Location played a big part in inspiring the New Zealander's latest project, writes Lydia Jenkin.
Some musicians find writing music a form of therapy, working out their troubles and emotional anguish in their songs.
Maybe they're a tortured artist, or maybe they enjoy drawing from the well of tension in their life. Eden Mulholland is not one of those musicians.
One of the most cheerful, relaxed chaps you're likely to come across, his upbeat, humorous demeanour might occasionally seem incongruous with the themes of loneliness, melancholy, pain, heartbreak, secrets, and defiance that pepper his second solo album Hunted Haunted.
"I'm a pretty happy person, happily married, it's quite funny really" he laughs, tucking into some eggs as we sit down to chat on his recent return home to Auckland (for the past few years he's lived with his wife Erynne in Australia, and they're based on the Sunshine Coast).
"My songs are just little weird imaginative dream grabs, of some dream you had that's like a movie. I don't sing about my life so much. I quite like it to be poetically removed. Imagine living a life, where you were living the album, and you basically break up in every track!"
He looks to the world around him for inspiration. They live next to Mt Coolum.
"It's this ancient rock right next to the sea, and I climb up there, and there is a really cool feeling about being there.
"I don't know it's significance to the Aboriginal people, but it feels like a significant place. And I am a firm believer that your environment informs some sort of spiritual element in your music."
He also draws from movies and stories, but the key source is his work for dance and theatre companies, for which he's renowned.
"I draw inspiration from theatre shows that I'm working on, because when I'm working on a show I get exposed to the director's concepts and some pretty out there ideas, so I go through an intense period where I'm writing music for a very specific project and it's very imaginative and saturated in this specific story or theme. I think that carries through to demos that I write for myself, and I glean ideas from there. So my demos often have a certain vibe or a strong idea that I've drawn from that other work and then I just keep shaping it."
Despite the darker themes and theatrical inspirations, Mulholland writes pop songs - full of blistering riffs, strident rhythms, and big melody lines - and this time he decided to head to America, the home of pop music, to record the album. He'd previously met producer Victor Van Vugt (long time collaborator of Nick Cave and Beth Orton) at CMJ Festival in New York, and got along well, so decided to return there to try working with someone else on the recording process.
Incorporating someone else's musical views into his own songs proved a little tough initially, but he was glad of the new perspectives in the end.
Kiwi musician Eden Mulholland.
"I think Victor's whole thing is really about laying bare the vocal and the melody, because his tendency was to simplify the percussion and the rhythm section, find a really strong groove, give it lots of momentum. And that was kind of new for me because I'm all about syncopation, and every instrument being a lead instrument, like in the Motocade days where we went 'Everything all at the same time!' And initially I wasn't sure about his way, I was worried about the beats being boring, but it turns out it's not boring, it's just letting the melody sit on top, so it was a good lesson for me."
And of course New York itself also proved a great muse.
"It really was rad. Especially because I wasn't really being a tourist, I was living and breathing it. You can't get away from the fact that it all seems like you're in a movie though, and you're writing a little story and soundtrack in your head. Especially early morning and late at night I find. There's this sort of saturated excitement."
And then he decided to swap coasts, and working with a stranger for working with a friend, and headed to Los Angeles to record with Neil Baldock.
"Working with Neil feels like a good marriage. He's just so into it, so into making music, and that makes a difference. Though I went over to record with Victor initially, I also thought in the end that it needed a certain passion, and Neil definitely has that passion, you can't really bottle it."
There's a certain sense of freedom in the album, a free-wheeling energy that Mulholland attributes to that sleep-deprived, joyous recording period which was fuelled by plenty of Mexican food, tequila, and sunshine.
"I don't think you could've planned it, I certainly couldn't have planned it any better. And I guess that's the nature of going out on a limb, rather than having everything structured and worked out. It wasn't part of the plan but I went, 'ok we've got the main ingredients - Neil, me, and a studio -let's go!' And it just fell into place really, it was very happy."
Who: Eden Mulholland What: New album Hunted Haunted out now Where and when: The album is being launched tonight at Backbeat Bar in Auckland, and Eden will be touring the country in November, performing at Meow in Wellington on November 5, at Whanganui Musicians Club on November 6, returning to Backbeat on November 7, the Leigh Sawmill on November 8, Darkroom in Christchurch on November 13, and Chicks Hotel in Dunedin on November 14.
