Kate plays the drums in two of Sydney's best loved bands - the Holy Soul and the Laurels. The former has played with such talents as the Drones, Mudhoney, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, and are sound carriers in Damo Suzuki's network. The latter has shared a stage with A Place To Bury Strangers, Swervedriver, Tame Impala and Surf City. When I met up with her back in December last year, the Holy Soul had recently arrived back in Australia from a European tour. We talked about the complications of playing in two bands, being casual with Damo motherfucking Suzuki and the declining state of local music in Sydney.
You guys recently got back from a European tour – where did you go, what did you get up to?
We started in France so we kind of went 'round, did our first show in Paris and went up 'round Brittany. We've got a guy in Reims who runs a label called Beast Records – I hope I got that right, it'd be so embarrassing if I didn't – and he kind of, I think he had a part in the reason we went to the north of France for a while. It was great, then Germany we did. We were a few days there... it's becoming hazier and hazier, I've been writing it all up for this blog thing and uh... I have extensive notes. So yea, a few shows in Germany, we did three in Berlin all up, Mannhiem, Hamburg, um, then we had one day in the Netherlands, then back to France and we finished off in Spain.
I was talking to Sol from the Walk On By a while ago, and he said people in Spain just go nuts at live shows.
We had a really huge one in Tarragona, that was unreal. I think we combined with somebody's birthday party so there were quite a few people and it was going a bit crazy. I guess, well I got the impression, that everything seems to start a bit later over there... I wish we had stayed a bit longer, I'd love to go back there. I ended up getting sick just before the last show, that was a real pain in the bum. I didn't get to see any of the awesome Gaudi stuff in Barcelona.
Was that the first time you guys had toured Europe?
Yea, the last time would have been about five years ago but I wasn't in the band at the time. I think they kind of hooked up with Mudhoney for a few shows and did a few of their own. I think they did about thirteen dates last time and this time it was about eighteen.
And last year you guys did the collaboration with Damo Suzuki, how was that?
That was nuts. We did it in Berlin as well. I don't know, now it's like we're used to it because we've done it so many times and there's lots of that like, being really freaked out by this amazing dude whose records we've loved forever. And now it's just like, 'Heeyy, Damo', it's just like seeing an old friend again. Whereas before, like the first time, I was actually losing my shit. It's always awesome but it's gotten a lot easier.
But do you still get that thrill like, 'Myeah, just hanging with Damo Suzuki. No biggy, we're friends.'
Yea, absolutely! Absolutely. He's a really cool dude.
How did that come about, did he just email you guys?
It's a pretty good story, Sam hates telling it. He gets asked all the time, it's just one of those stupid things. So you know Lyndal, his girlfriend? She's a massive fan of Can and Damo Suzuki, and Sam thought it'd be a really cool present if he could get him to sign a birthday card for Lyndal. So he emailed him just like, sorry, this is a bit weird, but would you mind signing a birthday card for my girlfriend? And he obliged and Lyndal got this awesome card like, happy birthday Lyndal from Damo Suzuki. How cool is that? So a couple of years later, Damo had been booked by those Lilypad people who put on that stage at the Big Day Out and Damo had kept Sam's email and just said hey, guy I know in Sydney, do you know of any bands that want to back me? Sam was like, oh actually, I know a really great band... so that's how it all came about. It was all just purely... so chancey. It seemed to go well, obviously.
You play in the Laurels as well, how do you find that, playing in two different bands? Does it get difficult or has it been all right so far?
Um, sometimes, like the nightmare thing is a clash, when you have two gigs on the one night. And yea, I've had some pretty funny ones. I think the last one was a few months ago, it happens a couple of times a year. The last one was just nuts cause we were playing – both were really great shows – the Holy Soul had this show with Kim Salmon, which we had booked first. And then the Laurels had a show with Seekae at the Metro and obviously, you know, we love those guys. And what ended up happening was the dudes who manage the Laurels were waiting outside with this car running. It was just so like, bank robber. And I basically just had to run on to stage and just play straight away. It was pretty funny.
I always have visions of you like, going between songs. Like play one song and then quickly drive to the other gig, play another song. Getting changed in the car, like that 27 Dresses movie.
Oh man, I don't think I ever... like there was only half an hour between having to get to the Sando from the Metro. So it was pretty hectic and I don't wish to repeat it. Stylistically it's not really a big deal 'cause I don't know, maybe I just play the same thing all the time. It's not like I really get confused.
So do you think there'll come a point where you have to choose a band, or you happy to just -
I try not to think about it, 'cause I love both of them. But yea, there's always a bit of it, like I totally freak out thinking about it because I really don't want to. So hopefully they can happily coexist. Everyone's mates with each other so there's no weird...
No competition or anything.
Nah. It's still kind of a shitty and weird position though.
How did it come about, you playing in two bands?
Well I think... it's a bit blurry. I was kind of jamming with the Laurels and then the Holy Soul, like I knew Jon and it was kind of funny. I didn't really know them that well though, I knew Jon through his ex partner, and they invited me to dinner and I swear they were grooming me or something, like 'ha ha, the whole band's here!' Like going to Lyndal's house which is this secluded farm house out in Cattai. But no, it was all cool we just got really drunk and watched Father Ted the next day and then they asked me to join. Maybe, I don't know, the reckon they weren't scoping me out but I don't really know.
So it was never like, 'I can't join this band, I'm already with these other guys'?
No not really, 'cause the Laurels weren't doing much. I'd just had this other band break up, so I wasn't really doing anything so it was kind of like, yea I may as well play with a bunch of dudes. It was all pretty casual.
But it seems like the Laurels have really blown up lately. You guys played with Swervedriver -
Yea, they're like my favourite band ever. So that was a total dream. But yea, it's pretty weird. It's pretty funny. It's really weird, now we're getting good shows and I'm used to playing shit ones. I mean, not with the Holy Soul, just in general. Like, I expected to be slogging it out at hotels for the rest of my life.
This is probably a really dumb question, but there's that cliché of drummers being frustrated song writers. Do you have any thoughts about that?
It's pretty creative, I'm not at all dissatisfied. I guess for me it's just a time thing. I mean, yea, I am pretty frustrated, I've got this piano and this guitar in my room but I just haven't really had time to play them. Or do anything. I'm not by any means a song writer or, you know, an under utilised song writing talent. But yea, it would be fun to do more of that.
Do you have any opinions or thoughts on the way the local music scene is going in Sydney? I guess playing in two fairly big bands, you're kind of exposed to what's going on.
Yea it's weird, I think about it a lot. We were lucky enough to kind of play heaps of shows at say, the Hoey for example, it was my favourite venue in Sydney, I thought it was so awesome. And they really liked having both of us there, so it was always a rad night and we would always get awesome crowds and so on. So when it closed I guess we were kind of in a position where, you know, we have a bit of notoriety, we weren't just a band that was starting out. So people would ask us to be their support bands and stuff. I guess, we haven't been directly – like, it would have been a lot worse an impact with all these venues closing if we hadn't already been established. Yea, it really fucking sucks.
Does the Laurels have a release coming out? I saw you guys were recording some stuff.
Yea, we're going to go back and record some more, hopefully at the end of January. We've done like two songs but we're gonna do an album so we've got to do another eight to ten.
Is it the same sort of direction as your first couple of singles?
It's a bit different, it's probably like, shorter songs and a bit heavier. Luke's got more pedals so it's louder and shittier now. Which is pretty awesome. I don't know, it's always been loud and shitty though. It's pretty cool, we've had these songs for ages but we never really learned them properly so we've been having all these practices like, oh shit we've actually got to learn these songs properly, we suck. But yea, hopefully it'll be decent.
