Something For Kate: The Hard Way.

Something For Kate play the Main Stage at Livid at the RNA Showgrounds on Saturday.

“I’m parked by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, actually,” explains Something For Kate bassist Stephanie as she continues her quest for mobile phone coverage.

“I’m on my way from Melbourne to a coastal town where Clint has a house. We’ve been rehearsing every day, but sometimes you just hit a wall. Clint and I are taking a drive, and leaving Paul in the studio to do his thing.”

His thing not only includes the writing of the follow up album to the brilliant Echolalia, but also preparing for a solo tour of the US which concludes just in time for the band’s return to the live forum at Livid.

“Writing a new record can be a really stressful thing,” Stephanie continues. “Sometimes you just need to take a brake from it. I think there’s no point in going anywhere (with a recording) that you’ve already been. You’ve got to make things different. It’s hard to describe how it’s going to be a different kind of album at this stage, but I can feel it and hear it. I’m a bit hesitant to make generalisations, because you say one thing and everyone thinks it’s going to completely different to how it turns out. I will say that I don’t think it’s going to be as guitar heavy.”

Did you think Echolalia was a guitar heavy album?

“I think more of it as being the main instrument we used to communicate. There were keyboards and other instruments in their, but most songs were guitar driven. This time around we’re not always going to use guitars to communicate that.”

Do you think there’s a definitive Something For Kate sound? Do you have to find a balance between where you’re going with a new record and where you’ve been so there’s a sense of continuity for the fans?

“We don’t write with preconceptions at all. You can’t write an album to cater for something, because that’s not a true expression. It’s not real. It just has to be what it is. I know it sounds wanky and abstract,” she laughs. “We just set out to make it as difficult for ourselves as possible.”

Australia’s musical masochists?

“That’s it. We have no enjoyment in life at all…”