A new record offers the chance for reinvention but Dunedin songwriter Leah Hinton’s latest release, No Time To Explain, presents more than the usual number of twists and turns.
The biggest surprise by far is that Hinton co-created the LP, as part of her gothic-pop solo project Murmur Tooth, with German house DJ and producer Lars Moston.
The collaborative album marks another pivot in Hinton’s lengthy song-writing career.
With a music degree from the University of Otago in hand, Hinton originally left Dunedin to embark on more than 10 tough years touring across Europe with various heavy metal bands.
One moment on the road sticks out in Hinton’s memory. "We were lost, laughing hysterically in a random Polish supermarket carpark," she recalls.
"The map looked like someone had smashed some typewriters on the ground and thrown away everything except the Zs and Cs".
"That was the moment that I realised I was finally living the dream as a touring rocker," she says.
But there was trouble on the horizon.
The band’s UK working visas were about to expire. "We had to go somewhere, I can’t actually remember how we decided on Berlin — it’s highly possible we just threw a dart at a map," she reckons.
When the band arrived in Berlin, it didn’t take long for Hinton to realise that the city had a music culture all of its own.
"House and techno are such a big part of Berlin’s whole DNA, I reckon something pretty mind-blowing would have to come along to bump it out of fashion here."
With her heavy metal career in the rear-view mirror, Leah decided to put more time into her solo song writing.
That is until she bumped into house DJ Lars Moston at a local bar.
The pair initially bonded over tearing apart each other’s tastes in music.
But the challenge of trying to write a song together proved impossible to resist.
Channelling her grunge and metal inclinations into a techno-pop framework initially proved difficult.
But recalling a piece of songwriting advice from Verlaines frontman and University of Otago lecturer Graeme Downes helped her bridge the gap.
"One thing that really stuck with me from Graeme’s course is the importance of repetition when creating hooks," she says.
Hinton and Moston’s initial collaboration proved a resounding success.
Moston’s profile in the local dance scene helped him work the track into club sets across Europe.
Now, after five singles, the pair’s tunes have clocked up a collective 30 weeks on Germany’s influential club charts.
Hinton puts the success down to a new stage strategy that sees her trading her trusty guitar for a more club-friendly keytar.
"We’ve developed two versions of the live set, one is pop, like the album, and the other is a dance or ‘clubby’ version, which is awesome because we can tailor our live set towards all sorts of festivals," she explains.
When asked about her enduring interest in metal, Hinton points to one track on the new album.
"It’s a dark, minimalistic version of the Alice Cooper classic Poison.
"Lars came up with the idea after hearing the original on the ’80s channel while riding the Berlin night train.
"It’s very intimate and mesmerising, and almost uncomfortable at times — completely different from the original rock vibe."
There have already been several up-tempo dance remixes of their cover to cater for the famously high-energy Berlin club crowds.
As for what comes next? Hinton and Moston are touring the new album across Europe this summer, starting in Ibiza.
They hope to bring their house-inspired live set to the southern hemisphere later in the year.
The pair are realistic about what it might take to reproduce their northern hemisphere success in New Zealand.
"Actually, our ideal audience would probably include a mosh pit, a group of ravers, some grunge kids nodding their heads in the corner, some trip hoppers swaying and a couple of old punk dads," says Hinton.
- No Time To Explain is out now on Motor Music.
