Lucid 3, with Paul McLaney at the Kings Arms

By GRAHAM REID

We catch Victoria Girling-Butcher, singer-songwriter and guitarist of Lucid 3, in the middle of a rehearsal at drummer Derek Metivier's place in Laingholm.

In the background are Metivier and bassist Marcus Lawson tinkling away on a Rhodes electric piano, a noodling jam session in progress.

The morning has been given over to a rehearsal and later in the day they are on their way to another interview. These are important.

Tonight the band launch their second album, All Moments Leading To This, at the Kings Arms so the fine-tuning needs to be done, and the necessary talking-up of the album also.

Lucid 3 are a quiet success story and long tipped as one of our most promising bands. Their indie-released debut album Running Down the Keys two years ago was much loved at student radio and sold largely by word of mouth, and on the back of touring. Videos for Smooth Machine and Fluid garnered plenty of Juice TV airtime.

But Girling-Butcher concedes they had only really met each other at the time and had no clear vision of what Lucid 3 might be.

"I think with this new album we've really nailed it. It's a progression from the first album, it's a much more formulated Lucid 3 sound because for the first album we were still exploring what our sound was.

"We've also been playing these songs live before they were recorded and that has really helped us get a solid base for the sound."

But if in retrospect that impressive debut now seems a work in progress, this time round they are an established and mature band. And with a bit of record-company muscle from the indie label Muse behind them they could just get to that larger audience out there which has embraced literate singer-songwriters like Bic Runga, and bands such as Goldenhorse and the Brunettes.

"Having a bigger team working on the album by way of promoting it, distributing it and managing it gives the music a better chance at being heard, and gaining respect I hope.

"It can be incredibly depressing having made all this beautiful music, or I think it is, and no one hearing it. People did hear the last one, but not enough, not enough," she laughs.

"Without advertising we did find an audience. The album has sold between 3000 and 3500. I was proud of the fact that we didn't have any budget for promotion but on the reputation of the music we sold that many."

Even at this early stage we might suspect All Moments Leading To This will be the album which gives them an entree to a bigger mainstream audience.

"I'm looking forward to having people give us feedback about this album because personally I love it. The people who've heard it so far - well, I suppose people are generally only nice to your face - have given us good responses."

A sonically textured collection of songs, it betrays Girling-Butcher's sometimes scholarly and poetic lyricism in the context of melodies which shift easily from jazz phrasing but just as readily touch base with folk and blues, pop-rock and even slippery trip-hop. The lead-off single, AM Radio, is a sliver of catchy but slightly unusual pop, but the rest of the album reveals itself in layers.

Girling-Butcher brings songs in their raw form - demos on Rhodes or electric guitar - to the band and they are worked up over time, pushed in new directions by Lawson (who is credited with harmonica, Wurlitzer electric piano, lap steel and Hammond organ) and Metivier.

"The creative process is so much fun in exploration of sounds. Marcus plays way more than bass so there's fun in working on them and getting the right embellishments."

Because of the way she writes - and the ambitious nature of her lyrics - she is constantly discovering new and unusual chord progressions. But the melodies are driven by her lyrics which contain elements and images of emotional light and shade. She is obviously a reader.

"Yes, I read quite a bit," she laughs. "I like New Zealand literature a lot and enjoy pondering on national identity a bit. But I love William Burroughs, the dirty old man! I love the extremity of his writing.

"This album is all about darkness and I love the extremes of good luck and fortune and wealth and all those sorts of things in the songs. Then the grit. Which is why I love William Burroughs. He's so filthy."

* On CD: New album All Moments Leading To This is released today.