Four into three does go

The Heavy Jones Trio (from left) Ben Eldridge, Kelly Horgan, Myles Allpress, Steven Shaw.

Nothing against Christians but the Heavy Jones Trio just want to say they're not. "There's all these things that come up about us, that we're like Coldplay, Travis, possibly Christian, and earnest," says guitarist and keyboardist Ben Eldridge.

"And we've got plenty of bad habits," laughs songwriter Kelly Horgan, referring to a review of their debut album Nobody Town in the Herald last weekend, which suspected the Auckland quartet had few illicit tendencies.

Just to make a point, he rolls another cigarette. He is anything but earnest today at Occam cafe in Grey Lynn, with his beaming grin, unshaven chops, and woolly hair, and he's still wearing his reflective fluoro vest from his day job as a meter reader. "Sorry, I'm not very rock star. I've still got a day job," he says.

Listening to Nobody Town, a laid-back guitar-rock album, it is easy to understand why the Coldplay and "earnest" tags are used to describe them because it's passionate, yet easy on the ear. And Horgan admits it is "down beat".

But, says drummer Myles Allpress: "I think, for a lot of people, it's quite easy to dismiss if you don't give it a go because subtlety can be confused with dullness. You have to give it a chance, to hear the undertones I suppose."

Horgan's confessional lyrics also make for some often dark and deeply personal moments.

"Lyrically it is an exorcism, it's the way to do it, you play and you whinge," he laughs. "But," he adds, more seriously, "I've been really amazed that it hasn't been taken as hokey. [In the songs] there's the day job, girls coming and going, and just stuff like everybody else goes through."

Allpress, Horgan and Eldridge formed Heavy Jones Trio in Christchurch in 2000 and recorded an EP that was released by BMG Records. After gaining a large live following in the South Island they moved to Auckland in 2002.

It took a while, but the move north cemented the band's sound, says Horgan. "We came up here in our early 20s straight from Christchurch where we were starting to do quite well.

"We got all big-headed and thought we'd move to Auckland and take it further. And, of course, we were like a train wreck - it's a lot harder to pull a crowd in Auckland," he admits.

"We were faced with this scenario where there was lots of exciting rock'n'roll going on and we were thinking, 'Do we do more to pull crowds, and get more rocky songs in there?' But we ended up going the other way. We played on the down beat angle of [rock] because there's not so much of it around."

"I think the songs always had that feeling in them anyway," says Allpress, "and we just do it better than the rockier stuff."

Horgan again: "We were still growing up as people and we just decided what music we liked the most. We're a pretty new band on the scene for most people but we've been chugging away at it for many years now so as we've grown we've been mellowing out and liking quieter music."

The move to Auckland was hard on the band because they moved here without their original bass player Jo Barus and expected to find a replacement, a practice room, and start playing within a few months. It didn't happen like that.

"It was probably the darkest hour of Heavy Jones, as far as I can remember," says Allpress. "I remember sitting round at the old flat in Sandringham Rd thinking, ' What are we going to do?' It was a bit of a killer."

What kept them together was the shared goal of recording and releasing an album. In the end it took them a year and a half to find replacement bass player Steven Shaw (Garageland, Smoothy).

"He's a really nice guy," says Eldridge. "He said he was really into 60s soul music, and I thought, 'I don't know many bass players trumpeting the virtues of soul music, so that's got to be a good thing'."

Although Horgan is the main songwriter he says he's not much of a musician which, unlike many bands, means the other members are an important part of the songwriting process.

"When we first started out, the songs would come in and we'd just do them as they were. Now, the band is much more evolved and as the band has gone on the other guys have put in their own marks."

The result is Nobody Town. All the Heavy Jones Trio ask is that you give it some time during the weekend - it's a slow burner. "We were hoping a couple of people would play it to their friends and just have it sitting round. It might not be a big seller, but I'd rather have an album that people hang on to and keep for a long time," says Horgan.

Maybe humble is a better description for this band?

Performance

* What: Heavy Jones Trio, made up of Kelly Horgan (songwriter/singer/guitarist), Ben Eldridge (guitar/keyboards), Myles Allpress (drums/vocals), and Steven Shaw (bass).
* Where & when: Stages, Wellington (with Op Shop & the Ambassadors), tonight; and the Studio on K Rd, Auckland (with Op Shop & the Ambassadors), tomorrow night.
* Album: Nobody Town, out now.