INTERVIEW: Stephanie Ashworth from Something For Kate talks their first album in eight years

Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Daniel Boud

Throughout the late 1990s and through to 2012, Something For Kate were one of the most revered and iconic indie bands on the Australian music scene. With fans including Keanu Reeves and David Bowie (who invited them on tour), they score five top 10 albums including two number ones in the Australian charts. A large part of what made Something For Kate so compelling was the band’s backing vocalist and bass player Stephanie Ashworth. In a world where females in the indie rock scene were few and far between, let alone as a bassist, she was a breath of fresh air and became an inspiration to the women who followed in her path.

Today Something For Kate return with their first album in over eight years, The Modern Medieval, an album that stays true to their indie-rock roots but updated with a lush contemporary sound.

We recently caught up with Stephanie to discuss the album and her trailblazing journey in the industry.

Hey Stephanie, such a delight to chat to you. The Modern Medieval how incredibly lush to have this album available for listening, it is gorgeous. I want to get straight into lead single 'Situation Room', which first appeared back in April. After such a long break from the music industry, how did it feel for you to have that song on the radio?
A bit mixed really. You write an album, and then you imagine based on your experience of the world that it's going to come out in the same way that all your previous albums have come out. There was just so much conjecture about whether we would release anything after everything that's happened this year. So when we decided to press on and release, the first single was a bit of a relief, but at the same time a little bit strange. But it felt really nice to actually offer something positive into the world when everybody was going through such a horrible time. And it was a bit of a whirlwind, because we had just been in Los Angeles making a video for the song and came back and went straight into quarantine. And so it was a bit like made the video came home went into quarantine put the single out. A little bit crazy.

The music is quintessentially your sound, but there's almost like a gravity to your sound now and this assurance and I guess that must come from working together and trusting each other for so long?
By the time you're making your seventh record, I think there's a definitely a confidence and when it comes to us, it's more we don't really care what anyone thinks at this stage. We are really just pleasing ourselves, and we don't really care. We obviously hope that people will like it, but we have a lack of concern about, you know, is it going to get played on the radio, is it going to be successful in this way, in that way. With the lack of concern about that comes this sort of freedom to just go well, screw it. This is what we do. And we have no desire to please anybody with any ulterior motive or anything. It's purely us just going well, this is what we do, and we're not going to apologise for it. 

That's great. And, of course, that comes with artists and anyone's personal development as you get a bit older you just go ‘I'm just going to make myself happy’. And then of course, that's the music that resonates with your audience anyway, because there's integrity behind it. 
Exactly. I'm not suggesting that, in the past we ever catered to any other ideas, or any pressure, we have never done that, which is partly why we've never been very fashionable, and why we don't care about being fashionable. It's just that sort of, well, you know, fuck it. This is us, and we're not gonna apologise for being us. And if this is your bag then here it is.

I want to talk about the track ‘Waste Our Breath. This song is steeped and weighted in this kind of soothing alt pop rock pie with a great hook and tempo changes and your killer bassline. I wanted to know what was the story behind this song?
I see it as a forbidden love song. This sort of Orwellian state and this idea that we're all being watched - with social media and you know, surveillance and drones and satellites and everything. It’s this romantic notion of two people escaping from that and just being being alone with each other throughout turmoil. It's ended up being fairly timely, coming out in the second lockdown in Melbourne.

And then there is this gorgeous video in an eerie, silent theatre.
We were making that on the second last day before everything got locked down, and our director had hired this beautiful big drape, and it got locked into a venue that went into a lockdown. So it was just a hilarious comedy of errors. And then at the very last minute, we decided to go into the Palais. They were so happy to have a band in there making noise because it had been silent for so many months. And they were just like, ‘oh, come in, make noise, play drums be as loud as possible. just be in here’. And so it was really nice. 

Your sound on this album is so distinctly Something For Kate with your incredible, filthy baselines yet the sound has matured. What were your initial desires behind this album as a whole?
We don't like to make the same record twice. It's been eight years between albums, and people change and what you're listening to changes and how you feel changes. And we're just a lot more knowledgeable about making records and getting the sounds that we want. And we're more opinionated than ever about how to get those sounds and what personally floats our boat. We wanted to make a big lush, beautiful record at a time when a lot of artists are deliberately making lo-fi sounding records. But at the same time, we didn't want to make a record that sounded like our last record. Which is why we went to Canada to work with Howie Beck, because he generally does electronic records, and pop records. We wanted to throw a curveball on what we normally do - do what it is we do, and then have somebody come in almost reinterpret it. 

And now I want to get onto the bass. Right now there are some incredible lady bassists kicking it out there. We've got Nik West you've got Carol Kaye of course, but I just wanted to know, who was your musical influence going up? Who were the babes where you went ‘yep, bass, that's my instrument’? 
It's a good question. I listened to a lot of English music growing up, I listened to a lot of the Smiths, The Cure. English music where bass was quite prominent in the mix. And so the idea of playing an instrument that had that deep resonance with the drums, but that also was melodic at the same time was the best of both worlds for me. I'm a bit of a frustrated lead guitarist, but I'm not a great guitarist. So the bass for me was a way to play a bit of both. I didn't get any lessons. so I didn't really know what I was doing which created a strange approach to the instrument, which ended up being a good thing. I didn't really have like bass heroes growing up. There's all these amazing bass players but I don't think there was a one person that I was obsessed with or anything. It was just the sound that I was like ‘that’s for me’.

You’ve been in the Australian rock music scene for decades, but there's still this disproportionate representation of female rockers out there or females anywhere really. There's that perspective that rock is a real man's world. And then there is you blazing through like a bass drenched champion. What was that like and do you have any advice for female artists out there who are struggling with being heard? 
I've always just thought it's really, really simple. From my perspective, it's always just been: you like music, play music. It doesn't matter your gender, it just doesn't come into it for me whether the melodies and the ideas are being played by a man or woman, it’s just not relevant. I have never let it stop me doing anything. Obviously 20 years ago there were times when I would just roll my eyes at some of the bullshit that I saw or experienced, sexism, that sort of thing. And look, it's still there, there's still that undercurrent there. I think women have to look at the end game, just play the long game. Don't get bogged down by that stuff. Just don't listen to it, don't let it distract you. Don't let it pull you away from the enjoyment of what you're doing and what you want to do. And keeping in mind it gender is just not relevant to music. 20 years ago, there weren't many of us. To see another female on a tour was just kind of bizarre, to be honest. We would do the Big Day Out, and there would be like, three other women from international bands on the whole tour, it'd be me, Fergie, and Shirley from Garbage. The three of us and a sea of men. There'd be this really nice acknowledgment between us that we were very outnumbered. But we were all very focused. You just can't give into it. Blaze forward, head down, do the work and don't get distracted by the bullshit around you. 

Finally, the album’s out, what's coming up? What are you looking forward to? 
If only I knew! It would be really great to play as a band, I just don't know when that's going to be able to happen. We're already in rehearsals, which is really great. It's just nice to be in a room with the other guys and play. I look forward to writing more. This album has been recorded for a year, so we've been living with a finished album for a year. And we're sort of itching to start writing new stuff. Just more writing, touring would be amazing. I just can't imagine even getting on a plane at this time, but hoping for all of that stuff. And it’s really exciting to actually put the record out and just for people to hear what it is that we've been working on and hoping that they find something in it for themselves. 

The Modern Medieval is out now via EMI Music. You can buy and stream here.

To keep up with all things Stephanie Ashworth you can follow her on Instagram.

To keep up with all things Something For Kate you can follow them on Facebook.