Dave Dobbyn says Napier always makes him feel like he's 'on holiday'. Photo / Mark Story
Dave Dobbyn takes his coffee decaffeinated with two sugars. He shares a cuppa and a chat with Mark Story ahead of his gig at Napier’s Municipal Theatre.
You’re still pulling big crowds?
Yeah I’m stoked about it, it’s a great thing to be able to keep doing. In some ways I’m improving with age, and in other ways not. Certain things start vanishing like the pinky in my left hand sometimes doesn’t land in the right place. It could just be ageing, but I think it has something to do with Parkinson’s. Every couple of weeks there’s a surprise like hey, that’s not working anymore. I take a few steps back from the world just to be able to get through the day.
Have any of your songs fallen from the sky?
A few. Welcome Home was one. I was watching the Christchurch anti-racism march and the cops were between the marchers and the neo-Nazis. I was standing there, thinking, this is so f***ed. I felt some urgency about it ... didn’t have to force it, it just arrived pretty much fully formed. That’s part of what I love about writing songs, it’s not paying homage to yourself, it’s more like a friend, you set a song on its way and it becomes a good friend after a while.
And the ones that didn’t come easy?
My theory is it’s a good thing to wait sometimes. Even when you get anxious about coming up with new material. I think waiting’s good. It makes you really think about why you’re doing it in the first place.
Has your knighthood changed you?
In a way. It’s humbling and makes you more ready to serve. It’s a title yet it’s also an honour. But I’m just happy to be Dave.
Twenty-five years ago you chose James K. Baxter’s poem Song of the Years to put to music. Why that poem?
I was researching which of Baxter’s I could choose, and was seriously struggling. Then I stumbled across Song of the Years and it blew me away. I was born in 1957 and it was written in 1958, the year Baxter quit drinking. I just thought this is the song for me as I stopped drinking once, then started again, stopped-started a number of times and now don’t drink. That song solidified things for me.
What lingers about Napier’s live-music icon the Cabana?
The walls would drip with condensation. A woman named Charlie ran the place back then. On Monday nights she used to put on gay nights - there was lots of jollity, shall we say. We kept the bar up and gigs were always solidly packed and sweaty. There were plenty of towels, water - and beer.
Given your Pike River tribute This Love, do you have a stance on the renewed push for prosecution?
Definitely needs a prosecution. That’s the thing that annoys me the most is that boards of directors get off scot-free. The families deserve a deep apology from all successive governments who’ve dicked around and haven’t moved swiftly to get those bodies out of there. It’s a cheapening of human life and it makes me really embarrassed on everyone’s behalf 15 years later. The point is the dignity of the families of those men who need a proper burial and memorial.
It’s Sunday afternoon, Dave Dobbyn’s home alone, who’s playing?
A bit of Thelonious Monk, maybe Ernest Ranglin - there’s an album of his called Below the Bassline and it’s just great. I really love Cuban music too. Most of it is sung in Spanish so you don’t have to concentrate too much.
Do you think your music will endure - and do you care?
I think the songs will outlive me which is a good thing. Maybe they’ll encourage other songwriters to do the same thing. It would be nice to think that young songwriters, in particular, I had some influence on. I’d be happy about that - but of course, I won’t be around to know.
- Sir Dave Dobbyn - Selected Songs - plays at Napier Municipal Theatre on Tuesday, November 4. Tickets at napiermunicipaltheatre.co.nz.