"I hate the 'women in rock' thing," she protests. "I've been asked by so many magazines if I'll be interviewed in those features where they single out women in music. I think it's great there are women in rock ... "

Dempsey: "But we don't celebrate men in rock."

"Exactly, it's not like, 'Hmm, that really sounds like a feminine bass line - it must be a female bass player'. How ridiculous."

Regardless, they've somehow become one of Australia's biggest bands with one of the most loyal fan bases. As Dempsey pours his heart out on stage, SFK's audiences are known to sing along adoringly.

"Nothing about the band has happened overnight," says Dempsey. "Sure we have a No 1 album, but it's our fourth album and it's because we've toured and toured and there's been word-of-mouth so it's a pretty organic flow.

"Our first wasn't No 1 so we didn't go 'Ta da!' and then see you later. I think the question you've got to ask yourself is, 'Would you be doing this if you didn't have a record deal?' And the answer is yes. You do it because you love it and it just comes naturally."

BDO Performance

*What: Big Day Out Friday, Ericsson Stadium

*Who: Something For Kate

*When: 2.30pm

*Where: Green Stage, upper field