Flying solo from the Phoenix

Luke Buda enjoyed working on his own after the hectic times with Phoenix Foundation.

Wellington musician Luke Buda says making a solo album served as therapy after having worked with five Phoenix Foundation bandmates to get their acclaimed second album Pegasus finished.

"When I got home I just felt like indulging myself - a bit of a healing balm from all the pressure we were putting on ourselves. It was a bit of a self-help album," he says.

"There are six people in Phoenix Foundation and everyone has some pretty strong ideas. Towards the end of recording Pegasus everyone was getting a bit strung out."

A best-album nomination at last year's New Zealand Music Awards showed it was worth the pain, and the band are now focusing their creative abilities on a film soundtrack.

Buda's Special Surprise, released this week through Auckland label Arch Hill Recordings, is a full-length collection of catchy pop songs.

"Someone called it future pop, which is a bit pretentious, but I kind of liked it," Buda says.

About 80 per cent of it was created at his home, with friends and fellow Phoenicians joining in, and the past couple of weeks were spent at Lee Prebble's Wellington studio, the Surgery.

"He put everything through his special effects which makes everything sound better and basically awesome-fied it," Buda says. "I guess I was trying to get a slightly synthetic production on it. I would say a big influence is David Bowie's Low album."

Buda, who came to New Zealand from his native Poland when he was 8, said he flirted with the classical guitar and had piano lessons as a youngster. "Then at high school I got an electric guitar and a book with some photos of Eddie Van Halen in it and my grades went downhill."

There may be few parallels between Van Halen's music style and Buda's, but his more gentle tunes are already getting plenty of attention on non-commercial radio.

He is dubious about whether they will fit within the "safe" parameters of commercial stations. "Who knows whether they will play it or not? I have my doubts," he says.

Special Surprise is not Buda's first solo project. He made what he calls a mini-album in 2002 called The C-Sides but he is keen to get out and play the new collection of songs live.

So far he has only had a couple of gigs in Wellington. "There were definitely some first-gig jitters," Buda says.

After tomorrow night's show at the King's Arms with SJD, Buda says he will look to round up some musicians to play a few album-release shows. "I do want to play gigs. I reckon at the end of April we'll do a tour. Maybe Auckland and Wellington, possibly Christchurch and Dunedin. How does that sound?"

In the meantime, Special Surprise is in music stores this week - with Buda's blank look and slightly angelic pose on the cover.

"I like things where people are not quite sure where you're coming from and I guess that's one of those images," he explains. "My girlfriend just told me that I like things that are ambiguous, apparently."

Phoenix Foundation fans can look forward to a couple more solo albums later in the year as band members do their own thing between working on a soundtrack to Taika Waititi's feature film Eagle vs Shark.

"I reckon by the end of the year people are going to be pretty sick of Phoenix Foundation ego projects," Buda jokes. But he says all are supportive of each other's solo work and some good music is being created.

The band stay in touch with practice sessions and get-togethers.

"We try and have regular band practices so we can have the luxury of working on new ideas without feeling the pressure of a gig in a week." Buda says. 
 

Performance

* Who: Luke Buda, Phoenix Foundation singer, keyboardist, guitarist on solo excursion
* Where: King's Arms, supporting SJD
* When: Saturday night
* Album: Secret Surprise (Arch Hill) out this week

- NZPA