A few things have happened since Lawrence Arabia, the New Zealand singer-songwriter known to his mother and others as James Milne, released his last record, Chant Darling, in 2009.
Later that year, the single Apple Pie Bed (co-written with the Phoenix Foundation's Luke Buda) earned Milne an Apra Silver Scroll award for the best New Zealand song of 2009; and the following year Chant Darling won the inaugural $10,000 Taite Music Prize (named after late music journalist Dylan Taite, the award focuses on artistic merit and creative excellence).
Yet ask Milne if writing songs comes easily and the answer is somewhat surprising.
"For me, it was a lot easier to write when I was younger because I didn't know what I was doing.
"Now that I know what I'm doing, it can be almost impossible sometimes.
"When you're first making songs, you're not repeating yourself.
"Now, I could pick up the guitar and write a simple song but I'd instantly kill it on the spot, because of a personal sense of pride - or shame.
"You do edit yourself and end up destroying what might potentially be a good song."
In light of this self-editing process, Milne chose to wing it more than a little for The Sparrow, his third album.
Late in 2010, he booked a recording studio - well, actually a large house in Surrey, England - before he had completed any songs and invited a couple of fellow Kiwis, Elroy Finn (drum-playing brother of Liam and son of Neil) and Connan Hosford (of Connan and the Mockasins), to come and have some fun.
"A crucial part of how I wanted the album to sound was having them play on it.
"I knew the influence of those musicians would create interesting stuff," Milne explains.
"It wasn't like I had a whole heap of songs.
"It was more a case of little sketches and a general gist of what I want the album to sound like.
"When we went in to record, some of the songs were missing lyrics or needed more melodies."
The Sparrow might have been recorded in digital format, but the process was relatively old-school, an attempt to re-create the conditions of analogue recordings, of allowing scope for those "perfect imperfections".
"All the albums I love have mistakes on them. I wanted to avoid an uptight record," Milne says, adding overdubs were done in a couple of sessions at Auckland's Roundhead Studios last year.
The prime motivation, however, was simply to satisfy "a burning desperation" to record again, he says, referring to the lag between Chant Darling's New Zealand release (early 2009) and its dissemination in the North American and European markets a year later.
"I had endless amounts of hours sitting in a van, fantasising about a different process.
"It's not that I resent touring - it is an amazing thing to be able to do - but it is pretty limiting in some ways.
"Chant Darling was already a year old when it was released in Europe, so I was basically on tour for another six months overseas.
"By that point I was straining at the leash to do something else.
"Because of that I wasn't worried about second-guessing myself or thinking about any difficulties in following up Chant Darling. I wasn't daunted by the prospect."
Overall, The Sparrow offers a slightly darker take on the nostalgic, '60s-infused pop sensibility that pervades the earlier releases of Lawrence Arabia, yet Milne says the result is more accidental than deliberate.
"It was just the way it turned out.
"It was also a result of writing songs on piano.
"I tend to be more melodramatic and have all these harmonic tensions I might not get on guitar.
"I pursued that mood and discovered I was writing in quite a different mode to my earlier albums.
"There is always a sense of nostalgia in my songs, but there is also a sense of pondering your time, that self-indulgent musing on mortality."
Collected as scribbles in a diary throughout 2010 as Milne and his band, The Prime Ministers, toured, the lyrical themes of The Sparrow mostly stem from songwriting challenges given to him by friends.
They would choose a topic; he would be required to write accordingly.
Asked to pen a piece about a particularly unlikable chap, a "snake in the grass", he came up with The Bi-Sexual; elsewhere, Travelling Shoes describes the recollections of a young man battling against the prevailing culture of his provincial upbringing (Milne was raised in Christchurch); while The 03 depicts the same character's possible return to that same setting ("It's about leaving Christchurch and coming back and having to live with my mother after having had a breakdown").
Released on his own imprint, Honorary Bedouin Records, The Sparrow will be distributed by Spunk Records in New Zealand (from July 6) and Australia (July 13), with Bella Union releasing the album in Europe (July 16) and North America (July 24).
Of course, all this overseas action means Milne will once again be going on tour. First up is a dash to Australia for two dates, followed by a four-concert New Zealand tour - including a gig at Sammy's in Dunedin on July 14 - that the musician promises will offer more than the usual drums, bass and guitar line-up.
"The show is going to be a real extravaganza.
"There is a string quartet and a five-piece band, as well as a guest or two. It's going to be a neat night."
Former Dunedin musician Anthony Tonnon, now based in Auckland, reviewing a performance Lawrence Arabia and band gave at Whangateau Hall, north of Auckland, at Easter, wrote in The New Zealand Herald: "This was Lawrence Arabia delivering his third album, The Sparrow, in order, as close as possible in instrumentation to the recorded product ...
"In one way, this sounded like a familiar Lawrence Arabia album - the '60s pop bass and drum textures, the vintage guitar flourishes, the brilliantly arranged vocal harmonies, now equalled and responded to by string and horn arrangements. But after the journey-pop opener Travelling Shoes, those familiar textures lured us down an unfamiliar path.
"The darkness that has always lurked behind the humour and pathos in Milne's writing has wrapped a firmer hold around some of these songs, and there is a dark, determined drive that possesses them, alongside an experimental bent."
Not one to sit still for too long, Milne heads to Europe then the United States following his New Zealand tour.
He plans to be based in New York for six months, though is unclear where he will end up by year's end.
"It's expensive trying to come back and forth between New Zealand and the northern hemisphere when you're asked to do more shows.
"There are always opportunities that come up, but if you're in New Zealand you might not get offered them.
"I have lived in London, but I have done my time there," says Milne, who headed to the English capital several years ago, having previously spent time in Port Chalmers, Stockholm and, more recently, Auckland, where he has been involved with a range of musicians, working on both his album and side projects simultaneously.
"I had the luxury of dragging it out a lot.
"I had a lot of other little projects on through last year.
"If I had been living overseas, I wouldn't have had the chance to collaborate with so many people on other stuff."
Given he has also played in Kiwi pop group The Brunettes, toured as bass player for American band Okkervil River and produced music for film and theatre, including songs on New Zealand director Taika Waititi's 2007 movie Eagle vs Shark, it is clear Milne likes to tinker, be it with his own melodic musings or those of others.
He says he also likes to chop and change between instruments, in particular guitar and piano, allowing each to dictate his flow.
"As soon as you pick up an instrument, your abilities or what you've previously achieved on that instrument determines what you'll do.
"The notes are constructed differently and communicate to your brain differently.
"They create quite a different feel to a song.
"I think songwriters are always looking to retrigger those most enjoyable moments - where the process is quite naive.
"It's a childish discovery of your own talents.
"Once you've done it for a while, however, that feeling can evaporate, so you're constantly trying to trick yourself into doing that again."
Freebies
Otago Daily Times readers have the chance to win one of two prize packs, comprising a double pass to Lawrence Arabia's Dunedin concert and a copy of his new album, The Sparrow.
To go into the draw, email your name, address and daytime contact number to playtime@odt.co.nz.
Please put "Lawrence Arabia" in the subject line.
Alternatively, you can post your entry to "Lawrence Arabia Competition", Response Bag 500010, Dunedin.
Entries close Friday, July 6, at 5pm. Winners will be notified by phone.
See him, hear him
The Sparrow is released on July 6.
Lawrence Arabia performs at Sammy's, Dunedin, on July 14.
