Singer, writer, broadcaster, long-distance solo sailor... Andrew Fagan clearly likes to roam.
As the former Mockers frontman celebrates the release of an EP with a national tour, he discusses his creative urges with Shane Gilchrist.
Labelled in John Dix's Stranded In Paradise: New Zealand Rock 'n'Roll 1955-1988 as ''Kiwi rock's most flamboyant frontman'', the man who once wore a pink gorilla suit for a Mockers' video shoot is eyeing up the opportunity to get into costume again.
Andrew Fagan is on the phone from his home in Titirangi, West Auckland, reflecting on the completion of yet another project (new EP Ancestor) and a forthcoming national tour with his band, The People, that includes shows in Dunedin, Wanaka and Timaru this month.
It's a sliver over 30 years since The Mockers' single Forever Tuesday Morning reached No 2 in the New Zealand charts in 1984, the same year the group's debut album, Swear It's True, reached the top 5, sparking a wave of ''Mockermania'' and a slew of songs, including My Girl Thinks She's Cleopatra, Swear It's True, and One Black Friday.
Fagan (52), who last played in Dunedin in 1994, says his show at Chicks Hotel on Friday will comprise a mix of the old and the new, including Jerusalem, Now You Know, Exciting and more recent gems Get Light, Religion and Messiah.
''A lot of hard graft goes in, particularly in terms of the arrangements, because even old songs change over the years.
''And if you don't keep practising and put things down for more than a couple of months, it becomes a nightmare and everyone is trying to re-learn songs. So, we try to keep things right at the front of people's minds.''
A follow-up to 2011 Fagan & The People album Admiral of the Narrow Seas, the shiny-new Ancestor builds on the energy and chemistry of his band, which includes Darryn Harkness (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Kurt Shanks (bass), Ronny Growler (drums) and Josh Rockfield (guitar, vocals).
''The band has had a few changes, but we have become friends,'' Fagan says.
''Everyone has their own projects as well, but we come together well. They are all good players. We probably do more raucous interpretations of what I've written over the past 30 years.''
He says the latest recording attempts to capture how he and his band have evolved as a live entity.
''Sometimes, when you record, you piece things together carefully to best represent the song. This time, it's about coming up with songs that fit into our live set. The single Ancestor is very much a live-sounding song; so are Stalling and Mosquito.''
Having performed in punk band Ambitious Vegetables from 1978, Fagan's musical career took a turn towards pop with the Mockers, which found chart success in the 1980s with a range of hook-laden songs.
In 1987, the Mockers headed to England, but a lack of management and label backing resulted in the group disbanding after a few years. Fagan remained, however, releasing solo album Blisters in 1993, before returning to New Zealand for a couple of years.
In 1995, he and long-time partner Karyn Hay left for London, where they lived with their two young sons on a canal boat on the Thames; he went on to form another band, Lig, which released an album Bacterial Activity in 1997, but the family returned to Auckland in 2002.
A few years later, Fagan found another medium for the microphone, reinventing himself as a breakfast DJ on Kiwi FM. These days, he and Hay share an evening talkback show on RadioLive.
''I started working with Karyn on Kiwi FM in about 2005,'' he recalls.
''I was just there to try and trip Karyn up, for a sense of amusement. But then we got asked to do talkback, which is quite difficult - you can't just cut to a song after you've said something. With talkback, you have to keep talking to people.
''There is a challenge and excitement to talkback, in that you're trying to get the best out of random people who call in.
''You can set up topics of conversation, but those might not be what people want to talk about. It can go off on all sorts of strange tangents.
''That's the fun part. You never know what's going to happen over those three hours.''
Fagan has also written four (slim) volumes of poetry, as well as penned two sailing memoirs, Swirly World: The Solo Voyages and Swirly World Sails South, the latter recounting his circumnavigation of New Zealand in his 5.4m sloop.
''With poems, you can distil your thoughts and sometimes that process requires you to go away and come back and read it afresh. That editing process is crucial.''
And his sailing books?
''Basically, it's travel writing. I like reading Paul Theroux, that sort of stuff. But I need the distance of time before I can go back and write about something.''
Fagan likens his various endeavours to compartments and enjoys picking and choosing what he'll open next.
''It's just another thing you do. I like being able to jump from one project to another.
''I remember sailing around New Zealand and popping into Port Chalmers (in 2007) and someone commenting, 'Oh, don't you have a guitar on board'. But you really don't have time to doodle around. You just focus on what you're doing at the time.''
See them, hear them
Andrew Fagan & The People shows
• Friday, January 9: Chicks Hotel, Dunedin, (with Delete Delete)
• Saturday, January 10: Lake Hawea Hotel, (with Delete Delete, free show)
