THE BASS EDITION

Currently saturating the airwaves is Something For Kate’s "Song For A Sleepwalker" the second single release off Something for Kate's #1 ARIA charting album, "The Official Fiction" and the follow up to their Top 20 hit single, "Déjà Vu". Produced by the band and Trina Shoemaker, the lush country-tinged ballad features front man Paul Dempsey on lead vocals with special guest singer Caitlin Cary (who, along with Ryan Adams, was a member of Whiskeytown) on backing vocals.

The new album "The Official Fiction" like it’s predecessor the now double platinum certified "Echolalia" was again recorded at Mangrove Studios on NSW's central coast, with American producer Trina Shoemaker, who has tweaked the knobs for Pearl Jam and Sheryl Crow as well as "Echolalia" at the controls. "The Official Fiction" is Something For Kate's fourth album to date. During a moment in the band’s current very tight touring schedule, Something For Kate’s pint-sized bass player Stephanie Ashworth found time to sit down and speak to Australian Musician’s Joe Matera about the new record.

Joe Matera: What was the creative process like this time round for "The Official Fiction"?

Stephanie Ashworth: "What we found with this record was for a while during the songwriting process, we would purely wander about freely and think which in itself, is a really good form of inspiration. Like when it wasn’t happening sometimes, we would just take off somewhere like overseas for a week or so. Then at other times we would write something spontaneously like in the rehearsal room and something might start from a bass part or a drum part or a guitar part. Then we found if we went with the pull, we’ll be able to take it somewhere else entirely. We do have a rather harsh editing process within the band, so any new piece of music or song, even a verse, has to pass through all three of us and it has to move us".

JM: How did you go about approaching your bass parts during the songwriting process?

SA: "Sometimes it was really hard and I would grapple with a song. You see, I don’t like playing really basic stuff, like I don’t play just what the guitar is doing because that bores me to death. So in the past I would never do it and I was always playing against the guitar because there were songs very much based around the bass. But for this record when I was at the end of my tether, I found myself going ‘you know what? I’ve tried absolutely everything that is in my mind so I am going to have to give in here so I’m going to provide a counter melody’. So there were times on this record where I just had to just provide for the bottom end and get it going. Traditionally I do treat the bass guitar like a guitar so you can say I’m really a frustrated guitarist!

JM: How did producer Trina Shoemaker go about capturing your bass sound in the studio?

SA: "Well I was generally using an Ampeg B15, an original old late ‘50’s Fliptop head with one speaker, which in itself is a very simple set-up. What I would do with Trina was I would provide references of the type of sound I wanted to achieve like I would say to her ‘for this song I’m thinking about Neil Young-Crazy Horse circa 1965’. And we would try different amps and different mics. I also used a lot of Garry Bears’ bass guitars. As a matter of fact I did a lot of this record using his 1958 Fender P-Bass that he loved to constantly tell us was used for INXS’ Wembley Stadium gig. Playing wise, I played half the album using my fingers and the other half with a pick because certain songs called for different type of tonal qualities. Like some songs would need an attack and a slightly more aggressive playing. I also found that on some basses especially the older models, no matter how good the bass was, at different points on the neck, it would drop out. So we would spend time trying different basses and changing the intonation. Or later on in the mixing process we would ride the faders because the bass levels were all over the place. But it’s the nature of old basses because the necks are all uneven and you’re constantly riding it at different levels just to keep it sounding even in terms of what the listener is hearing. So there was a lot of messing around with basses and a lot of tweaking going on."

JM: So what’s your current live bass rig set-up like?

SA: I recently got a 1967 Fender P-Bass but I’ve been too scared to use it live yet because I don’t want to mess with it, but I will. And because it’s such a big bass and I am kind of small, it’s really difficult to make that transition from the bass I’ve been using for all these years - an Ernie Ball Musicman Sterling - to this new one. I’m also endorsed by Ampeg so I’ve been using an Anniversary classic SVT head along with a couple of 15" boxes and 4 X 10’s. I generally tend to stick to old valve Ampeg stuff. And I don’t use any effects on the bass live because I like to keep that nice low bottom end going. I found that once you start adding effects like distortion you tend to loose some of that nice chunky bottom end. And I found one of the hardest things is to get a good bass distortion, it’s a total nightmare and I’ve tried everything. I actually did put some effects on post-recording with Pro Tools plug-ins.

JM: Who would you regard as being your main influences towards your bass playing?

SA: "It’s funny because I’ve never had a lesson and I’ve basically just listened to stuff and though I must admit my technique might be a bit shabby, for me, it’s more about the imagination than the playing technique. A lot of my influences are British punk. Bands like The Clash, The Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees. And if you think about it, that late ‘80’s scene was very much a big bass time. Like The Cure for example, who were a big influence on me as they had their bass parts up front, so I would tend to listen to that more than rather listening to the guitar parts. And I absolutely adore Colin Greenwood from Radiohead. He’s such an incredible bassist and he writes some very sexy, very groovy and dark bass lines. He’s without a doubt, my favourite bass player.

Article by Joe Matera