The Dave Dobbyn interview

Dave Dobbyn is celebrating 30 years as a recording artist - with the new collection Beside You: 30 Years of Hits and with some shows around the country, charging $19.79 a ticket ("a recession-buster", he says, laughing down the line).

It was my great pleasure to talk to Dave Dobbyn. He even managed to re-tweak his schedule for me. And he was - as I had hoped and heard - very friendly, very chatty. Beside You: 30 Years of Hits is, to my knowledge, the third Dave Dobbyn best-of. So I had to kick off by asking what made this one different; and why - beyond the anniversary - this one was created.

"I tried to put it together as if replicating a live set," Dobbyn tells me. "But with different moods..." Dobbyn is pleased with the split, 39 songs over two CDs, "the first disc has all the 'anthems' I guess; the hits. And the second disc has some songs that are perhaps less known - but still good songs," he adds a burst of laughter that almost seems nervous. But, he clarifies, "when you're doing these things - making such a package - you have to consider what you would want to buy yourself; at least that's the way I looked at it. And so that, in the end, is what we have. Two discs of songs that I like - and I think people will like them too. Some songs they'll know - and there'll be some to discover. And maybe, for some people, they'll know most of them, but it's certainly packaged up to create two listening experiences: the hits - and then everything else." There's a pause - and then another burst of laughter.

I tell Dobbyn - as good as the disc of hits is (and we're talking several alternative national anthems) I prefer disc two. "Yeah," he says, "there's some good ones there I reckon, definitely."

Songs like Don't Hold Your Breath.

There's also a DVD. An hour-long road-trip documentary. Dobbyn says, "The DVD presents another angle; an angle that I was resisting at first. I thought there was not a lot to tell. But the thing that really sold me was that Paul Casserly was going to be involved and he has done a lot of great stuff and I like his style, so..." Dobbyn breaks his own train of thought, then comes right back on track, saying, "we're living in the last days of these packages - so it seemed right to put it all together; two discs and the DVD."

Value adding?

"Sure, why not? And there's the songbook too - which I am excited about; the chords for all the same songs that are on the CDs and the lyrics too."

I suggest he probably hears his own songs enough - his versions, radio versions - wouldn't he have had enough?

"No, I can honestly say that I love it. I'm very thrilled to think that so many New Zealanders have taken some of these songs to heart - and it's a joy to play them and to have them played. I'm very proud, or occasionally proud," he breaks in to another characteristic giggle off the back of a howl of laughter, "not every song works out the way that you hope, but I have a few that have stuck; I still like them. People seem to still like them - and I'm grateful."

The first disc of the new collection features a few re-records. Old songs in new clothes. What was the thinking behind that?

"To me it's about the songs - that's what this whole thing is about - and with some of the old songs I figured that I have been performing them differently live for some time, so I wanted to reflect that; wanted to present them as I do live." So the new versions grew, organically, from the live versions? "Yeah, I would say so, definitely. It's very much about that - a song like Whaling is a song that I sing differently now; placing a different focus on it and so it was fun to do it, have it on record, the way we do it live."

He doesn't seem to tire of playing any of the songs...

"No. Not at all. These songs are fun to play - and the reaction from people, mostly, is great." Another sidestep toward laughter for a bit. "Mostly - as far as I can tell - people still want to hear a lot of these songs and that just means the world to me; it really does."

Much as when I interviewed Tim Finn recently for Blog on the Tracks I wanted to put across to Dobbyn the impact of his songs on this country; the feeling I have of that impact; and ask if he feels that; is aware of that.

"It's one of the greatest things about this job - probably the greatest thing in fact. I have been very lucky to build a career, to have these songs that people respond to and I'll never underestimate that. I've been very lucky. I mean, in some senses, it takes the pressure off. I have been fortunate to have some songs that have been successful and then in some senses it also puts the pressure on me - I have to turn down singing my song for some people at certain gatherings, doing appearances, or think about where I want the songs to go; how I want them used. But I'll never get sick of singing a song like Loyal in a concert. In one of my shows that's just accepted that I'll play it. And I will. I'm not going to deprive the audience of that."

I tell Dobbyn that if we are to trust the APRA Top 100 songs list that gave us the Nature's Best series of CDs a few years back, then he has given New Zealand 10% of its best songs.

A giant cackle spirals down the phone line - Dobbyn sounds chuffed when he repeats "10% eh?" - it has a tone about it of the Kiwi battler sounding genuinely stoked and slightly incredulous at the same time. "10% eh," he repeats, "I'd not done the maths but, ah, well, that's something to live up to then!"

Dobbyn started his recording and touring career with Th' Dudes and then created, from the ashes of Th' Dudes, DD Smash - being that Th' Dudes had a reunion tour; I ask if we'll be waiting for 2011 for the 30^th Anniversary DD Smash Tour.

"I don't think the schedule is booked that far in advance", Dave replies, after a customary chuckle.

But he is marking the 10^th anniversary of the Finn/Runga/Dobbyn shows - the three (Bic Runga, Tim Finn and Dobbyn) are heading around the country in early 2010.

"One of the main reasons for us to feel motivated to do it was that we couldn't believe it was 10 years ago...we really couldn't." I suggest that - while not fulfilling the hit-quota, they could build a show based entirely around what the trio has done during the last decade only.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm not sure the fans would be happy to go away without hearing some of the hits, but I think I agree, I think there's enough good stuff between us to build a set, and we'll obviously play plenty of hits; but it won't be a complete repeat of last time at all - it'll be a new set. I have fond memories of that tour, though, because I'd taken to playing the piano and it changed my approach to writing."

So with that we look at Dobbyn's writing.

"I do a lot of writing in cars...well, not actually while driving, but going for drives, heading out around the country inspires me; it's a great place to listen to music. To either listen back to something you're doing - or to listen to new music. I love listening to music in the car and from there getting ideas for my own songs...just taking a look around this great country, you know, it's inspiring and it's all around us."

Is that the reason Dobbyn's music feels so indelibly linked to the land? So much a part of New Zealand?

"Well, I've only used the car excuse in recent time," he laughs, "but yeah, I can see that - I guess there's a kind of 'internal geology' going on with the songs, filtered through my eyes and ears, at their best anyway...and that was what we wanted to put across in the DVD; the road-trip."

Dobbyn hasn't talked a great deal about his time in Australia. He wound up DD Smash; scored the Footrot, Flats movie and released the Loyal album. He was known to New Zealanders; known in New Zealand. And he jumped the ditch...I suggest that Australia has become, very much, his forgotten years.

"Forgotten years," he echoes, "yeah...desperate years in fact!" And this time the laughter has less of a brightness to it, there's colour still - always - but it doesn't feel as vibrant. I suggest that the payoff for a frankly sh***y time was some very good songs.

"Yeah, sure, I can say that now - and I can see that now, but it was very close to soul destroying at the time. I mean I went to Hollywood to record the Lament for the Numb album; I was on a label that had connected me with Elvis Costello's great rhythm section [Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas] so I couldn't help but want to pay tribute to him; and I was offering nods to Randy Newman and all of these heroes. I delivered an album that I thought was edgy. The record label called it 'un-releasable' and they shelved it. It sat for a year before being released."

Dobbyn says this was very close to rock-bottom, certainly from a writing/performing point of view.

But many of the songs on Lament are now live favourites; many are represented on this new compilation. I venture that it's the album that announced Dobbyn as a real songwriter; which is not to discredit any of his earlier band and solo work - so many anthems were already part of New Zealand - and it's nice to have him agree, at least to a degree.

"Yeah, I think so - I think Lament was the start - but I just wasn't in the right condition to deal with what was going on there, but I think Twist was the flipside. I learned to embrace things, to go with it, take risks, try new things - and returning to Auckland - Twist was very much a collaboration with Neil Finn; he was crucial to the sound of that record."

And there were still the songs dealing with the Australia fallout - like I Can't Change My Name?

"Yeah, it was a bad time - but I got some good songs - that's what any songwriter wants, right?" This time the warmth is back inside the mirth.

So - it's a very content Dave Dobbyn who gives me half an hour of his time when he wasn't expecting to be interviewed. Chatting happily from his office; telling me that "the joy of it is in knowing that I've written songs for occasions". This comment comes in answer to me wondering if he minds that his songs have gone on to be performed and played at weddings, funerals, by dodgy covers bands in even dodgier pubs.

"It's pretty spesh - actually. Pretty humbling." Dobbyn says that wherever he goes he "hears people's stories about the songs, about what they mean and what they have come to represent" and he hopes he's "got a few more left..."

*

Sony Music was kind enough to offer TWO copies of Beside You: 30 Years of Hits to Blog on the Tracks. I'll give them to the two people who can either a) name my favourite Dave Dobbyn album or b) name my favourite album that Dobbyn was involved with but was not one released under his name.

You can only answer ONE question. Post your answers below along with any comments about Dave Dobbyn and his music. Have you met him? Have you shared a story with him about your favourite/s of his songs? Or if you haven't feel free to do that below also. Are you a fan? Or are you not a fan? Do you have favourite experiences from particular shows? And favourite songs/albums? Will you be buying - or have you bought - Beside You?

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