A battleground of conversations

Graeme Downes and Darren Stedman. Photo / Otago Daily Times

What's in a name? Well, in the case of The Verlaines' latest album, Corporate Moronic, plenty.

The title is a defiant statement of intent by singer-songwriter Graeme Downes, who aims his well-honed lyrics at a range of targets, from greedy financiers to the creatively lazy. And as he rails against the easy, paint-by-numbers approach taken by so many in the music world, the eclectic nature of his 13-song effort proves there is plenty of life left in the album format.

Compilations and playlists have their place, Downes says, but the journey from A to B to C is, well, just so much more fulfilling.

The album was recorded in stages. Initial work began in the winter of 2008 at the University of Otago music department's Albany St studio, with Downes and company returning when other commitments allowed before Dunedin soundman Tex Houston tweaked the faders for the final mix.

"For this one, we are releasing it through Dunedinmusic.com," Downes says. "We are not using a record company, though we are using [Dunedin label] Yellow Eye to distribute it. So it's a case of going viral, getting it out there ... . The band has got a reputation and fans around the world so it's just a case of getting it out there really, to get people talking about it."

Downes admits it will be difficult to replicate Corporate Moronic on stage. Demands on time mean The Verlaines now operate as a loose collective; thus the line-up for the band's support slot with American indy-rock veteran Stephen Malkmus in Auckland in September and a national tour later in the year remains a bit fuzzy.

"If the band does a gig it'll involve myself and, probably, Darren [Stedman] on drums. The bass player could be someone else, likewise the keyboardist.

"We'll probably tailor our set around the people we've got to play it and the type of gig we're doing ... the collective thing is the only way we can continue to function."

That pick-and-mix approach to band membership parallels the diverse nature of the songs Downes wrote for Corporate Moronic, which ranges from the jazzy lurch of opening track Paritai Drive to the dark, almost disorganised Paraphrasing Hitler, the wiggy electric guitar of Wanting, the gentle In Limbo and the piano-driven They That Once Were Eager Fellas of which Downes is particularly proud.

"It is really well realised; it's one of the best I've written," he enthuses. "I think it captures that sense of middle-aged guys married to their wives, jobs, mortgages etc. But the other side of the story is the 'prickly youths in white saloons', the boy racers, who have taken over the playground. I think the music insinuates they are nothing more than unremarkable middle-aged men in the making."

Downes is not averse at observing himself either. On Oh Yeah, All Right he writes of being mocked by a group of children who witnessed him singing while walking his dog one sunny day. "It's wonderful 'fessing up to one's own absurdities," he says. "For Oh Yeah, All Right I almost tried to imitate the sound of the playground.

"The playground is a battleground; it's a place where the weak are taunted, oppressed and dealt to. Because we are like that as children, it's a little bit absurd to think we'll be any different as adults."

Downes says the album is structured in such a way that the songs comment with and against one another. "That is what an album does. I mentioned Sgt Pepper's in the press release, which is one of the greatest albums and one that you try to aspire to. It sets up all sorts of wonderful conversations from one song to the next: When I'm Sixty-Four following Within You Without You ... they critique each other, in the same way Paraphrasing Hitler is followed by a very mundane love song.

"Each song builds an emotional weight on to the next one. The emotional effect I get when I sit down with Corporate Moronic is similar to what I feel when I listen to great albums or a symphony - there is an emotional flushing. You just can't do it any other way.

"I like eclectic music. The way I'm writing music now, I write the text first and it's then a case of finding music that is analogous to the idea. That means I'm going to claim total freedom to do what I damn well want for each one. There is a lot of complexity on the record when it's called for. But complexity for its own sake is daft. I've certainly been guilty of that in my earlier days. If it's called for, fine; if it's not, don't.

"I'm confident Corporate Moronic will be around for a long time; that I can come back to it a year later and it will sound fresh and new again. It's not disposable. There is an awful lot of music on it, probably more than two or three Verlaines albums combined."

LOWDOWN

Who: Graeme Downes, songwriter, guitarist, singer in the Verlaines, former Flying Nun stalwart and rock degree lecturer at Otago University
Past albums: Hallelujah All the Way Home (1985), Bird Dog (1987), Juvenilia (1987), Some Disenchanted Evening (1989), Over the Moon (1996), You're Just Too Obscure For Me (2003), Pot Boiler (2007). As Graeme Downes: Hammers and Anvils (2001)
New album: Corporate Moronic, out now
Also: The Verlaines play with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks at The Studio, Auckland, September 18

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES