Releasing records at the double

By GRAHAM REID

It felt like The Place To Be, a chilly Saturday night at the Odeon Lounge on Mt Eden Rd, where beards and beanies mingled with bFM listeners and those who had somehow heard about the seductive, string-splashed sounds of Auckland's Tokey Tones.

This was the launch of their Caterpillar and Butterfly, two simultaneously released albums in complementary, eye-engaging covers by Auckland artist Misery, and the buzz was big.

After the usual setting up - six people and their gear plus three string players in an area the size of a garden shed - the evening unfolded and the spirit of pop classicist Brian Wilson was in the air.

When the band later struck up the Shirelles' 60s classic Baby It's You, the elegance of Hal David and Burt Bacharach swept through. Later again the ambitious pop architecture of the young Martin Phillipps was conjured up in a cover of the Chills' Kaleidoscope World.

But these were mere reference points, and it was the fragile originals which captivated and silenced a crowd previously distracted by drinks and conversation. An often childlike delivery on songs of innocence and experience meant the usual expectations of "a gig" were inverted.

The understated albums will redefine pop music for many: Caterpillar opens with a pastoral folk feel which also suggests Hawaii before the breathy vocals of Scott Mannion and Li-Ming Hu enter, a string section picks up the ethereal mood, and later there is an even more persuasive suggestion of the Pacific in a gentle shimmer of slide guitar.

But if the title Caterpillar suggests something capable of transforming itself, then Butterfly reveals a more traditional pop element and songs which take quiet flight. There has been nothing quite so tasteful, fully realised or confident in Kiwi pop.

Later in the week Mannion is in a bar after work at university. Last year he worked the day job, did two university papers, and was felled by a bout of glandular fever for two months. He also engineered the Brunettes' Holding Hands Feeding Ducks album and runs Lil Chief Records which has released the Brunettes and Tokey Tones.

In the past month Mannion has overseen the TT album release, organised the ambitious gig - which also had an exhibition by Misery and was opened by the Gladeyes - and set up the website (lilchiefrecords.com) for his label. He should be an emotional wreck.

On launch night his eyes nervously flitted from player to player and to the sound desk. Here was the man in control, realising the music in his head.

Embarrassed by compliments about the albums and the gig, and cautious lest he be misinterpreted, Mannion is justifiably wary of being pigeon-holed. Sure, he's listened to Brian Wilson - has the box sets of Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations - and 60s music, but in a free-ranging chat says he's enjoying tropicalia sounds and Serge Gainsbourg, and of course is tuned in to heaps of present-day music. He feels slightly awkward doing covers of the Shirelles and Chills because he has so much respect for the originals.

He laughs about being drawn on what he likes: "Because you say, 'the Velvet Underground' and often people just say that because it's cool, or because you're supposed to say that ... You can hear influences on the albums, but it's a real mish-mash and I'd like to think it's coherent and works for itself."

Mannion has crammed a lot of listening - and some playing - into the past few years. For three years he was in Polaar, a group in which he wrote most of the songs but which began as a democracy. 'Then my taste started to deviate and I wanted to produce. But if I was doing that I wanted do stuff that was different. So I broke off with Li-Ming to form Plasticene, which was me mostly, but she was on the same wavelength and we had people help us to play live."

Polaar won a bNet award for best new act, they did some recordings (nothing Mannion was happy with) and Plasticene started while Polaar was still going. The name lives on as Plasticene Recording Projects, the banner under which the Brunettes and Tokey Tones fall.

Tokey Tones - the name is not a drug reference, Tokey was Hu's childhood toy of a stuffed dog and Mannion liked the sound of the name - is a concept more than a band and he'd been avoiding Tokey Tones playing live for as long as he could. "It's about me writing some songs and choosing who I think will contribute best to them, but at the end of the day I need a band to promote it."

And a string section. Mannion - who credits Hu, a cast member of Shortland Street, with contributions on about half the material - says he has had some musical training. "But I'm pretty anti-theory. I can read and write music to a point. I can sight read but I'm not quick. If I look at a score I can basically see what's going on. I wrote probably 80 to 90 per cent of the Tokey Tones albums, Li-Ming did half the string arrangements but she notated it all - she's better at that.

"I feel a bit funny when I say I'm a musician because while I play a lot of things, I don't really play them that well. I play them enough to actually write things. I guess I'm really more an arranger than a musician. I just play with things."

The instrument he perhaps plays best is the studio where his musical dreams can be slowly realised. Caterpillar/Butterfly was a concept which grew over two years. Mannion received a $5000 Creative New Zealand grant to record an album, but during the course of working in his home studio with like-minded musicians (some from Polaar, Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield of the Brunettes) the body of songs grew. He briefly flirted with four shorter albums. but economics determined the paired, half hour-each albums.

"Originally I wanted it to be anonymous so the project wasn't by someone visible - and there wouldn't be a band because I was really over the whole band thing. But then after two years of recording I was happy to be doing something visible.

"When I started I wanted everything to sound perfect, then realised I can't play things that perfectly, so I might as well be just honest about it. I'd been listening to music which was a little less polished - like Jonathan Richman - that had a feel more than anything.

"Caterpillar songs appear to be less full or more subtle, but there are just as many bits and things going on as Butterfly, which is a little more raw."

By selling the albums at $20 each Mannion is keeping it economical to encourage people to buy both. "The two albums are different so if you don't like one you might like the other, but they do inform each other. It isn't clearcut but there's a similar feel to both. I prefer Caterpillar, I feel it is more cohesive, whereas Butterfly is more songs that work as songs by themselves.

"Reviews have been good, but I'm making this for myself, and if other people like it then that's good. And hopefully they do. But if they read a review they have a mediated view through someone else's opinion. It's not like I can get it to people and say, 'Listen to this and make up your own mind.' That concerns me."

Mannion is already planning other projects: next recording an album already written of half solo-voice songs and the rest straight-ahead pop; then Bits and Pieces which will be some electronic pieces (using non-organic instruments) and the rest orchestral and completely notated.

They may come out under the Plasticene Recording Project name as he doesn't want to be limited to a band entity. "I know it goes totally goes against the branding mentality, but hopefully the brand Lil Chief and Plasticene Project will stand."

The sound of Caterpillar/Butterfly may seem personal and intimate, but Mannion's reach and vision are global. The Brunettes' profile in Britain might spin off interest to the website and therefore the Tokey Tones. He is ambitious for the music, but only to a point. "I take what I do seriously, but I don't take the whole music thing seriously.

"I don't want people to think I'm pretentious or trying to do something like this just to be arty. I'm just trying to present something interesting in an interesting way."

* The Tokey Tones' Caterpillar and Butterfly are out now.