The title track to The Chaps' latest album, Don't Worry 'Bout Your Age, might contain a few self-deprecating lyrics typical of the Dunedin quartet, yet there could also be a message of defiance lurking between the lines, a suggestion music need not be the sole domain of the air-brushed and/or youthful. Rather, it's for the young at heart.
Having first performed at a Boxing Day party in 1989, The Chaps boast a lifespan stretching beyond two decades. Significantly, the line-up of John Dodd, Hyram Ballard, Mike Moroney and Marcus Turner remains unchanged after all that time. Good mates then?
"On a good day," Dodd laughs. "We can argue like hell, I can tell you that."
Bass player and, like his bandmates, a songwriter and singer, Dodd is proud of The Chaps' longevity. It's something you don't want to mess with, he says.
"It is kind of special. It wasn't just a band we got together for four or five gigs and then disappeared. It has taken us to Europe a couple of times [2003 and 2006] and around New Zealand a few times."
Dodd is also proud of the group's new album, its third following 2003 effort Hiphopalong and 1993's Live! At The Club. The Chaps will launch the album with a concert at the Crown Mills Function Centre on Saturday, August 6, performing the dozen songs that appear on the album as well as other live favourites.
"The album comprises the bulk of the songs we've worked on since Hiphopalong," Dodd explains.
"Since Hiphopalong, we'd been to Europe and that was our big spree in terms of gigs. We don't do that many gigs around Dunedin or even New Zealand; we get out for the occasional festival.
"It's not as though we are smoking hot because of playing show after show. However, I feel we are generally pretty tight when we play and that comes from having been together for so many years.
"We've been together for 21 years now and this is album number three, so we're not exactly prolific. The 'difficult' second album, Hiphopalong, took us about seven years to make, from the time we started recording to the time we got it out," Dodd says, alluding to various stumbling blocks, including technological hiccups, in that process.
For the latest album, The Chaps were more than happy to allow someone outside the band to take control. Significantly, that person was John Egenes.
A University of Otago music lecturer and an accomplished musician in his own right, Egenes invited the band to record at the university's Albany St Studios.
"He came to us and took us on as a recording project to fulfil a research element of his academic post," Dodd recalls.
"It was perfect for us. All of a sudden, we had this opportunity for someone else to take a fair amount of creative control - certainly, in terms of the sound."
For Hiphopalong, the band invited friends to play along on various instruments. However, this time around Dodd and his bandmates largely preferred to keep their own company, with the notable exception of guest fiddler Jane Clark (an old friend of Egenes).
"We tried to keep it pared back to the kind of sounds you'd hear at a gig," Dodd says. "For the most part, we had each song mapped out and we just had to capture a good version of it."
Overall, Don't Worry 'Bout Your Age sounds warm and woody. Given the band members' taste for Tim O'Brien, it comes as little surprise when Dodd reveals the recordings of the acclaimed American multi-instrumentalist were used as sonic reference points for Don't Worry 'Bout Your Age.
"Hyram is a big fan of Tim O'Brien," Dodd explains. "The rest of us obviously enjoy his music, as well. We put on Tim O'Brien's records when we got to the mixing and mastering stage because his music is roughly in the same kind of sound-scape."
Comprising mostly original songs, with a sprinkling of covers, the album is notable for its tight ensemble performances, suggesting it might have been recorded in a manner similar to that employed by bluegrass acts, whereby individuals "play in the round", occasionally approaching a microphone in order to be better heard.
Dodd confirms that impression, though is at pains to point out The Chaps are not a bluegrass act. In fact, the music of The Chaps doesn't belong in any one box. Don't Worry 'Bout Your Age offers rhythm and blues, Calypso, hints of Western swing (courtesy of Ballard's slide playing on a resonator guitar) as well as country and other flavours.
"Obviously, when you have mandolin, guitar, double bass and Dobro as well as a guest fiddler ... the instruments we have, in conjunction with a vague country rhythm to what we do means it is inevitable that we draw a parallel with bluegrass, but we are not a bluegrass band in any sense of the word.
"We've done pop-rock songs but have played them acoustically; then there's the connection with the folk music scene, too, although I don't really see us a folk band, but that's where our market is.
Perhaps that's because we are members of the [New Edinburgh] Folk Club," Dodd says.
"We have a reputation - and we haven't cultivated it - that there is a comedy element to what we do, but we have downplayed that on our recordings.
"Because we are a show band rather than a dance band, we try to entertain. Some of the songs have been light-hearted and those have become the backbone of our repertoire in a sense. But I find those kinds of songs quite challenging to write.
"If you look back at old R'n'B records you'll always find great old songs to cover that are not necessarily comic but are a lot of fun. Two songs on the album that fall into that category are Mess Around, an old Ray Charles song, and Feets Too Big, by the Ink Spots."
Instrumental intricacy is a key feature of the album, too. Though the band members could hardly be described as show-ponies, clearly licks have been honed, as have four-part harmonies. Such details are important; they invite repeated listening.
"Everyone has been asking, 'what's your new album like?'. Well, I've had to say, 'actually, it's quite good'. I've listened to this quite a few times and I've enjoyed it more each time," Dodd says.
"That's a good sign."
Next weekend's release gig notwithstanding, The Chaps have no firm plans.
"Although we want to do a few gigs around New Zealand and sell some records and have a good time, we haven't worked out when and where.
"It is still a very underground band in that we've never gone mainstream in any way. We probably wouldn't know what to do if we did. We've all got jobs and families so we're not about to jump in a van and hit the road, although we have done that in wee sessions."
Still, there is plenty to occupy the band members, whose other projects include Footspa, Radler and Catgut and Steel, among others. More recently, Dodd, who is head of music at Logan Park High School, joined the ranks of Dunedin act Delgirl, winner of a 2008 Tui Award (best folk album).
"In Dunedin, a lot of musicians move between styles of music a little bit more easily than perhaps other musicians might.
"There are so many styles of music I like and want to have a go at playing; it just interests me."
CATCH THEM
The Chaps celebrate the release of Don't Worry 'Bout Your Age with a concert at the Crown Mills Function Centre, Dunedin, on Saturday, August 6, at 8pm. Tickets are available from Twang Town, 45 Moray Pl, Dunedin.
