KEY POINTS:
ON TOUR
Who: HDU
Where & when: Wellington, May 15, San Francisco Bath House; Auckland, May 17, King's Arms; Dunedin, May 29, Backstage; Christchurch, May 30, Al's Bar.
Album: Metamathics is out now
It's been a long time coming, but a new album and tour from HDU is likely to bring plenty of appreciative fans out of the woodwork.
Guitarist and vocalist Tristan Dingemans, bass player Neil Phillips and drummer Dino Karlis, have been doing their own thing for a while but have also kept HDU ticking over since forming in Dunedin in the mid-1990s - despite some challenges.
The creation of the newly released Metamathics album took a big setback when Karlis learned the hard way about why anything significant saved on a computer hard drive should be backed up.
"Basically I was a complete idiot and didn't back up my work for a long time and lost pretty much all the mixes and overdubs for a finished record - or about 90 per cent of it," Karlis admitted.
That was about four years ago, and at a stage where the band were already beginning to get a bit frustrated about how long it was taking to transform their music into a finished recording.
While most people can relate to the frustration of losing work through technological failure, Karlis' experience was towards the top of the scale and took some coming to terms with.
He said his reaction was "denial, bargaining, anger ... I ended up with acceptance somewhere along the way".
His bandmates were nevertheless "polite" about it.
Karlis said he moved on from the experience by coming up with new ideas about how to develop the music they had.
He was living in Auckland at the time and was able to draw on the talents of a few musician friends, who contributed in various ways to the songs on Metamathics.
It was an approach that got the thumbs up from Dingemans and Phillips and has added another dimension to the album.
Karlis said the songs on Metamathics were quite different now than they had been shaping up to be before the computer incident.
"They're more experimental and less self-conscious," he said.
"There are new elements there and new approaches to the songs.
"It's the first album where we've used hand-claps, the first where we've used saxophone and the first where we've used piano.
"It's complex, but structurally very simple. In terms of instrumentation and sounds it's quite complex."
HDU have gained an almost cult following here and overseas for their sound, which drifts between delicate soundscapes and intense and drawn out barrages of guitars and drums.
The band were bemused to find legendary British radio DJ and journalist, the late John Peel, once labelled them "one of the 10 best bands in the world you've never heard of".
Karlis admits their music isn't for everyone, but said HDU generally got a pretty good response during tours over the years in Australia, the United States and Britain, once fans came to grips with their sound.
"We would kind of have some of them up against the rear wall, but generally they would really enjoy it."
He said it seemed being from New Zealand also drew a certain amount of intrigue and people often came along as followers of other New Zealand indie bands such as The Bats and The Chills.
Like earlier HDU albums, Metamathics remains unorthodox, with six songs each several minutes or more in length, and the music varies a lot in terms of tempo and intensity.
"We've always done that stuff," Karlis said in regard to the band's heavier elements. "Even before we were in HDU we were doing this stuff and kind of putting it to one side.
"But when the three of us first got together and started playing it just came out.
"There was no premeditation or anything. We got into a room after our old bands split up and started playing and that's what it sounded like.
"It was loud and heavy and we instantly wanted to be the heaviest band in the world, while still kind of doing the indie thing we loved."
He said bands such as Straitjacket Fits and Bailterspace, which emerged from the South Island under the Flying Nun label in the late 1980s, were strong influences.
Karlis, who has also been busy over the past couple of years as drummer for Dimmer, led by former Straitjacket Fits guitarist and vocalist Shayne Carter, said he was thrilled at the prospect of a tour of the main centres with HDU, but "terrified" at the same time.
He's now living in Wellington, Phillips is in Wanganui and Dingemans remains in Dunedin. Despite the pre-tour nerves, Karlis said the trio would have no problems reuniting and getting themselves prepared.
He said playing live was, for him, the pinnacle of what was enjoyable about being a musician and hoped to see some new fans among the old guard during the tour.
The trio have never seriously considered knuckling down and trying to make a living out of HDU, and have all been doing their own thing for years now, but Karlis said the band's future was still an open book.
He won't dismiss anything, including the prospect of coming up with a pop album.
"Who knows. Why not - but it would be on our own terms. I don't want to rule anything out ... It's that confidence that comes with doing it for a while, if you're feeling it, then it's valid."
- NZPA
