Former Dunedin songwriter Anthonie Tonnon has found a fresh voice for his latest album, writes Shane Gilchrist.
Four years ago, just after the release of Tono and the Finance Company's second EP, Fragile Thing, singer-songwriter Anthonie Tonnon admitted acerbic Mancunian Morrissey had been on high rotation leading up to that 2010 recording.
This time, as he reflects on new album Successor, the names of other Brits, in particular, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker and Billy Bragg, come up (even if comparisons are useful only to a point, lest they diminish Tonnon's own accomplished wordplay).
Still, it seems he's far from horrified by such speculation/observation.
''Well thank you,'' he says before confirming that although Jarvis Cocker was a big influence on 2012 album Up Here For Dancing - ''and I wouldn't be surprised if he has lingered'' - there are a range of other artists who float between the lines of Successor.
''Things that were on the playlist during the recording of this album were Lou Reed, particularly his album Berlin; Leonard Cohen's early records, the most recent PJ Harvey release,'' he explains, adding less obvious catalysts, including Krautrock's outfit Neu! and David Bowie's late-'70s Berlin trilogy of albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger.
''And yes, early Billy Bragg ...''
Notably, Tonnon has done away with the Tono and the Finance Company moniker for Successor.
Although he struggles to regard it as a solo album, it is the first time an album has featured his name only.
''Debut or solo don't seem quite right,'' he reflects, adding, ''I certainly found a new voice for this album, most obviously in the second-person narrative perspective.''
That approach is exemplified by the first lines of song A Friend From Argentina: ''You live this bar/that might imply that you are lonely/but it's not true''.
''The rest of the song would become a sort of pick-a-path novel - there would be a 'you', but no 'I'. I felt like it was a new way of trying Randy Newman's trick of writing from inside the character; only now I'd be forcing the listener inside the character, rather than speaking as the character myself.''
''The new album is even more different musically. I started thinking about sonics more than I ever have.
''I've always been what my drummer called a `horizontal listener'. When I hear a song, I'm essentially hearing sheet music; the melody and the chord structure are what I judge it by.
''But that's not a good approach in the middle of a very aesthetics-focused generation, so I tried to train my ears to listen `vertically', and started building a new sound - first by learning how to make these songs sound more surreal in my solo set, and developing that through a number of live performances.''
Tonnon left Dunedin in 2010, heading to Auckland to further his musical ambitions.
The move has resulted in two albums, 2012's Up Here For Dancing and, now, Successor, as well as various tours both here and overseas.
His latest road trip takes him around New Zealand, including shows at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers, on Saturday, March 14, and at the Sherwood Hotel, Queenstown, on Sunday, March 15.
Though these are with his full band, several other performances will be solo affairs.
''The first time I toured solo in the US, my friend Michael was driving, so I would just sit in the back and write into a composition book.
"I was into a lot of exercises at the time, writing for the sake of writing, flexing my ability to free-associate, developing any idea for a character I could.
''But back in New Zealand, in a settled urban practice, is where the songs really got written. They're all characters which exist in our own culture, but they changed a lot again when I next took them on tour overseas.
"Lyrics were chipped away and performances changed as I tried to absorb subconscious feedback from the audiences.''
Given Tonnon's habit of writing detailed narratives and sometimes complex song structures, an attempt was made to strip the music on Successor, back to its essentials, ''so that the two didn't compete''.
Another influence on the album was his attempts to develop a solo show that would be as effective as a band.
''I was developing my ear for sonics and allowing accidents and serendipity to take me in new directions,'' Tonnon explains.
''In the US, in particular, I'd find that every third show I'd come across a new technical element, like learning to put two amps in stereo, or finding a new guitar pedal, or an element that allowed me to innovate in either the way I played something or the way I performed.
''The solo show is as large as a band show in some ways.
''I play keyboard and guitar through a set of pedals, some of them used in unorthodox ways, and I play through a bass amp and a guitar amp ... But there's also a psychological element. I work with the crowd to create a larger experience, sometimes by sleight of hand.
''When I knew that I would be touring overseas, I decided I had to make a show that felt larger than a one-man show, but I set myself a limitation: no looping and no laptops.
"So, as well as the technical stuff, I started borrowing techniques from theatre and comedy to try to take the audience out of the world of a rock gig.
''The great thing about seeing a band is the communication. The Clean don't need to talk to the audience because we're so pulled in by their communication with each other. But in a one-person show, that communication needs to be with the audience.''
The music
• Successor, by Anthonie Tonnon, is out now. Review-page 22.
• Anthonie Tonnon performs at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers, next Saturday, March 14, and at the Sherwood Hotel, Queenstown, on Sunday, March 15.