Young Dunedin indie four-piece Chandeliers is playing tonight to raise money to record its sophomore EP.
The band plays a slick, British-influenced indie pop, drawing on the likes of the Stone Roses, the Vaccines, Arctic Monkeys, and Kiwi group Clap Clap Riot. It's a sound coupled with a consciously professional online presentation and strong sense of ambition, which the group feels puts it slightly out of place in the Dunedin music scene.
''We kind of feel out of place. People are sometimes like 'Um what are you doing','' frontman and vocalist Nick Alexander said over coffee.
''People sense it, they're like 'You can't, you can't do that in Dunedin; you're trying too hard'.
''We try and keep our presentation clean and professional. I kind of pride myself on what I've done there. We sort of do it the way I'd like to consume it,'' Alexander said.
''We're quite ambitious; I don't think that's a bad thing though. I don't think we're too big for our boots at all, I'd just like to think we can aim further than Dunedin and its limits.''
Speaking to the four - Alexander, Callum Fisher (bass and backing vocals), Kalin Geisreiter (lead guitar) and Callum Hartstonge on drums - I'm reminded of my first conversation with former Dunedin duo Two Cartoons.
During a 2012 chat with Isaac McFarlane and Brad Craig, the pair spoke of feeling their ''unabashed good honest pop songs'' were ''un-Dunedin'' and the resulting isolation from what they perceived to be the rest of Dunedin's alternative music scenes. It's a narrative of feelings that's clearly shown up again in Chandeliers.
''There's a few bands trying to do the weirdest thing possible. We're concerned with writing good songs,'' Alexander said.
Fisher adds: ''What else is there to be concerned about? It has to be infectious.''
The group's output thus far certainly fits this bill.
The titular Cassette from the group's first EP is an uber-polished hooky pop song with Alexander's almost faux-British inflection crowning slashing Les Paul lead lines from Geisreiter, and a Strokes-ish rhythm from Fisher and Hartstonge.
The band says its forthcoming sophomore effort will round off the sound of its early material as its scope expands towards including darker and more atmospheric elements.
''The new stuff just has a different vibe. It's not a drastic change in direction, it's just a little different,'' Hartstonge said.
''It's still only as dark as indie pop gets,'' they laugh. ''We're a dirty, dirty pop band.''
INTIMATE ACOUSTIC SHOW
Rockabilly-folk-punk troubadour Lindon Puffin is in town tonight to play an intimate acoustic show at Inch Bar.
Things have been quiet for the Lyttelton-based musician and television host recently, stepping off the heavy touring treadmill to build a house in the hope of repaying the debt of free couches he's accumulated over the years.
That essentially makes this a ''comeback gig'', and who better to shoulder him through this moment than his good mate and touring sidekick Matt Langley.
BE THERE
• Chandeliers EP fundraiser with the Violet-Ohs, Miss, and a DJ, tonight at Re:Fuel, Dunedin from 9pm. $5 on the door. Listen to the Chandeliers debut EP at chandeliersnz.bandcamp.com
• Lindon Puffin with Matt Langley, tonight at Inch Bar from 9pm. Free entry.
