McLaren says the band, Psychic Maps, came together "within the last two months". He has played with a couple of his new bandmates before, but not everyone.
"Geordie and I have been playing in various lounges over the last few years, just mucking about. I have guested, playing some drums, with King Loser once. But no, not in any real sense. This is the first time I've collaborated with Chris, and I've just met Jeff.
"I've known Geordie since I was 18 - we went out busking together on the street. Some guy walked past us and told us not to give up our day jobs.
"I've known Chris for nearly 20 years, through Flying Nun. We toured in Australia together, King Loser and Love's Ugly Children. That was good times."
McLaren has been living in Dunedin for the past three years and is pleased to be plugging into the local culture.
"I've played in Christchurch with Love's Ugly Children and in Auckland with The Subliminals. And of course I've always had great respect for the sounds that come out of Dunedin. So yeah ... we're going to kind of use that Flying Nun heritage that the members of the band have and spin it in a fresh direction, I guess.
"It sounds like a lot of things. There's a krautrock influence (read Can and Kraftwerk), a pop influence and a blues influence, and it's a bit of a mash-up. It's going to be interesting, actually."
Both Simon McLaren and Chris Heazlewood are solid front men, which can sometimes cause ego clashes, but that's not something McLaren's noticed.
"No, me and Chris have never had a problem with each other and, dare I say it, we might have even respected each other throughout all these years."
McLaren says there's no one songwriter.
"A large portion is collaborative, which I love because other people are interesting. Perhaps 50% of it is tunes I'm writing, though to be fair Chris is writing tunes, Geordie is contributing to the dub and the extra melodies. There's no real feel of ownership of the composition within the band - it's coming from four people."
McLaren wouldn't speculate on the future.
"Well, this is our first gig so it's one gig at a time. It just seems really exciting and we'd all love to make another record, I think."
• CATCH THEM
Friday, November 12 at Refuel, Dunedin.
