Aucklander returns to record in Dunedin

Melancholy and meditative, Auckland songwriter Simon Comber's new album has a strong Dunedin connection, Shane Gilchrist discovers.

Simon Comber is likely to strike a celebratory note or two during his support slot for The Verlaines in Dunedin tonight.

The Auckland songwriter has just released his sophomore album, Endearance.

The title, a made-up word (technically, a neologism if others pick it up and start using it), has a certain resonance given it is a good two years since Comber began work on the follow-up to his 2006 debut, Pre-Pill Love.

"I think it has fallen through the cracks as far as what labels or distributors want at the moment. I don't think it is a reflection on the quality at all. It might even be a reflection of how good it is. That's what I tell myself, anyway," Comber says, chuckling, during an afternoon break from his job at Auckland Public Library.

Being surrounded by words seems fitting for an artist who clearly prides himself on his lyricism.

Endearance mixes strong narratives and internal monologues; some describe a character's surroundings; others suggest contemplation, melancholy even.

Take opening track At the Bottom of the Ocean, on which a sparse acoustic guitar line floats in space before Comber's voice cuts in.

It sets a plaintive tone for the rest of the album, a mood helped by the liberal use of open tunings.

"What I found was the tone of the songs that I chose for the album had a continuity. That came not just from the lyrical themes but from the fact I was playing a lot more electric guitar and was playing with a lot more open tunings," Comber explains.

"The terms 'drone' and `jangle' are overused in regards anything recorded in the South Island. I don't really connect it with the Dunedin Sound; I connect it with folk-rock bands like Fairport Convention, those lovely open droning chords used by Joni Mitchell.

"Open G was a big one for me. It did make for quite an introspective, meditative vibe to the songs.

"I was feeling self-conscious about strumming the acoustic guitar; I felt in a rut every time I picked it up and tried to write a song in standard tuning. Then you listen to a Lou Reed song with the same chords he has used for 30 years and he has somehow found a masterpiece ... I just couldn't do that. Maybe in 30 years' time I'll be able to."

Following a couple of rehearsals in Dunedin producer Dale Cotton's home studio, recording sessions for Endearance began at the Port Chalmers Masonic Lodge in April 2008.

However, illness prompted a month-long break before Comber returned from Auckland to complete his vocals.

"Dale brought a lot of co-production help to the project. He has a great ear for rhythm. When you're a songwriter you tend to think melodically and, in my case, lyrically ...

"I wrote all the songs by myself on guitar and, to be honest, I'm so used to being a solo artist that I never write with a rhythm section in my head.

"But what I found this time was - and I think it had something to do with the open tunings - I was able to take a lot of the chord out and just play the key melody line."

Joining the fray were Verlaines drummer Darren Stedman and guitarist Tom Healy, of Dunedin band The Tomahawks (which has subsequently morphed into Auckland-based The Low Spark).

"We just hammered it out as we went along, all of us figuring out what worked," Comber says.

Stedman aside, Comber's connection to The Verlaines goes back to his time as a music student at the University of Otago, where composition papers put him within the orbit of Dr Graeme Downes, senior lecturer in the contemporary music programme.

"I got to know Graeme a little bit in that context, but have kept in touch. We have a lot of the same ... I guess you'd call them prejudices if you were being self-deprecating. We look for the same things out of songs, I think.

"I still fire through lyrics to him and he tells me what's wrong with them. He has even fired me the odd one. It is nice to have a dialogue with someone who's not afraid to keep you lifting your game."

Having secured a Creative NZ grant for Endearance and a distributor in the form of Dunedin label Yellow Eye, Comber plans to follow up with an EP, which he is close to finishing.

Though the nationwide series of gigs with The Verlaines only begins tonight (at Otago University's Main Common Room), he hopes it will herald a burst of activity.

"I'll be touring again as soon as possible on the back of a new EP. The good thing about word-orientated songs is they are quite durable. Most of my songs are as at home with a band as they are with a singer and his guitar."

See him, hear him

Simon Comber performs with The Verlaines and Tono at the University of Otago's Main Common Room tonight. Endearance is out now.