Quite a few years ago, at Auckland venue Galatos, Tristan Dingemans of Dunedin trio HDU twirled his guitar around and flung it full tilt into the back of the stage. It narrowly missed drummer Dino Karlis, who along with bass player Neil Phillips played on seemingly unperturbed. They were used to his pent-up explosions, and it was this sort of volatility that helped fuel the band's sonic intensity.
As the frontman he was key to HDU, who are currently on hiatus, but, says Dingemans who is now leader of another Dunedin trio, Mountaineater, he often felt as if he played a part in the band's downfall when he "sabotaged" gigs.
Much of his unhinged behaviour stemmed from his drug addiction. He was addicted to opiates, was on a methadone programme for years, and "a very habitual pot smoker".
"I've been burning the wrong candles for some time I suppose and that's largely why HDU dried up," he says.
While he still managed to get Mountaineater up and running in 2008 with bandmates Anaru Ngata (bass) and Chris Livingston (drums) he was still in "this terminal groundhog day".
But at the end of last year he began the Ibogaine detox programme, whereby the properties extracted from the Iboga tree in west Africa are used to treat addicts. It has worked a treat, reckons Dingemans.
"It reboots you. It just changed my whole life completely and I've got a far better relationship with my wife and my kids than I've had in quite some time."
Now that he's out of the drug-induced fog he also has a new and fortified musical focus. Mountaineater - the name comes from a song by Kahu (his solo project) about a myth surrounding Te Mata peak in Hawkes Bay where he is from - conjures up a beautifully sprawling and immense sound. It comes through best on a track like nine-minute monster Spider Baby, a song about his wife.
"We drifted in and out of each other's space without really getting to know each other but once we did it happened really fast," he remembers.
Mountaineater are recording a new EP with producer Dale Cotton, who worked on much of HDU's music, and an album to follow next year.
"I've been emotionally tranquillised for some time," says Dingemans.
"Not utterly retarded but definitely not growing as I should have. But I'm rediscovering what I know I can do with music and what music means to me. I'm still mining a fairly dark seam soundwise though, and I don't think that's ever going to change," he says, laughing.
• Catch them
Mountaineater plays ReFuel in Dunedin on Saturday, September 24.
