Dobbyn's warm church tour

The Yoda of New Zealand music, Dave Dobbyn, is wrapping up warm - "No, not in one of my infamous 80s jerseys" - and performing throughout the land in various places of worship as part of an acoustic church tour.

"Don't worry, people won't walk away feeling they've had a complete Gospel brainwashing," Dobbyn laughs.

"I ain't about to get out there and preach. I learnt a long time ago that if I just sing, I get in the least amount of trouble."

Now 53, as a young boy David Joseph Dobbyn spent a lot of time in church, generally against his will.

"I used to love singing in church as a young boy, not because of what was being sung, but because of the harmonies in a big space. I'd make up my own little harmonies to go with the dour Latin stuff. I had all these five-part harmonies, a Beach Boys thing, going on, at least in my head.

"We would be forcefully involved or on the rack - there was a lot of torture involved in being a Catholic altar boy.

"I don't remember it fondly, but I remember the sonics in that space took you somewhere else, and that's what I love about these kinds of rooms. They were designed to be enigmatic spaces, even if a lot of them don't leave much to the imagination in their stultifying depression and austerity."

The tour is the fruition of a wish he has harboured for some time, inspired by Bic Runga's acoustic church tour.

"There's a different dynamic in churches and cathedrals. There's a bigness to the sound. It's theatrical in a way. It's all about good old-fashioned acoustic projection, but there's also an intimacy about it. You're drawn into the acoustic world, and if you do it right, dynamically, you can really surround an audience and infiltrate them," he laughs.

When not keeping his dog from traipsing mud through the house, he is busy creating a new album, his eighth solo record.

The tour also offers an opportunity to try these new songs in a live environment.

For Dobbyn, the journey is also an important destination.

"When you're travelling through places, you get to see the backside of town. You get to see all those things that connect people that can be quite tenuous - automobiles, shopping malls and public spaces, and people are on their way somewhere but nowhere at the same time.

"You get used to being in that state of complete flux. It's like being in an outside departure lounge. As soon as you lift your head or heart out of that space, the music happens."

Touring this country's nooks and crannies brings with it interesting experiences.

"I was signing albums after a show, and at the end of the line, after a couple of T-shirts and children's caps, was a woman holding a microwave oven. She wanted me to sign the top of it, so I did. It was nice because the black sharpie on the whiteware is a very good look. I drew a little picture of a guitar or something.

"It was an odd thing to sign, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I think it was in the Taihape Community Hall.

"As part of the stage, there were these chutes where the sheep went out and the whole place smelt of sheep."

Although he doesn't like the cold, Dobbyn is heading to the frozen continent in November as Antarctica New Zealand's resident artist.

"I've thrown a cat among the pigeons by fitting in a trip straight after the church tour to Antarctica. I'm off there in mid- November on the first plane down. I'll get to see all the huts, pay my respects to Mt Erebus and see the animals turn up again after six months in darkness."

Although he is sure the trip will be inspirational, it will be a time for the wordsmith in him to emerge, with the cold sure to wreak havoc on his guitar tuning, but for now his attention is firmly on arranging his songs for the acoustic tour.

"This church tour really excites me too, because there's something about that direct connection with the audience.

"Sparsely arranging things for spaces like that is a great challenge. You can hear a pin drop. You can get things to work that way, and you can be hollering your head off too.

"Churches send you up to a loftier train of thought, to contemplate the sacred. It's a powerful, patriotic thing for me, hearing a sermon and mumbling answers and being in complete obedience to the structure of it all. Here's a chance to blow that out of the water and fill the place with songs like churches are supposed to be."

He laughs when I note that he has gone from being charged by David Lange for inciting a riot down Auckland's Queen St in 1984 to playing churches.

"I can imagine that it will be a relatively civilised run. I can't imagine any beery fights in the car park or anything. I've got great belief if you take rock 'n' roll where it is least expected, it has its greatest effect. It started out in the church. I reckon I'm just bringing it back. If it all falls over, I'll be back in the pubs tomorrow."

Dave Dobbyn Acoustic Church Tour: St John's, Nelson, Sep 20; First Presbyterian Church, Invercargill, Sep 22; Knox Church, Dunedin, Sep 23; Christ Church Cathedral, Sep 24, and St Michael and All Angels, Christchurch, Sep 25. Tickets: acousticchurchtour.co.nz and Ticketek.

WIN * WIN* WIN

GO has a double pass to give away to see Dave Dobbyn at Christ Church Cathedral on Friday, September 24. To enter, email music@press.co.nz, with Sign My Microwave in the subject line, before 5pm today. The winner will be notified.

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Writers Festival

Dave Dobbyn will provide an insight into his songwriting at the Christchurch Town Hall on Sunday, September 12, taking the audience through the creation and inspiration of many of his well- loved hits, including Be Mine Tonight, Outlook for Thursday, Loyal, Whaling, Slice of Heaven and Welcome Home.

His songs have never been collected and published in written form before. Produced to coincide with his new album of greatest hits, Dave Dobbyn: The Songbook contains 39 of his most celebrated and loved songs. It contains notes about each song, photographs, lyrics and guitar and piano chords.

"I'm glad I did it, but it meant I spent a lot of time going back into the past," he says. "I'm done now and it's time to move on." How did Loyal emerge into the world? "I wrote that at the same time I wrote Language.

It must have been my week for 'L' words. Loyal flowed quickly, within a day or so. It was one of those times in a relationship when you want to reassure each other. People thought it was about a breakup. Everyone was reading other meanings into the song.

"Loyal . . . I loved the sound of it as a word. It rolled off the tongue like a Welsh choir. There was something lyrical about it as a word - a rare word and rare quality. I was a bit confused, obviously, from the jersey I'm wearing in the video.

"I always imagined it as a simple song really. It eventually became a simple song turned into a rally cry for couples, I suppose. "I'm still hoping to create 10 songs to change the world. We've all got a dream, haven't we?"

- © Fairfax NZ News