For the past decade Edward Castelow has played various instruments in a number of bands. With the release of Dictaphone Blues' debut album he finally moves to the front seat, writes JULE SCHERER
Dictaphone Blues' album was a long time coming - and not because main man Edward Castelow was lacking inspiration.
The Dictaphone Blues sound is a little crazy and always catchy. Songs like Counter Observation (about obsessives who come into record shops) and album highlight Spooky Room (that slopes along until it breaks into a gospel mid-section) are beautifully tailored with a cheerful playfulness and psychedelic-pop elements. And it's the little things, like the use of bells and whistles, and glockenspiels and plinking pianos that makes Castelow's music so appealing.
On the Down and In is a great guitar-pop album.
"The songs are melodic because most of them came about from me just humming or whistling a tune and going 'Oh, I really like that' and figuring the chords around that melody," he says simply.
The multi-instrumentalist started working on the material when he came back from a stint in Sydney in 2006 with his old band Degrees.K. He had left Christchurch three years earlier and gathered new audiences in Australia.
But before he was able to concentrate on Dictaphone Blues, a couple of other opportunities - too good to be missed for somebody dedicated to performing live - crossed his way.
He was asked to take over the drums for Auckland-based band Ruby Suns and played shows across New Zealand, Australia and Europe. Then he was recruited by The Brunettes to play bass on their round the world tour.
Whenever he found time he worked on his own pieces. He started Dictaphone Blues essentially as a solo project and asked friends to come along whenever he got a gig. All busy playing in many projects, they often just managed to learn five songs and Castelow would play the rest with an iPod as backing track and would sing along to it.
As time wore on, he wanted to focus more on Dictaphone Blues and realised he needed a steady band.
Most of the music on the album On the Down and In was recorded late last year - half of it in Auckland's The Lab studio by Joel Mulholland and Olly Harmer, the other half in various flats Castelow was living in on a small pro-tools setup.
"Most of the time I could only record with two microphones and that served well, in a way that I couldn't stuff up too much," he says.
Castelow made sure that he had his hands on the whole process with help from Ben Eldridge, Rob Collins and Myles Allpress, who became band members, and various other guests. "I worked with different musicians but for the most part it's me playing most parts."
Castelow sent his songs to a number of record labels who showed no interest. So to bring his baby to life Castelow decided to set up his own label and after talking to a friend about how easy the process was Blah-lah-lah Records was born.
"There was no need to deal with the IRD or something," he says gleefully.
This lad is on to it.
LOWDOWN
Who: Dictaphone Blues, real name Edward Castelow
What: Guitar pop with bells and whistles
Debut album: On the Down and In, out now
Live: Cassette 9, Auckland, tonight; Kings Arms, Auckland, May 12 (with Okervil River); Cassette 9, Auckland, June 5
- NZPA
