We may have waited eight years for new music from Something For Kate, but gosh darn was it worth it.

‘Situation Room’, the trio’s first new single since 2012’s ARIA Top 10 LP Leave Your Soul to Science, is pure SFK perfection. But it also feels brand new and sees the band traverse the darker realms of soul in parts.

Penned last year and premiered on Double J yesterday, ‘Situation Room’ has, funnily enough, already received a live premiere of sorts.

During the band’s pause from the limelight, frontman Paul Dempsey released a new solo record, and drummer Clint Hyndman focused on his Yellow Bird Cafe, and the newly-opened Wowee Zowee restaurant in Melbourne. But according to Rolling Stone, Dempsey has actually played the track live – solo acoustically – a few times.

“I saw him playing it over in Canada when we were making the record over there,” said Something For Kate bassist Stephanie Ashworth. “I just saw the reaction to when he played it, and I felt that it was a really nice, fresh, uplifting moment each time I heard him play it. I feel relieved to have it out because hopefully it’s uplifting for other people as well.”

Something For Kate are so uplifting in fact, that they’ve gifted us the visual accompaniment alongside the new single. Filmed just a few weeks ago in California, the clip features candid footage of the band, interspersed with shots of them playing the track in a live studio.

WATCH: Something for Kate – ‘Situation Room’

YouTube VideoPlay

Love Indie?

Get the latest Indie news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

Those playing at home will have cottoned on to the timeframe here. Something For Kate finished the clip just before COVID-19 had really hit America and Australia.

“We landed from Los Angeles around the time those [COVID-19] cases were sort of being discovered, and they were coming from California. So we were right there in the middle of it, and we landed in Australia just as things started to get pretty serious,” Stephanie Ashworth told Rolling Stone.

Thankfully, not only do we have Something for Kate back safe on home soil, we have new music from the beloved, dearly missed group.

:: The 10 biggest hits from Melbourne indie-rock icons Something For Kate

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine