Greg Johnson at the ASB Theatre

Greg Johnson is back in New Zealand for a month to play gigs.

Considering the number of stinkers that result when pop music and orchestras combine, you'd be mad to try it. Think Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony. Awful. And then there's our own homegrown disaster, those ENZSO albums. Oh dear.

But when the Auckland Philharmonia invited Los Angeles-based Kiwi, Greg Johnson, to play with them, he said, "Yeah, all right".

"I don't generally like it, though," he says, half seriously.

He has no idea if tomorrow night's concert will work because at the time of this interview, Johnson and the philharmonia had yet to have a rehearsal.

"I'm hoping it goes well. I'll tell you on Sunday," he says, laughing.

Johnson is back here for a month to play gigs including last weekend's Tauranga Arts Festival, the Philharmonia concert, the Pohutukawa Festival in Whangamata and two shows in Wellington at Cabaret.

To be fair, there have been some good pop-meets-orchestra moments, such as Bic Runga's collaboration with the Christchurch Symphony a few years back.

The man behind that concert, Christchurch composer and arranger Tom Rainey, has also done the arrangement for tomorrow's performance.

"It's putting a fair bit of faith in a man I never met, but he comes well recommended," says Johnson. "I'm not stressed about that sort of stuff. If it works, great, if it doesn't, we gave it a go."

Rainey believes the secret to marrying pop music and an orchestra is to "not make it sound too orchestral. You have to keep it still in the pop vein because the orchestra can be overwhelming," he says.

Johnson was impressed with the Goldenhorse and NZSO collaboration earlier this year, and likens his music to theirs.

"I think with my sort of stuff being melodic the way it is, I think it could work. I think [my] music does adapt well and hopefully a good song can be done in any number of ways," he says.

The concert will feature songs from all Johnson's albums, including the stunning 1996 debut, Vine Street Stories, 2001's Sea Breeze Motel, and his latest, Here Comes the Caviar.

He had better hit the right notes tomorrow, too. If not, he might get an ear-full from his old trumpet teacher, Norm McFarlane, who plays in the philharmonia.

Back at school Johnson was "just a kid doing what everyone else was doing, in the school orchestra and all that kind of thing.

"I was lucky, early on, as my primary and intermediate schools were very musical," he says.

And he is happy to reminisce about his old albums. "The last time I listened to Vine Street Stories was on a road trip with my girlfriend of the time in Sequoia National Park, with all those giant redwoods - amazing. We put it on on the car stereo and, you know what, it sounded pretty good."

But when he's asked to elaborate about playing in bands and what groups he liked back then, he is dismissive. "Times were different, things were different, weren't they? It's kind of a long story, to be honest," he laughs, looking behind him and pushing it away.

Besides, he lives in Los Angeles now. But this brush-off about his past is not some snobby, LA darling-type mentality. It's more about the fact Johnson, after more than four years of hard work, is finally making headway in Los Angeles. The future is looking good.

"We want the right label. It's all very well to sign a deal with the first one that comes along, but unless it's the right deal there's no point in doing it. I've worked to make sure I control everything up there."

This includes owning his publishing rights, choosing his radio promoters and finding the right publicist. "That's the way it has to be. You've got to have ideas of your own, you've got to be really proactive, because the record company is only a small part of the equation.

"It's a business, it's not a cottage industry like it is here. That's not meant to be derogatory, it's just, let's face it, that's what it is.

"It's a very serious industry [in LA] and people wanna see where the money is coming from, and if there isn't going to be any, then why?"

Playing music, as well as cooking and entertaining at his house in Santa Monica, helps to keep him sane. But he still thinks about how easy it would be to pack it in and move back to New Zealand, a far easier place to live.

" I'm not really interested in an easy life, but an interesting one. And I think we will make a breakthrough there in the next year or so.

"That's after four years. It's taken a long time to set it up, but I think we're going to see some rewards soon. We've seen some already, but I think there will be more. It's hard to look backwards when you've seen the opportunities up there."

Who: Greg Johnson in concert with the Auckland Philharmonia.
When & where: Tomorrow, 7.30pm, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre.
Other concerts: November 26, Pohutukawa Festival, Whangamata.
Albums: Vine Street Stories (1996), Chinese Whispers (1998), Sea Breeze Motel (2001), Here Comes the Caviar (2004).