KEY POINTS:
Warren Maxwell is living a quiet family existence in the Wairarapa - yet the former TrinityRoots front man and Fat Freddy's Drop sax player is making the craziest music of his life.
"I'm quite proud of this album," he says of The Onus of Sand, the debut from his new band, Little Bushman.
"You're always proud of them, but the thing I really like about this one is that it's not safe. It's not safe at all. It's not really a background record. You can't put it on in the cafe because you'll scare half your customers away," he laughs, down the phone from Featherston, where he moved to from Wellington recently.
He's already set up a studio in a spare room, the view out of the window is stunning and there are two houses on the biggish block of land, so his folks live in one of them "which means we've got onsite baby sitters and gardeners, mate".
You can tell he's enjoying the "absolutely beautiful" tranquillity of the Wairarapa just as much as the psychedelic, rapturous and often noisy music of Little Bushman.
And those doting babysitters will come in useful this summer. Maxwell has been busy since the release of The Onus of Sand last month and the Bushmen are set to play a string of festival dates starting on January 5 at the Parihaka International Peace Festival in Taranaki.
Similar to TrinityRoots, the members of Little Bushman, also made up of drummer Rick Cranson, bass player Tom Callwood and guitarist Joe Callwood, met at jazz school in Wellington in the mid 90s. The Bushmen came about after TrinityRoots went their separate ways in early 2005. "When Trinity finished I still felt like I needed another vehicle to balance out Freddy's to keep everything fresh and it just so happened I called up Rick and Tom and asked if they wanted to get together and have a jam.
"We enjoy each other's company, we've all got kids so we all swap nappy stories, and [Little Bushman] is the next, more mature level of our musical careers. And another thing that got us all together was our love for Jimi Hendrix," he says.
When Cranson heard what sort of band Maxwell wanted to start up he was into it. The drummer grew up in Hamilton with the music of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley as his staple. He played in rock bands and when he moved to Wellington he immersed himself in the jazz scene - so Little Bushman was the perfect fusion of the two.
"I've been hanging out to play in a band like this for five years," he says. "For me, it just happens to be my ultimate rock'n'roll sounding band because you've got the best of both worlds - a solid rock sound with a lot of improvisation.
"Bushman is an amalgamation of all sorts of things and the thing I love about it is you can't really pinpoint just one or two influences in our music - it's like a melting pot of all sorts of stuff. It's a really fresh sound and it seems to me we can never run out of ideas and we'll keep trying new ideas."
Maxwell says they've been working on The Onus of Sand for a couple of years, in between Fat Freddy's and family commitments. It's also no surprise to learn that the album was recorded three times before its release last month. Remember, TrinityRoots also recorded their first album, True, three times before it finally came out in May 2002.
"Yeah ... it was very similar to the first Trinity album actually," laughs Maxwell. "Pedantic musicians, you know," he sniggers again.
For Maxwell, music is about sincerity, the power of a good song and pushing boundaries. As with his previous work, Maxwell pours his heart out with Little Bushman - both lyrically and musically - and songs like Where We Get Born are catchy. However, the big difference from his other bands is that musically The Onus of Sand is on another planet.
As an example of where the band is coming from let's let Maxwell take us on the 12-minute journey - or trip, depending on what you're into - of the song Jimi.
"It starts off here. On earth," he laughs. "It's really just a thankyou to Jimi. To me, he was like the Coltrane of the psychedelic blues rock era. So yeah, it starts off here and the girls come in with the harmony, which prepares you for the journey and when it drops down into the middle section - with that high-hat drop out - it is the launch and it takes you out to Pluto, man.
"I think people appreciate that we are actually taking risks and recording seven or eight or 10-minute songs. I am very anti-formula and always stepping either side of that very fine line and creating that grey area. If something starts to sound too much like something I've heard before I will try and change it.
"I'm quite proud of the first Bushman album. It's a bit of an indication of where we're heading and we want to get into more orchestral types of arrangements. But you need time for that. So yeah, always pushing the boundaries."
Lowdown
Who: Little Bushman
Line up: Warren Maxwell (keyboards/vocals); Rick Cranson (drums); Tom Callwood (bass); Joe Callwood (guitar).
Tour dates: Parihaka International Peace Festival, Taranaki, Jan 5-7; Summer City, Botanic Gardens, Wellington, Jan 28; Waiheke Island Wine Festival, Feb 10; Soundsplash, Raglan, Feb 24; Lothlorien Rhythm Festival, Puhoe, March 3.
