Phoenix rising from the south

By GRAHAM REID

One of the year's most delightfully quiet albums - four stars in the Herald last Saturday - comes from an unexpected source. Wellington five-piece Phoenix Foundation's Horsepower is a charmingly low-key, intimate and almost whispered piece of work. But singer-songwriter Sam Scott is amused when he remembers what he and band members Conrad Wedde and Luke Buda used to be into: heavy metal.

"For me heavy metal is a young, punk thing and that's what we were doing before '97 at high school together. Metal was something we were all into, and are still a little, but our tastes have diversified.

"Certainly for me, from a young age my dad made me listen to a lot of the Beatles and Miles Davis, a variety of stuff, and most of the guys were into a variety of music. We've grown to appreciate it and understand it a bit more."

Horsepower hints at Anglofolk and gently acoustic psychedelia and is a mature and cohesive-sounding album, but it has also been some time in the growing. The band formed six years ago.

"We were pretty young then, all in our early 20s, and learning how to do it. We released an EP called China Cove [in 2000] and it was all self-financed and self-recorded. That was us just giving things a go and learning how to to it - and making every mistake we possibly could along the way and wasting lots of money."

With a body of songs behind them - which including the non-album songs The Drinker, which won best unreleased song at the bNet awards in '02, and Blue Summer, which was number one on the national alternative radio charts for four weeks that same year - the band went into Wellington's Surgery Studio in the middle of last year with producer Lee Prebble.

Again self-funded - with new indie label Capital Recordings picking up the tab for mastering and distribution - the album slipped out this month and already there is buzz about their quiet, considered and slightly askew pop.

An award last week for the video of Let Me Die a Woman has also come at the right time to raise their profile. The work of former British director and producer Richard Bell, it was done on a paltry budget

Bell started a company with Stephen McCarthy from Pine, who is a Phoenix Foundation fan, and he played Bell some material. Capital put up around $1200 which included airfares to get them to Christchurch for the filming, and Bell did his bit for small change. The result this week won the Knack Award at the Kodak Music Clip Awards for outstanding results on a low budget.

"Basically it won the best un-funded video," says Scott, "and we haven't received NZ on Air funding. We've applied an awful lot, so maybe this will turn the tide."

The video aside, Phoenix Foundation are a largely unknown act to audiences outside the capital. They played the Kings Arms a couple of years ago, but start a brief national tour there this weekend. Those who've heard the album should take heed, however.

"It'll be a bit rockier. There's a lot of mellow stuff live as well and we do present that, but a lot of our recent material has been a lot heavier and rockier. I don't know if that's got anything to to do with the Datsuns. I hope it doesn't, but we have been doing a bit of rock stuff lately."

Scott says the direction the band took in the studio came as a surprise to him also.

"Generally me and [drummer] Richie Singleton write the songs, but the band develops them a lot and we collaborate to stretch the boundaries of the song. Often they don't end up sounding anything like how we bring them to the band.

"We're a lot louder than that live, but we were very conscious of not trying to force anything to happen and let it happen naturally. When we were recording the album it was a quiet environment and it felt right to be just chilling out playing everything very mellow and even melancholy."

While Wellington bustles with sprawling reggae and dub outfits, Phoenix Foundation don't seem to fit the niche. There is however a clear reference point for Horsepower within the capital's music scene, the gentle album last year by TrinityRoots, True.

"There was inspiration for us on that album, we're all very big TrinityRoots fans. It comes from a different historical background but a lot of what they are trying to achieve is quite similar.

"We're just trying to make something intimate, honest and beautiful, I guess. That would be the ultimate goal."

Performance

* Who: Phoenix Foundation, Fang

* Where: Kings Arms tomorrow, Leigh Sawmill Cafe Sunday