Touching hearts in out-of-the-way places

Dave Dobbyn

Available Light is Dave Dobbyn's first album in five years, and a further move away from the riotously energetic, hook-laden pop-rock that built his reputation during the late 70s and 80s.

The puckish, curly-topped star with an instantly identifiable tenor voice has morphed into a rootsy, contemplative chronicler of the changes in his own life and in New Zealand's heartland.

Smaller towns and their people helped shape these songs more than on any other of his records, he says.

Dobbyn had a selection of songs roughed out but was eager to see how they would go down. "I get a little impatient to get the songs out and among people," he says.

That impatience led him to round up old friends and veteran rock sidemen Bones Hillman and Ross Burge to give the material a run. "Little community halls seem to be a great setting for these songs to start their ride."

But Dobbyn says Available Light was very nearly shaped overseas.

"I thought I would be going offshore to LA, London and New York, but it just became apparent to me that I wanted to work with the best people that I'd yet to discover in New Zealand."

At first that meant Neil Finn, Burge and Hillman, before the album took a detour.

"I was halfway through the record and I thought it would be a good thing to sort of take it somewhere and try working in a couple of other rooms and it struck me that I loved the music that was coming out of Wellington."

Once in Wellington, he ran into ex-Muttonbird David Long, Black Seeds and Phoenix Foundation producer Lee Prebble, ex-TrinityRoots frontman Warryn Maxwell, Fat Freddy's trumpet player Toby Lang and Steve Roche of Six Volts and Plan 9 fame.

"As far as I'm concerned I went for the A team," he says.

Dobbyn says he had been particularly struck by Maxwell's work with TrinityRoots.

"There's something deeply essential about their music I loved. What struck me about TrinityRoots' music and a lot of the music being made (in Wellington) now is that it does have a good geography to it - you listen to and think that could only happen in Wellington."

The finishing touches and mixdown were completed at Prebble's Surger studio. "It was crafted in Auckland and then tailored and finished in Wellington. It was just a perfect way to clinch a 100 per cent New Zealand made record."

Now the record is released, Dobbyn says it's time he, Burge and Hillman continued their trip around New Zealand. "It strikes me to be an essential thing to do every now and again - to have a checklist of little towns you can get into and move a few hearts here and there - including my own."

He estimates he's toured New Zealand "a hundred and something times" but hasn't had enough yet.

"There's always a new bit of coastline or a town that's maybe imploding slightly because of urban drift, but there's still great stories and communities in those places."

But Dobbyn, just back from North Africa, where he has been filming for the Intrepid Journey television series, believes even New Zealand's city dwellers retain much of their country cousins' character.

"We are really quite provincial and tribal by nature, and I'm in love with that kind of parochialism.

"There's nothing quite like being in a room full of people, especially in smaller rooms, to have that connection directly with songs and be conversational about stuff with no airs and graces and get through a night's entertainment. It's a great thing to share and is very inspiring." 

* Available Light is out now.

* See Dave Dobbyn tonight at Opotiki Deluxe Theatre; July 8, Gisborne War Memorial Hall; July 9, Dannevirke Town Hall; July 10, Featherston Anzac Hall

- NZPA