How best to follow an award-winning debut? Well, for a start, don't let it go to your head.
Next: carry on as before; enjoy the company of your bandmates; delight in the process of making music.
Oh, and push the envelope ever so gently.
Porchlight, Dunedin trio Delgirl's follow-up to debut album Two, maybe three, days ride, is the result of such an approach. It's another eclectic ride for a band that has revealed a taste for jazz, country, western swing, gospel, folk, blues and Pacific flavours. However, it's a slightly different mix this time round.
Comprising 15 songs (selected from a list of demo tracks totalling more than 20), Porchlight was recorded in the depths of winter at Sweetway Studios in the Catlins. The tunes are grittier, darker, often bound by the clank of banjo and the thunk of double bass. You can almost sense the fog whispering at the windows.
"There was snow and everything," bass player Deirdre Newall confirms.
"It was pretty cold. Poor old Nick Bollinger probably got a shock."Newall is referring to the album's producer, journalist and member of longstanding Wellington band the Windy City Strugglers. Bollinger and engineer Ross McNab were key components in the multifaceted arrangements that adorn Porchlight.
"Both he and Ross were very honest; they brought the best out in us. I think we are a bit of a challenge sometimes . . . We do things slightly differently," Newall says, referring to bandmates Lynn Vare (percussion, snare drum, tenor ukulele and banjo) and Erin Morton (guitar, trumpet and ukulele).
"It was great having Nick, because he did the song order in the end. He didn't mind if he had the same person singing two songs in a row, so we did have to step out of our comfort zone a wee bit . . . We have such different styles: Erin tells a story; Lynn is very heartfelt; and I sort of wander off in my own way.
"I think this album has much more of a thematic approach. Stylistically, the songs fit. It is a much darker album, which is a reflection of a lot of things ... but it is also a reflection of our confidence."
Book-ended by earthy, banjo-driven songs Bonny Girl and Blood is Holy, Porchlight does indeed brim with confidence. The close three-part harmonies and instinctive ensemble playing remain, but are now allied to an attention to detail that challenges listeners to return for more.
That was always the intention, Newall says.
"It's about saying what we feel now; it's not that we didn't before, but it's in a deeper way. We have got to a point where it's like after the honeymoon; where things are going well and it's time to carry on."
There is also a palpable joy to the recording that has little to do with the fact the band secured a NZ on Air grant to record the album, which will be distributed by Dunedin labels Yellow Eye and Dunedinmusic.com.
"We are not an act as such," Newall says.
"We are just us. We know in our hearts we are doing something quite special. We all get along as people and want to help one another express themselves . . . that's what we protect in the end; that's the essence of it; that's what we look after.
"We never really stop writing. I always find this point a little bit tricky because I have to hold myself back," she says in reference to the band's preparation for its forthcoming album release party at Dunedin's Mercure hotel next Friday , followed by gigs at Refuel the following day and at Lumberjacks, Owaka, on Sunday, October 18.
Over the next few weeks, Delgirl will perform in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, while also fitting in interviews and live-to-air radio performances.
"We've got Arts on Tour early next year which will take us to cool places like Whakatane and way down to Riverton. We've got a few festivals lined up. We'd really like to go to Australia and, one day, maybe America. We are just getting into that circuit," Newall says.
"We can travel reasonably lightly, though we keep building up new things. Lynn is playing a kick drum on some songs now and I love triangles. If it's got a good sound ...
"It's like tasting new food. You think, 'oh yeah - I'll go for that'."
HEAR THEM
> Delgirl's Porchlight is released on Friday, October 16.
> Delgirl plays the following dates in the South: Friday, Mercure hotel, Dunedin; Saturday, October 17, Refuel, Dunedin; Sunday, October 18, Lumberjacks, Owaka.
