The mod couple

Auckland musicians Greg Johnson and Paul Casserly might have their musical differences but they're well connected. And entertaining company, finds RUSSELL BAILLIE.

SOOOO predictable! You get a couple of musicians in a bar together and sooner or later there's a fight.

In this corner Greg Johnson, singer-songwriter about town, about to release his fifth album Seabreeze Motel.

In that corner, Paul Casserly, brains behind the Strawpeople, the studio-bound electropop outfit with a rotating singer roster, also about to release fifth album No New Messages in the very same week.

All we asked, perhaps mischeviously, was: Whose record was better?

Casserly: "If you like folk, Greg. If you like modern music, me."

Johnson: "If you just like a racket a machine pumps out, Paul's."

Casserly: "If you like bleating confessional tragedies spewed out by a man in his mid-life who basically hasn't coped with the fact that he hasn't grown up, Greg's."

Johnson: "If you like songs by a sleazy producer who just likes to get young girls in the studio ..."

Casserly: "... then definitely Greg's. At least I let mine sing."

After that, both fall about laughing and another drink is ordered. The reason we've organised this two-birds-with-one-stone chat isn't only because both have albums out this week. It's also because Casserly and Johnson are mates, old mates. Have been ever since the young Grammar boy Johnson and Casserly from St Peter's College down the road first hooked up.

They were cool fifth formers who both rode Vespas to school during the early 80s Mod/Ska revival. They started knocking around in high school bands together too with Johnson a singer-trumpeter and Casserly a drummer.

They agree they've remained mates - and sometime studio collaborators - for nearly 20 years because they didn't spend a long time in bands together.

Casserly: "That's why we've stayed friends."

Johnson: "That's true actually. I always kick people out of my band after a while."

Casserly: "And early on I realised I didn't want to be a drummer. I wanted to have control, make my own decisions. It took me a long time to learn, but I knew that by being a drummer I wasn't ever going to get to do that."

These days the two 34-year-olds share more than just bartime banter. They are partners in the basement studio of Johnson's central city house, where some of the new Strawpeople album was done while Johnson was at another studio doing sessions for his. Also, No New Messages has, as its first single, a lushly upholstered version of Johnson's song Scared of Flying, the third composition of his that has appeared on a Strawpeople album. Ask Casserly why, and it's mutual ribbing time again.

Casserly: "That's because I know that Greg is getting on a bit and the Strawpeople is pretty successful and he is a like a hobby band ..."

Johnson: "Just the sheer brilliance of the lyrics ..."

Casserly: "And I know they are kind of average-to-below-average songs that Greg can't make work ..."

Johnson: "But even my below-average songs will stand out on a Strawpeople record. Even my cast-offs will be hits for them."

If we can be serious for a minute let's talk fifth albums. At times, Johnson's sounds like his most colourful and upbeat yet. Casserly's is possibly the song-strongest Strawpeople effort. It certainly has the strongest arsenal of voices - Leza Corban and Stephanie Tauvehi from previous albums, newcomer Anika Moa and Bic Runga who sings Drive (not her song of that name but a drum'n'bass treatment of the 80s hit by American New Wavers the Cars.

How would they characterise their new albums?

Johnson: "An evolution I would say. I think I've forged my own style quite nicely now. In some ways it incorporates some earlier elements that I had neglected on the last one, like pop. I wanted a balanced record. I didn't want an album that was all down or all up."

Casserly: "There's just more work put into it and more appreciation of the length of time it takes to make a track good. It's definitely more solid rhythmically."

Being five albums down is an achievement in itself in the sometimes precarious world of New Zealand pop. You might even describe the pair, as Johnson does, as the "younger elder statesmen" of the music scene. But that decade-long longevity also begs the question: where to from here?

Johnson: "I think I've found my place in the world in the sense that I know there is a market for what I do. Now it's matter of finding that market elsewhere and no one is going to do that for me.

Casserly: "I guess you tend to measure yourself against the most successful people in the world who do the same thing you do. In that regard, as you get a little bit older you get a bit more realistic: the only way to be successful, unless you are really lucky or really amazing, is just to keep doing it.

"There is always a small chance that there could be a hit song that connects with the rest of the world. A very small chance."

Still, the reason Casserly and Johnson aren't struggling musicians is really due to their sidelines, musical and otherwise.

The pair work on music for television ads together (but won't confess to any particular examples). They were also responsible for modernising the Shortland St theme a few years back. Johnson still "sings for his supper" as a jazzman-for-hire. Casserly has a day job of sorts as a television director, late of Havoc, now heading to Ice TV.

For Johnson, music is his job.

"No, never worked a day in my life, apart from a few jobs at university."

Casserly: "Aw don't go on about those. That doesn't count. Two weeks on a building site when you were 16?"

Johnson: "Hey it was six weeks, and I had to get up bloody early. It made me realise that I didn't want to do that."

"I've always laughed at people who say you can't make a living out of music. It's bollocks. You can."

Casserly: "It's what sort of living do you want?"

Johnson: "Also how versatile are you. What are you prepared to do?

It's been a couple of hours. Johnson, despite his reputation as a carouser has drunk just one beer and many a tomato juice.

We end as we began, with another opportunity for another matey leg-pull. If they had to interview each other, knowing what they know, what would they ask? Casserly says the problem is that he knows too much. But Johnson is game and fires one across the table.

"The fact that you've got so many singers and you can't decide on one - Does that mirror your personal life?"

Casserly: "No, it mirrors your personal life."

* No New Messages and Seabreeze Hotel are out this week. Greg Johnson plays the Auckland Town hall Concert Chamber on Wednesday April 12. For further tour dates see Upcoming page???