Southern sojourn for acoustic Edin

Paul McLaney created something new in a place of memories. Picture / Gareth Moon

Singer songwriter and guitarist Paul McLaney is in a Dunedin state of mind.

McLaney, who arrived at Otago University at 18 to get a law degree, before becoming a full-time musician, describes the city as his "place full of firsts".

Now living in Auckland, he says returning to Dunedin to record his new album at the iconic NZBC studio this year, was a chance to create something new in a place full of memories.

Edin - 10 pared-back, acoustic tracks set against the lush background of a string quartet - was recorded in a couple of days in the historic room, which was built from the same plans as the BBC Abbey Road studio.

"It's one of the few rooms left in the country that are purpose-built to record live music.

"There were moments when I thought I was back in the 50s, all the microphones are vintage and the room itself - it looks like (jazz great) John Coltrane should be standing in the corner with a saxophone in a black and white photograph."

Edin is McLaney's second major solo effort, after 2003's The Shadows of Birds Flying Fall Slowly Down the Tall Buildings, and three albums with his band Gramsci, which blended electronic tones into a palette of folk-rock.

With Edin, McLaney has focused on music which he says is honest, acoustic, live.

He says the rise of music software in recent years has meant the composition sometimes becomes the recording, as songs can be paused and instruments moved around a screen.

But that comes at the cost of the energy which comes from people playing together in a room, in real time - which can't be recreated.

"I think that distinction is starting to come into sharper contrast again, in an era when people expect to download music for free, or just trade iTunes. The thing you can't download is a guy sitting in front of you, performing the song."

The new record is, in part, a homage to the city where McLaney spent some of his most formative years.

There must be something in the Dunedin water, he thinks, which makes it a town full of whimsical moments, and "secret, eccentric, wonderful people".

But Edin could be anywhere. "When you think about paradise, it's more like a state of mind. Everyone's got an Edin, it's just mine happens to be in Dunedin."

McLaney grew up in northeast England, before his family transplanted themselves to the other side of the world when he was 12 years old.

At that point New Zealand music was almost a dirty word, he says.

He was 16 when he first heard Straitjacket Fits at a friend's house. "I said, 'Who's this by?' And the friend said it was a band called Straitjacket Fits, from Dunedin, and I remember being blown away.

"Somebody had told me all New Zealand music was rubbish, but it was amazing. That's when I first heard the name Dunedin. I had this very romantic idea of it and I still do."

McLaney chose to study law because he "actually got in", and says it has some surprising parallels with songwriting.

A case is just a series of central issues, which are like the verses of a song.

And then comes the judge's decision, the idea that comes out of it all - that's the chorus, he says.

"Locating issues is what songwriting is, being able to break apart the algorithm of a situation."

McLaney is travelling the length of the country with his latest album, with shows in the four main centres. There are also plans for another tour of smaller towns, preferably in intimate, cafe-style venues.

Moving around is nothing new for someone who had been to 13 schools by the age of 12 and, when asked where he's based, says: "Well, all my things seem to be in Auckland."

McLaney attributes his wandering nature to an urge to respond to new people and places.

"I know Kafka said, 'Stay where you are and the world will come to you.' That's cool, but it takes a lot longer to meet people."

* McLaney plays Schooner Lounge, Friday October 27 and Hallertau, Riverhead on Saturday.

- NZPA