 With his second solo tour set to kick off shortly, Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey has been out and about explaining his motivations to all the curious people around. Here are some comments Paul had about playing solo:
What’s the major motivation for doing these shows?
“My doing a solo tour is not a sign of some budding solo career, and I don’t consider it a side project. It’s all Something For Kate stuff, it’s just I’ll be doing it on my own because it’s a nice change for myself and hopefully a nice change for the audience.”
It must be a very different experience for you?
“I find it liberating, because I can be really selfish. I just get to follow whatever direction I want, play whatever I want and play it however I want. I can change things, make it short longer, slower, however I’m feeling at the moment.”
Do you play fairly different songs than the average SFK set?
“It’s all Something For Kate stuff, but I do songs that the band just doesn’t play live, maybe earlier stuff that we haven’t pulled out in a while, and maybe some b-sides. Also I sometimes try a few things that are just works in progress, stuff we haven’t really got organised with that band yet. It is nice to be able to test that sort of stuff, it helps me get my head around new material.”
Can you tell us a bit about your decision to have Grant Lee Phillips as support?
“I was big Grant Lee Buffalo fan, and they put out four albums. And now Grant has just put out a solo album, which I think is actually his second, but the first was only available over the internet. So a lot of people think this is his first. I love his song writing and lyrics – just sweet, lulling songs, but at the same time occasionally quite politically charged, although he’s trying to steer away from that with the solo albums.”
Do your lyrics become a little more important in the solo acoustic format?
“Well, it’s just a case of the fact that you can hear everything so much better, you’re not bombarded by the whole band sound – the electric guitar with fifty marshal stacks – so every little subtlety comes out. Being able to hear my voice a lot more clearly you do tend to focus on how you’re singing and what you’re singing. The whole communication is a lot more direct, so I guess at the solo shows the lyrics do have a lot more importance.” |
