KEY POINTS:
Who: Luger Boa
What: New band fronted by Jimmy Christmas, formerly of the D4
Debut album: Mutate Or Die, out Monday
Playing: Big Day Out, January 16
Jimmy Christmas is possessed. On stage at the Powerstation, the former D4 guitarist and singer has been taken over by a demented and cocky
character who now fronts a band called Luger Boa.
"We've got a record coming out in a week or so," he tells the crowd, not giving a hoot that they are the support band tonight and most in the audience are here to see headlining British indie band the Charlatans. "Listen to it. It'll change your mind. You don't believe me do you? You f******* listen to it, you'll see."
And with this he and his four cohorts continue to crack through a resolute and rowdy set of songs like Humans Rule, a hollering ode to the human race, the wending and winding What's Real?, and steely toe-tapping single 1000 Hooks.
And before they sign off, with cockiness at an all-time high, Christmas proclaims: "We'd love to stay and play for you but we've got another gig across town. There's only one Luger Boa, and there's a lot of town."
A week earlier, sitting at a Ponsonby pub sipping Coronas, hiding behind bulbous sunnies, his shaved head gleaming, the singer and songwriter was more subdued. Today, as plain old Jimmy Christmas, he's happy to explain how Luger Boa and this crazed character he has created began evolving after the D4 split-up following two triumphant shows at the Kings Arms in June 2006.
He had poured eight years of his life into the band - touring the world and releasing two albums - but they knew it was time to move on.
"It wasn't as scary as it might have seemed, because we had always said brazenly that we would know when to stop. We'd made two great records, played heaps of great shows, and never got to the point where we were just going through the motions."
However, it was time to re-evaluate his life because "I hadn't really had a chance to stop and think for a long time".
He read a lot ("as dry as it sounds, I read a lot of history and geo-politics"), listened to more music than he'd done in a long time, and "wandered round the streets" in Auckland and on a number of visits to Melbourne.
"I spent a lot of time by myself and just tried to capture my more extreme moments I guess. So there were a lot of late nights in the studio getting up inside my head and I dug that guy out. A lot of that person on the album is kinda crazy. He's insane. And it's a real cliche but it's cathartic to be able to do it and I also feel like that's the guy I can be on stage. I don't necessarily have to be that all the time, because it's taxing, but at the same time it's satisfying."
A crazy guy like that deserves some "twisted" music to back him up. And Luger Boa sound unique. While they have the same unbridled energy as the D4 the music is more complex, melodic and poppy, and songs like the mad experiment of Mutate Or Die, and the mangled onslaught of A Lonely Story, are examples of the album's menacing and cartoonish mood.
"There's a lot of dark subject matter, coupled with strong uplifting melodic and sing-along vocal lines, and the music is quite dark and twisted.
"I just wanted to embark on a creative project that, because it had no boundaries initially and it was a clean slate, it wasn't a band, or anything, but just about writing songs and lyrics and creating a piece of art without any parameters around it."
Recorded on and off over 18 months with Melbourne-based producer Barry Palmer, who he had worked with in the D4 ("He's a maniac with really great pop sensibilities. We'd just get drunk together and watch old Ike and Tina clips on YouTube and then start writing tunes."), Christmas believes it sounds fresh and different. "Songwriting-wise I threw the net really wide and tried to inject as many hooks and melodies. Then the sonic nature of it is a combination of so many different things.
"There's original drum loops that we cut up and put into it, some f*****-up recordings I did in my studio, there's some proper guitar recordings done in Australia, there's live drums, original demo vocals combined with proper tracked vocals. Most of it, the songs were put together as we went and they just evolved and I kept sticking bits and pieces to them."
The band has had a number of members so far; the version who recorded the album features Karl Kippenberger on bass. However, the current line-up of D4 drummer Beaver Pooley, guitarists Ryan Thomas (of Sommerset) and Sam Lockley, and bassist Simon Nicholls (from City Newton Bombers), is solid and because of the complexity of the album they've been working hard on how to nail the sound live.
"Just the way it was recorded, with everything being done on the fly, with a lot of late nights, a lot of drinking, and it was so much fun, but because it was all put together that way means going on and singing those songs together in a 40-minute set is proving to be a challenge.
"But," he says, with the return of that Luger Boa swagger, "I'm feeling confident the band is going to tear some f******* heads off."