"This is all very new. Soaked Oats have been a proper band for about three or four months, but this is my first thing ever. I’ve only been playing guitar for a year and a-half," Mein says over a pint.
"It’s all very fresh."
With Mein writing the basis for what would become Stone Fruits Melodies on acoustic guitar over a summer, the band, which also features Henry Francis, Max Holmes, and Connor Freely, convened in Dunedin, spending a week in the Attic attempting a DIY recording.
"It was this completely nocturnal week, where we’d do like 5pm till 3 or 5am, and got those demos. Then I went away for about a year, and they just got worked on while I was away.
"Henry spent the next six months learning how to mix, tinkering with them, and just listening to these songs over and over again, slowly hating them.
"We did intend to use them when I came back, but after we played some shows, decided against it."
The band then re-recorded everything with sound engineer Tom Bell over a period of three or four days. The resulting EP, Stone Fruit Melodies, is seven slick and sunny drupe-themed tracks.
With surfy reverbed rhythm guitars, dexterous energetic bass and a healthy, fleshy sheen, there’s a lot to like about the EP: it doesn’t take itself too seriously musically or lyrically, and yet the repeated references, allusions, and metaphors involving peaches, plums and nectarines seem to get oddly deeper and more meaningful with each successive airing. It’s a real grower, I guess you could say.
"I’m not even really that much of a fan of stone fruit," Mein says with a laugh.
"I mean, yeah, as much as anyone else is, I think.
"I had a job selling cherries one summer in Wellington, when I was just learning to play guitar, and that’s when I wrote Cherry Brother. It was just a joke of a song, writing these stupid lyrics to E and A.
"I finished that job and went away on this road trip and all these things just started popping up. Like I went on a tramp with some friends, and a friend of mine said ‘Did you know the fuzzy skin of a peach is the recessive gene of a nectarine?’.
"I thought it was just the most beautiful sounding fact I’d ever heard ... turns out he’s wrong, but I used it anyway ’cause it sounded so nice. Once I had two songs, I was pretty much locked in!"
Get some help with your 5-plus a day, and check out the debut EP from Soaked Oats.
BEAT THE DOLDRUMS
If "Jefferson Airplane meets a punk Kate Bush" sounds like your thing, local band The Doll Drums could be worth a look. The foursome, led by Catherine KS and Irian Scott, play a vaguely quirky indie pop-rock with some clean, clear melodies and swooping, operatic backing vocals.
The gigs
• Soaked Oats’ Stone Fruit Melodies is streaming now on Spotify and available for purchase on Bandcamp, soakedoats.bandcamp.com
The band plays at Plato Cafe on May 27 supporting Ha the Unclear.
• Catherine KS solo acoustic set and a set with The Doll Drums, Friday, May 19, at Dog With Two Tails. Music starts at 8pm.
