KEY POINTS:
A recent trip to the United States was inspirational for Dimmer frontman Shayne Carter and he says he's looking forward to playing some local gigs.
Carter got stuck into some writing after returning from the South by Southwest music festival in Texas.
Three gigs at the March festival
were followed by shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles, in what was the first musical visit there by Carter since his days with Straitjacket Fits.
The Fits were lauded by rock music purists before breaking up in 1994, and Dimmer seems to be following suit.
There was a long gap between Straitjacket Fits and the first Dimmer album, I Believe You are a Star, in 2001. You've Got to Hear the Music followed in 2004, and last year There My Dear was released.
One would be hard-pressed to find any reviews that are less than glowing on all three of them.
Carter is modestly aware of how highly regarded his music is and says he was pleased to be able get a sense of it still being original while playing in the US. "We played in all sorts of places - art galleries, lobbies of flash hotels and normal rock gigs - it was a good mix of weird places," he says.
It was a tour that seemed to leave him with a good feeling about where Dimmer was musically.
"The best thing about when you play overseas is you spend all your time beside your music you think it's normal, but when you take it overseas you realise it's kind of different.
"I thought that what we were doing was quite unique compared to a lot of the stuff that is around. You realise that it has quite an individual character and flavour to it."
He says there was plenty of contrast between the cities of San Francisco, Texas and "big and harsh and dirty" Los Angeles. He took some inspiration from them. "When I got back from America I wrote all these tunes within about a week of getting back."
It was partially the result of being able to reflect on the live music away from home, he says.
"I think when you go somewhere different - also when you play live a lot - I think you get quite acutely in tune to what's good and what's bad.
"You're sort of putting everything under a litmus test when you go out playing live."
Carter's efforts with Dimmer have come largely under his own steam.
For a man known for his strong musical integrity, an absence of commercial ties with his albums has the benefits of creative freedom but is an impediment when it comes to getting the music to the masses.
Either way, he says his enthusiasm to tour again overseas and come up with a fourth Dimmer album is high at the moment and puts a lot of that down to the band itself.
"I'm really loving playing with it. The band's been pretty rocking and so I'm quite inspired to write kind of a 'band' record," he says.
The band members are all acclaimed musicians in their own right, including guitarist James Duncan from SJD, drummer Dino Karlis (HDU) and bassist Kelly Steven (Punches).
They have played plenty of gigs up and down New Zealand since There My Dear was released, though tonight's Kings Arms gig may be the last we see of them for a while.
Carter says he will focus on the writing - and possibly recording - over the coming months and has another trip to the US in his sights.
Without any record label pressure he says it can be a bit of a challenge to keep the motivation strong and any guesses about when fans may see another album would probably be exactly that.
"These things can happen either really quickly - or not."
He agrees it will be sometime in the near future.
"That's probably the best way to put it, bro."
- NZPA
Performance
* Who: Dimmer
* Where and when: Kings Arms, Newton, tonight
