Rhian Sheehan takes time to think about the scale of things

By MIKE HOULAHAN

Doing things to a plan rather than by happy chance has proven a successful formula, Wellington musician Rhian Sheehan says.

Sheehan always wanted to be a musician - but he hadn't actually intended to release his first album when he did.

"I wasn't even thinking about making an album - it was just music I was making while I was at university," he says.

"I was really surprised when [local independent label] Loop said they wanted to release it - I'd just handed them a demo of some tracks and they said it was great and wanted to do it, so I finished it off with some other stuff I'd only just started work on."

What Sheehan thought were only half-formed ideas were recognised by his record label as the developing sound of an electronic/ambient musician with rare promise.

Loop's faith was borne out spectacularly with the release of Paradigm Shift. With most local electronic producers favouring more uptempo dance sounds or chilled out reggae and dub vibes, Sheehan had the ambient/downtempo neighbourhood almost to himself - meaning he was instantly credited with having created the "Rhian Sheehan sound".

"I don't think I'm conscious of it," Sheehan says.

"I just write what I want to write. I think I'm lucky that people on this side of the world don't tend to be working in this style - there's a real dub thing going on and we're open to downbeat music, but there's not many people releasing it. I suppose I'm in a niche or genre which didn't really exist before - who knows?

"I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm not that confident about Paradigm Shift. It was a very bedroom album.

"I didn't really know what I was doing on a production level, and I think that comes across.

"I think the reason why it did so well was because people weren't focusing on the technical things that I can spot, but could pick up on the spirit I was trying to invoke. That was a great thing."

Not only did Paradigm Shift receive positive reviews at home, but Sheehan's Pacific approach to ambient sounds also found favour further afield.

He successfully toured Europe last year, the BBC and MTV Europe licensed Paradigm Shift in its entirety for use as instrumental beds, and prestigious ambient compilation Cafe Del Mar included a Paradigm Shift track on one of its high-selling collections.

That label has returned to the Sheehan well, and will include Te Karanga from Sheehan's new album, Tiny Blue Biosphere, on the next Cafe Del Mar volume.

"This last year's been amazing," Sheehan says.

"Signing stuff to Cafe Del Mar - which is a hugely selling compilation which sells everywhere around the world - was great. I'd go to these places and walk into a music store and the disc would be there with my track on it - it caused a turnaround in my thinking on what music is about.

"What I realised - and I'd never really realised this before - is that music is just like any other medium such as writing or poetry, it's a form of communication. It's a great feeling to be communicating with people in such a way."

Armed with that insight, Sheehan sat down to start work on Tiny Blue Biosphere.

A much more focused release than Paradigm Shift, it comes complete with its own manifesto - an explanation from Sheehan about the spiritual and environmental concerns which inspired the 14 tracks on the album.

"It's my philosophy on life and thinking. I read a lot and think a lot and that inevitably impacts upon my music," Sheehan says.

"I try to evoke a sense of feeling, inspired by different times in my life. Good times, bad times, weird times .

"The first track, Passenger, the whole idea for that came from me being stranded by myself in Hong Kong airport. I was recording the sound of my surroundings - I use a lot of background recordings in my music.

"When you're in an airport there's this weird sense of excitement and exhilaration, but also of loss and homesickness - it's an odd conflict of emotions that go with that sense of unease with yourself.

"As soon as I got back from Europe that was the first track I worked on. When I listen to that track it really gives me a sense of destination, a sense of going somewhere, and of not knowing where you are."

Sheehan surrounded himself with a large number of like-minded musicians to make Tiny Blue Biosphere, including Neil Aldridge, Kirsten Johnstone, Anika Moa, Paul McLaney (Gramsci), and a string section.

"This album was a different story because I approached it with the intention of releasing it," Sheehan says.

"I wanted to be more ambitious, I wanted to hire a string section and score for strings and there were people I'd wanted to work with for a long time like Anika Moa and Paul McLaney. I also got my head around production a bit more and sussed out what I was doing.

"I wanted to create a sense of space for the listener, room for them to think about what they were listening to and where we are in the scale of things.

"That's what I try and do in my music. I don't know how successful I am at it, but we'll find out in the next couple of weeks I suppose."

On CD

* Who: Rhian Sheehan

* What: Album Tiny Blue Biosphere

* When: Out now

- NZPA