KEY POINTS:
When Garageland split up seven years ago, they didn't want to kill each other like most bands who come to an early end.
"We still went to the pub," says frontman Jeremy Eade, who just happened to be sipping on a pint at an Auckland drinking establishment.
"There weren't a lot of wounds to heal between us. There's generalisations surrounding bands, you know, like splitting up over musical differences, but we just stopped because ... "
Well, there are a few reasons: after the success of 1997 debut album Last Exit to Garageland burnout had set in; on the band's second and third albums Eade wasn't writing the songs he wanted to; and, as far as he was concerned, the music industry was already in decline.
"The dream I was sold after reading rock'n'roll biographies of the Stones and the Beatles was just nowhere to be seen. And for me, who held that dream as a real youngster from the suburbs, with a tennis racquet in hand, it was so disappointing," he smiles.
Tomorrow night, though, Garageland are having a reunion at the Kings Arms with the line-up of Eade, guitarist Dave Goodison, drummer Andrew Gladstone, bass player Steve Shaw and original guitarist Debbie Silvey, who left the band after Last Exit.
Her brother Mark, who was the band's original bassist, isn't making the reunion.
They're ready to kick out sonic pop pearlers like Come Back and Fingerpops.
Before the band downed instruments there were highs and lows, especially for Eade. He says, while "we didn't bother the accountants", enough people have tapped him on the shoulder and said "I still listen to your records" to know they made an impact.
In particular, songs like Last Exit's top four tracks, Beelines to Heaven, Come Back, Fingerpops and the beautiful Nude Star, still stand up today.
He describes that album as a documentation of being "a total loser Aucklander singing about my shitty life in Pakuranga. You know, 21st birthdays at netball clubs," he laughs.
Musically he was obsessed - and still is - with Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, "our Lord" John Lennon, and bands like the Pixies, Sonic Youth and Pavement, who all influenced his songwriting.
"It was lovely to have that success, and I think honestly I should have stopped after the first year of Garageland and had a breather," says Eade.
"It was a tough time. I never took breaks, worked really hard because who wouldn't? What else was I going to do? I finally got a job in a band. But after Last Exit I was pretty ready to stop - but it doesn't make any sense in business, and I had no other means of money so I just kept writing."
The result was second and third albums Do What You Want and Scorpio Righting, released in 1999 and 2001 respectively. They included fine pop-rock gems like Kiss It All Goodbye and Gone, which made the top 40 singles chart.
But Eade says when he heard Gone on the radio he knew that wasn't the sort of music he wanted to make and during the writing of those albums he was "depressed as I was when I was working in a plastic factory".
"It was embarrassing. I couldn't talk to people. I'd shut down, and even I was thinking 'I hope fans don't meet me because they'll just think I'm an arsehole'," he laughs.
"But," he resolves again, "it was a job and I wrote some good songs. And even on the last album, the one I don't like, there's some great songs."
He's pushing 40 these days and says it's an interesting time of his life. He still writes songs constantly, he's got bands besides Garageland on the go and he works a day job.
"It's a really nice feeling to start to realise the worth of people around me, and it's great to play with Dave - he's great energy - and playing with Andy, who I've known since he was a kid and I was a kid.
"We went through high school together and people wanted to beat us up because we were the only kids listening to alternative music at the school," he laughs.
Whether Garageland have new songs and a fourth album in them, Eade is leaving that up in the air.
* Garageland will perform at the King's Arms in Newton tomorrow night.
