Playing for Team Dimmer

Dimmer's Got to Hear the Music, a follow-up to the 2001 debut album I Believe You Are a Star, finds Shayne Carter in a creatively confident mood.

Hunkered over a cup of milky tea, rollie in hand, Carter is musing on his latest footballing exploits.

"My goal was meaningless," he says self-effacingly, "but there was still that delicious feeling of putting the ball into the net. Even more satisfying was that it was a great team goal featuring four or five passes and I was there to finish it off."

At 39 years, you'd expect the force behind the solo-cum-band project that is Dimmer would save his physical exertions for the recording studio or the stage, but not Carter, who is a regular on the soccer pitches of his adopted city of Auckland.

"I really enjoy it, bro, and it's a great thing to do; it's completely mindless - you're just chasing this ball around and I really enjoy the whole team thing as well."

Interestingly, on You've Got to Hear the Music (I Believe You Are a Star was the Herald's 2001 album of the year) "team-player" Carter has found more space in the locker room.

Joining regular collaborators Gary Sullivan (drums, animation) and Ned Ngatae (guitar) are two of New Zealand's top female singers, Anika Moa and Bic Runga.

Carter also finds room for the horns of Fat Freddy's Drop on the single Getting What You Give and the production skills of Sean Donnelly, better known as SJD, Nick Roughan and Andy "Submariner" Morton, among others.

"On the last album I did have collaborators, but it was very much a solo journey, and on this one I farmed out a lot more of it," says Carter.

"But I didn't get Anika Moa or Bic to work on the album because they were Anika Moa and Bic Runga. I got them to sing on my record because they are good singers and the reason they are successful is that they are talented. The same goes for Fat Freddy's Drop, Sean and the guys who play in my band."

Considering the seven-year hiatus following the demise of his old band Straitjacket Fits and the release of Star, last year was a remarkably productive one for the one-time guitar hero.

Not only did Carter produce Music, he also wrote the soundtrack to Stuart McKenzie's debut feature, the psychological thriller For Good.

But while the film work was the result of a direct approach, Music was spawned during a period of artistic clarity.

Carter admits to experiencing some self-doubt while recording the brooding funk-fused electronica of Star, on which he cut his teeth on Pro Tools, but not with Music.

"The last album worked - to my senses at least - and that gave me the confidence with this one to know that what I was doing works. That's not being egotistical - that's just the truth, bro."

A stripped-back, lean affair, the new album implores the listener, as the title may suggest, to Hear the Music.

"I just went through a really up period and I knew the record I wanted to make. It was really minimal and it was organic and soulful and truthful.

"I like the idea there are human beings playing the instruments - I can hear my fingers scraping on the guitar strings."

Unfortunately Carter's confidence was not shared by Sony, who released the artist after Star came out. Picked up by Festival Mushroom Records, Carter shows no ill-feeling towards his former benefactors.

"What's there to be bitter about? I think if you kinda look at their roster and my music, it's like, well, how did one guy put it, 'square peg in a round hole'."

Signing with FMR, who have Flying Nun under their wing, could be seen as going full circle for Carter. Perhaps he should have continued under the Fits banner?

"I could've kept going under the Straitjacket Fits and gone on to the golden oldies circuit if I was thinking like that. I think music is like life, and you've got to continually feel like you're going somewhere and that you're on a journey rather than just stuck in one place.

"But that is not to say that what you did wasn't valid because it's just a different energy. Conversely, I can still listen to some of that stuff and realise that it rocks. But I have no interest in recreating that era, being a sad old fart trying to recapture the glory of his youth.

"I think you can get to my age and still make music that is relevant."

In that case, what would the 17-year-old Shayne Carter, of his old punk band Bored Games, make of Dimmer?

"Why didn't you retire 10 years ago? You don't rock, dude, get off the stage," he sniggers in mock disgust.

But why stop when it's fun, right?

"Definitely, bro, it's the greatest joy of my life; it's better than scoring a goal. It fills me with joy - mind, it depends on how good the goal was."Robin Martin

* Dimmer's You've Got To Hear the Music is released on Monday.