Shock therapy for Gareth Thomas

Gareth Thomas. Photo / Supplied.

A gentle, mellow mood runs through Gareth Thomas' debut solo album.

It's a noticeable shift from the pop-rock the Kiwi singer-songwriter used to make in his former band, Goodshirt.

But, as Thomas explains, Lady Alien is more or less his coming-of-age.

"I wanted to do something a bit more earthy. I've been playing with Steve Abel and the Chrysalids and we do everything in live takes. So I did lots of recordings that were completely live. It's an organic approach and that's what I was going for. It feels a lot more grown-up."

Thomas wrote the songs both in New Zealand and in the UK. But it was an "awful experience" on a London street that gave him the final push to return home and pull it all together.

"I saw someone die [of a heart attack] in the street in front of me. He was my age and it made me realise that life is short; you've got to do all these things that you want to do."

The result is a 10-track collection of quiet, meandering psychedelic pop and alt-country. And without whistles and bells, it is an album made with longevity in mind.

"I think that music, songs themselves, don't occupy any point in time, it's just the way they are recorded," says Thomas.

"I try to capture a song in the most neutral way possible, not using the instruments of the moment or the recording techniques of the time - just doing something that's tried and true and will stand up over time."

Thomas acknowledges there are also tinges of sadness, but insists it is not an album of doom and gloom.

"You always need a bit of melancholy to write a song. You can't just write about being happy, happy, happy. I mean, where's the twist in that? But I haven't written anything in a minor key, which means it's not that sad - there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

- Gareth Thomas' debut solo album, Lady Alien, is released tomorrow.

-Herald On Sunday / View