Dean Chandler debut gains platinum backing

By MIKE HOULAHAN

Dean Chandler has an unusual hope as his debut album goes on sale.

"The last thing I want to see is my album in the top 10, because I know it will be bullshit," he says.

It's not that his self-titled record is bad - anything but.

However, Chandler still has a day job in a CD store so he knows all the tricks record companies use to get an album high up in the charts.

"I'd love to see it in the top 10," he continues, "but I want it to be legitimate. When I get my platinum record on the wall, which I intend getting, I want to know those records sold and weren't SOR [sale or return]."

With jazz star Norah Jones and country legend Emmylou Harris singing on his record, it would be no surprise if it did make it into the top 10.

"I think it's a real achievement," Chandler says about Jones and Harris.

"I've been playing it down for a while, but more and more I'm starting to realise how amazing that is.

"The day the version came in with Emmylou Harris singing on it I was listening to it, then the boss tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Can you get back in the store now?' That was a massive paradox: there's probably only five to 10 albums with Emmylou Harris on them and mine's one of them."

The long and winding road to the release of the album began two years ago, when Harris was performing in Wellington. Chandler was selling Harris' CDs at the show and afterwards he and his manager Ben Bell-Booth blagged their way into the backstage party.

There they hooked up with Harris' drummer, Brady Blade, and the trio struck up a friendship. The next day Bell-Booth delivered Brady copies of singles he and Chandler had put out under the banner Before Friday, eliciting a not very firm "We should work together some time" from Blades.

Almost two years later, as Chandler prepared to record his album, Blades, who has drummed for Bob Dylan, was as good as his word.

Blades also offered to get a few friends involved - including Dylan's guitarist, Larry Campbell, Harris and Jones.

Chandler says he wasn't sure it was true until Jones walked into the studio to record vocals during her New Zealand tour.

"Coming across Brady was definitely a fateful meeting," Chandler says.

"Ben and I have always believed networking is important and we've always tried to meet whoever we could because you just don't know what might come of it. We never knew Emmylou would sing on it, but we always had Brady producing it in the back of our mind.

"The dream and the reality are often two different things, but you can do it. At the end of the day music is a universal language, and if someone likes your songs and wants to sing on them, they'll do it.

"We never paid anything to have these people on the album. When you're as big as someone like Emmylou Harris or Norah Jones, they're actually not interested in capitalising on singing on some guy's album. Everyone's been in my position, so they just did it on the basis they liked the songs."

Blades and Chandler collaborated on three of the 10 songs but surprisingly little work was done on the other songs.

Despite Chandler's record being the first Blades had produced, the rookie mixer left well enough alone in most cases.

Chandler's songs deal with his teenage fight against lymphatic cancer, the divorce of his parents and the death of his grandfather, as well as traditional rock territory such as the temptation posed by the other woman.

"From a vocal point of view I definitely had a lot to live up to, and I felt under pressure to nail it," Chandler says.

"I like the Neil Young-style rough vocal sort of thing, so in that sense they probably got the best out of me. It was hard work but it was good.

"Brady was always going on about what the song was about, and driving me to capture that emotion. The songs are all important to me, they're all personal, and you have to get into that mindset to get that emotion out so you can get the best performance."

Chandler loves playing live, but is well aware there are few opportunities for a performer such as himself locally - semi-acoustic adult-oriented rock performers aren't big on the pub scene.

For that reason he hasn't traded in the day job, although the realisation he may find fame more easily overseas could see some tough decisions being made soon.

Meanwhile, he is determined to be philosophical. "I guess we just have to wait and see how the album sells and see how busy I become," Chandler says. "At the moment I'm here, I have a mortgage to pay and I like working."

- NZPA

On CD

* Who: Dean Chandler, Wellington singer-songwriter

* What: Self-titled debut album

* When: Out now