The new old faces of rock'n'roll

By CATHRIN SCHAER

They are happy to admit it. "We are quietly content old men," says Andrew Thorne, one of the people behind Auckland band, Splitter.

"Which is of course the new rock'n'roll," quips drummer Wayne Bell.

"We're not angry young men with tattoos," Thorne continues. "We're not retro like The Hives. In fact, we're not really trying to be anything we're not."

"We follow tradition rather than trends," Bell adds. "Songs are still relevant."

But perhaps this - and the fact that Splitter play melodious rock'n'roll - is hardly surprising. Just look at the band members' musical backgrounds.

Thorne, a singer, songwriter, guitarist and Splitter's all-round prime mover, has been playing with the likes of Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Jan Hellriegel for several years. This is where he met Bell, who has also worked regularly with all of the latter as well as Greg Johnson.

The pair were part of the "Together In Concert" tour supporting Runga, Dobbyn and Tim Finn, who even included one of Thorne's songs in their set.

Bell joined Splitter after he helped to produce some of Thorne's songs. "I just thought, 'I love these songs. I could be in this band.' "

After several changes in Splitter's line-up since the band formed in 1995, there's now also Aidan Phillip-Phillips on bass and actor Joel Tobeck on guitar and, as the band's website puts it, "rock poses".

Tobeck, who has a penchant for Led Zeppelin and other classic rock, was playing in the Ice As made-for-television band with Thorne when he joined the group.

"He's really good and he's not afraid of guitar solos," says Thorne.

The result is a tight, proficient group of guys playing what Thorne describes as "song-based pop rock".

"Everything starts with the Beatles," Thorne says in explaining Splitter's sound. "Because they wrote great songs. That for me is the beauty of getting back to song-based rock. It's never going to go away. People were into it in 1964 and they always will be. Those songs touch a part of you that dance music and pre-programmed stuff just can't."

As well as fronting the band and owning the record label, Thorne writes most of Splitter's songs.

The Aucklander, who is proud to say he saw the Osmonds play at Carlaw Park in 1973, found it hard to learn other people's songs when he started playing the guitar at 15.

"It took me so long that I thought, 'Well, there are only about 10 million fantastic guitarists in the world already. So if I can't do that then I will write my own songs.' "

Thorne says working with artists such as Dobbyn and Runga has influenced his songs.

"It's an opportunity to learn about other people's songwriting techniques. Working with Dobbyn is a real pleasure. He's so patient and so obviously in love with the songs and the craft of writing them," Thorne enthuses. "You'll be listening to a song and you'll hear how that melody beats against that chord. And you'll be reminded of what it was that turned you on about music in the first place."

Bell adds, "I think the skill is in crafting the song so it sounds so simple and so natural." He then reminds Thorne that he once stole a song title from his employer.

"Yeah, we were driving in the South Island and we went past a sign that said: 'Doubtless Bay left'," Thorne recalls. "Dobbyn said, 'That's a great title for song'." As anyone who has the new Splitter album will tell you, Thorne wrote that song first.

"He'll be calling me up and asking for my APRA [royalty] cheque," says Thorne.

So, can we assume that a mild bit of pilfering of intellectual copyright is as rock'n'roll as these "quietly content old men" get?

" I stayed up until 11 once," Thorne says.

"And I sometimes don't hang up my wet towels," Bell adds.

Yes, they're kidding. But maybe, such maturity combined with musical talent is Splitter's biggest advantage.

Bell and Thorne say they don't want to conquer the world or become any kind of underground cult band - they just want people to like their music.

Thorne points out, "These guys are brilliant musicians without being nerdy or 'music shop' about the whole thing. They're amazing musicians but they never get in the way of a song."

"Anyway," concludes Bell, "rock'n'roll is getting older."


* Splitter's new album Devil in the Detail is available now. The album release is at Galatos, Newton, tomorrow.