A couple of years ago, a pair of British academics penned a paper on what they termed an "earworm". A literal translation from the German word "ohrwurm", it is used to describe the phenomenon of a melody that invades the headspace and echoes (on and on and on).
Jordan Luck knows all about earworms, though he calls them by another name. Pop songs.
He's written more than a few over the years. Think of his band the Exponents and you risk all sorts of cognitive intrusion:
"Is he a customer who's really worth keeping?" (Victoria); "Jackie came, she went away" (Why Does Love Do This To Me); or, even, "I never thought she'd break my heart ... na na na na na na na" (I'll Say Goodbye (Even Though I'm Blue)).
To his credit, Luck is quick to admit that last example is not his finest piece of lyricism.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it was penned in a flash following a quick trip to the Parnell shops to buy a couple of samosas in the early 1980s.
That clutch of songs is accompanied by a long list of others that continue to do the rounds roughly 30 years and six months since the band's first show at Christchurch's Hillsborough Tavern on October 15, 1981.
Four of the five members of the band (then known as Dance Exponents) who played that day - Luck, guitarist Brian Jones, bassist David Gent and drummer Michael "Harry" Harallambi - are hitting the road again for a national tour that includes a gig at Dunedin venue Sammy's tomorrow night.
Originally, a more extensive tour had been planned to mark the group's 30th anniversary.
Prompted in part by the Exponents' Greatest Hits album, released in November, a 28-date journey was scheduled to begin earlier this month.
However, financial concerns prompted co-promoter Brent Eccles to cancel.
Instead, "it's a miniature tour", Luck says via phone from his Auckland home earlier this week.
"Actually, I wouldn't even call it a tour to some degrees - it's Thursdays to Sundays. It's very becoming of the elderly folk in the group. It's nothing new to me as I'm essentially touring all the time [with his other outfit, the Jordan Luck Band], but for the other guys ... they'll be leaving their safe abodes.
"This is pretty much it this year ... we are basically doing this ourselves. It's like going back to the beginning 30 years ago [when] we didn't really expect much. In that sense we haven't changed at all. Forget the fact we are touring with the same line-up; the guitars and gear we use is still the same, too.
"I've been great mates with these guys for a long time. We started in 1981 and we were all 20. Our first gig in Christchurch was the day I turned 20. We all turned 50 last year ... I can see us doing a 60th birthday party. I can see 2021 being a big year," he says, laughing.
Luck, Jones, Gent and Harallambi might not live in one another's pockets, but they do manage to reconvene from time to time.
In 2005 the four original members reunited to record Geraldine (Luck's home town) and Or A Girl I Knew with producer Neil Finn for inclusion on Sex & Agriculture: The Very Best Of The Exponents.
They also completed a small tour in support of the album, which went platinum and reached No 7 on the charts.
The quartet got together again in 2010 to play at the "Band Together" benefit concert for the 2010 Canterbury earthquake. Their 1985 single Christchurch became the theme song for the concert and the band closed the show.
"The song got taken on board for that concert, at which I think there were 140,000 people. If we'd known the circumstances that were going to eventuate... ," Luck says, referring to the fact the concert was held in October 2010 to mark the September 4 earthquake, yet the February 22 quake resulted in the deaths of 182 people.
"The good thing about going to Christchurch this time [the band played there last night] is we think we'll be there in time to see the final bits of the cathedral come down. The Square used to be our haunting ground ... that's where we used to congregate."
Certainly, Christchurch provided a springboard for Luck and his mates. A residency at Aranui Tavern in the early '80s quickly earned them a strong live reputation and, subsequently, a signing with Mushroom Records in 1982 that led to a support for David Bowie at Western Springs in November 1983.
More significant, however, was the release the following month of the group's debut album, Prayers Be Answered, which featured Victoria, Your Best Friend Loves Me Too, Poland, All I Can Do and two further singles, Know Your Own Heart and I'll Say Goodbye (Even Though I'm Blue).
The album stayed in the New Zealand album chart for nearly a year, selling double platinum in the process and signalling the emergence of a powerful voice in our pop culture.
At the 2007 Apra Silver Scroll Awards, Luck was named the first inductee to the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in recognition of his "outstanding body of work".
Among several notable personalities to offer praise in the liner notes to Sex & Agriculture: The Very Best Of The Exponents is former Prime Minister Helen Clark: "The Exponents' success over the years, both here and overseas, is something that can make all New Zealanders proud. Jordan Luck's lyrics have become part of our Kiwi culture, and his music has contributed so much to New Zealand's vibrant local music industry."
Though Luck is neither bemused nor made uncomfortable by all this elevation, he prefers to frame the success of his songs by talking about how they have taken on a life on their own; it's more about them, less about him.
"You don't start off thinking, 'We are going to be gigging Dunedin in 30 years time'. Likewise, you don't write a song thinking it will turn up on radio or as a download or a ring tone ..." At this, he offers a "flipping heck", cracks up, before getting a little reflective.
"Then you think back to the circumstances of when you wrote a song ... it is mind-boggling. I look back on songs now and, in a good way, they are timeless. I was at the Wellington Sevens in 2010 and people were singing Who Loves Who The Most. I didn't expect that.
"The audience is the hugest factor in the Exponents. We have bass, guitar, drums, vocals - and audience."
Following the Exponents' official split in 1999, Luck went on to form his own, self-titled band with song-writing partner Bryan Bell, formerly of Dead Flowers, and others. It's an arrangement that allows Luck to tour regularly, playing Exponents favourites while also exploring new compositions.
Along with the royalties he earns from his extensive back catalogue, it's enough to pay the bills, he says.
"I have a contract with Mushroom Publishing and had one with Sony, but that one has recently reverted to me. I pretty much write for myself and see how it goes."
Luck, ever the songsmith, confirms he also writes tunes for other artists, though he refuses to divulge any names.
"It's more malleable. But it is a lot harder. I do it, but it's ... incognito."
The birth of a song
Jordan Luck recalls the genesis of a few of his better-known songs ...
• Victoria: "Most songs come quite quickly but with Victoria I did the first two verses in Timaru and it was about two months later that I put the other two verses together; the chorus didn't really have Victoria in it; it started as a humming thing ... because I couldn't finish it, the verses got longer and longer."
• Who Loves Who The Most:"That started off as a croony, Frank Sinatra-type song. I was singing it that way in a place called the Mad House in Auckland and could see it wasn't going down that well and then Harry sped up the beat ... he gave it a groove."
• I'll Say Goodbye (Even Though I'm Blue):"I was walking down a road in Parnell and a tune came to me. It was sort of like Chas and Dave, a cockney, round-the-piano approach. Most of the words came pretty quickly, as you can tell by its lyrical deficiencies ... I was buying two samosas and got back to the flat, picked up the guitar and worked out the chords I was hearing in my head. That one came really quickly."
