I think Simon Comber is one of the best songwriters in New Zealand. Probably too good. So good that no one seems to listen to him, or lend him the consideration he warrants in the media.

He’s going on tour this month, playing El Santo in Lyttleton on the 12th, Chicks Hotel in Dunedin on the 13th, Wine Cellar in Auckland on the 21st, and Happy in Wellington on the 26th. If you like good songs, just bloody well go.

Listen to the song ‘Me and Billy T’ at www.myspace.com/simoncomber and you’ll see what I mean.

I saw this interview with himself on his facebook page and I just had to post it here.

…Q. Why is your album called Endearance? Is that even a word?
A. The title of the album is a neologism, which is defined in the merriam-webster online dictionary as follows: 1 : a new word, usage, or expression ; 2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic.

Q. Are you joking about that second definition for some kind of dramatic effect?
A. Um….no.

Q. Are you ….. psychotic?
A. Ha! I get asked that a lot! Hmmmm. I don’t think so. Lets just say not in a way that would ever cause any direct physical harm to any reviewer or journalist.

Q. Phew! What are your influences?
A. Hmmm. This is a thorny question for me for a number of reasons. For starters, there’s nothing more annoying than a self-penned bio that compares the artist in question to a bunch of big names that they don’t really sound like very much in the hope of sounding equally big. Another issue I have is that listing your influences encourages a reviewer who may be pressed for time to not listen long enough to the music to develop their own impression, and provides them with an easy out for not having to actually confront the songs at hand. It’s much quicker to just recycle the comparisons listed on the one sheet and give it 3 stars. Nothing constructive comes from it, but at least noone gets hurt. Having said all this, lately it’s dawned on me that while everything I’ve said above may be true, it would not be entirely unfair if one were to accuse your earnest narrator of being overly defensive and precious about questions like this. It would also not be completely inappropriate to point out that by spouting off about how annoying one sheets are I am in fact bringing MY OWN ISSUES to the table. I am using DEFENSE MECHANISMS to avoid the risk of getting compared to the art that inspires me- to avoid the risk of being found wanting in this comparison and getting my FEELINGS HURT.

Anyway, to get back to your question, I sent Dale Cotton a compilation of songs I liked the sound of which included the tracks Cross Bones Style by Cat Power, Frozen by Souled American, The Empty Page by Sonic Youth and Raining Here by Alastair Galbraith, and many others that I can’t remember. As much as I have my own sonic preferences (which Dale did a wonderful job of referencing without letting it constrain him), I’m more interested in the content of a song than the way in which it was recorded or the type of gear that was used. Well…more interested in talking about that part of it anyway. I’m a big admirer of Bill Callahan as a lyricist. He has as much poetic integrity as Ian Mackaye has music business integrity or G.G Allin thought he had rock n roll integrity. He puts as much effort into an image as Animal Collective put into finding an interesting loop with all their effects pedals. He is great. I like sharp ambitious lyricists like John Darnielle and David Berman, but sometimes I get worn out by listening to this dense poetic school of writers. I’m just as likely to be inspired by a writer who can stop you in your tracks with something simple and direct, like Jonathon Richman or Epic Soundtracks. I guess I hope I’m hovering somewhere in between.


As far as playing the guitar goes, like most oversensitive singer/songwriters I’ve tended to use it as more of a song-writing tool than an expressive instrument in its own right. I’m starting to get more interested in playing it though. I really like John Fahey and Loren Connors. The instrumental title track is a homage to the hours of comfort and wonder I’ve got from listening to their music. I also like the open tuned chords Thurston Moore plays, especially the dreamy chiming ones on Murray Street. I read an interview once where Moore said he’d found a tuning that was more versatile than early Sonic Youth tunings but still gave him his “unison fix.” (This means having two strings tuned to the same note in the same octave.) Two of my new songs, Emptiness and Nobility, give me a unison fix too. I’ve always been drawn to simple cyclical arpeggios like the kind that David Kilgour plays so effortlessly. All this stuff is in there in some small way even though I’m more of a “lyrics guy” (as some of my friends are wont to call me) than a guitar guy.

Q…..
A….er, next question??

Q. Oh sorry! I was miles away! OK, so why did you record at a masonic lodge in Port Chalmers?
A. That was Dale’s idea. I said I wanted the sound of a room and not just a close mic’d studio sound, and he said the Lodge might be good for that. He always put an extra microphone up further away from the guitar amp to get a bit of natural room ambience in the mix. It’s a subliminal thing. It’s not a murky mix like an Xpressway record or anything, but it does have a cool fidelity that I don’t think we would have got at a studio. Speaking of Xpressway, one of New Zealand’s greatest albums, The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World by Peter Jefferies, was recorded in Port Chalmers, so those things together got me sold on the idea. I should add that some guitar overdubs and vocals were done at Dale’s home studio in Saint Leonards, as well as some of the stripped back rhythm section-less songs in their entirety.

Q. Well anyway, thanks for answering these few questions. Any last words?
A. Um, just that I hope you like it, and thanks for listening.