A quick word... Dan Sperber

Dan Sperber - guitar slinger for the house band on Ice As, axeman extraordinaire for the neo-jazz New Loungehead and now also one half of the Relaxomatic Project (along with Eye TV's Luke Casey) who play tomorrow night at the Classic with Mano Panteboy and DJ Slowdeck.

The difference between New Loungehead and Relaxomatic?

I'd rather the two weren't even compared. It's an entirely different line-up, with me taking the thing I do and melding it with what Luke does. The way we approach it is not like a band, that's why we call it a project. It's more like a production in the sense we write the songs. It's less democratic. There's still a big improvised component. We've tried to articulate a particular vision - but I don't analyse it that closely.

If we were to say New Loungehead took aspects of jazz history and made them contemporary, where does Relaxomatic take from?

It's a similar concept but uses acoustic instruments to create a contemporary sound and try to prove there's still relevant things to be said without bringing in the machines. You can still capture modern ideas and you don't have to sound like you're from 1968.

Touring?

We did a strange gig in New Plymouth at entirely the wrong venue. The venue upstairs had a spring-loaded floor. We've just finished an album actually, mixed the last track last week, and I've set up a label specifically to release that album and with a view to releasing music from our associates as well, like Godfrey [de Grut]'s band Meno Panteboy. They do original vocal material with Godfrey's keen ear for arrangements. He's going to be playing guitar and keyboards.

Working on television is a good gig? You get to play Led Zeppelin riffs.

It's a blast, the opposite of what I've done most of my musical life. It's not serious, 15-minute bits of music instead of rehearsing for months and months. It's all same-day kind of thing. It's always our early bedroom years come to fruition. The music that never got you laid.

With all your bands, does the perception overlap for people and that's a problem?

They all inform each other which is inevitable. I think with Relaxomatic it won't take long for people to get the gist of it and for people to see it as something new and separate and unique. I really should have an answer for what it is though. Maybe just call it future-minded live jazzy sounds with a touch of country perhaps? Or cowboy soul-jazz. Yeah, I like that one.