McGlashan still inspired to compose

FAME: Don McGlashan plays King Street Live in Masterton on Saturday October 17 as part of his trans-Tasman Lucky Stars album support tour. PHOTO SUPPLIED

AWARD-WINNING musician Don McGlashan - after decades of scoring soundtracks for the lives around him - says his best song is yet to come.

"That's the spur to pick up a pen, you know. The motivation is 'I'm going to sit down and write the best song I've ever written', and if you're not sitting down with that sort of motivation, then you might as well stay standing up," he said.

"I love the way people use songs and that's why I do it. If you're feeling good then you need to sing something, and somebody like me, hopefully, my job is to provide something for people to sing when they're feeling good, or feeling sad, or when they've lost somebody or gained something.

"You can't predict it. When you're writing a song you're just doing it for yourself really. Trying to put something together that makes you feel good. A lot of the time I wander around the house and picking up the guitar is a kind of a healing thing. I feel better when I've got a guitar in my hand and I'm writing."

McGlashan, a two-time APRA Silver Scroll winner with five tunes in the APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time list, is in the midst of his Lucky Stars solo tour in support of his latest album of the same name.

He has a clear fortnight until he heads down south for his next tour date, before which he will fly to Australia for a day as the New Zealand songwriters' representative to the APRA board, and travel north to chill with family, including his "more famous" daughter Pearl McGlashan - aka Jasmin Cooper on Shortland Street - and son Louie, musicians both.

His new solo album, the first in six years, comes after a lifetime of musical composition that kicked off for the multi-instrumentalist as part of the From Scratch performance art group. His career has since glittered with awards and chart-busters both as a soloist and with bands like Blam Blam Blam in the early 80s, The Front Lawn later that decade, and The Mutton Birds through the 90s and into the new millennium.

Pacing his songwriting and stagework was his scoring of feature films and television series - his latest for Kiwi movie The Deadlands and upcoming Maori Television documentary Our Blue Canoe.

He was also made an Auckland University Distinguished Alumni; featured in television show Songs From The Inside; and conducted - as musical director for the New Zealand Dance Company - the Brassband Rijnmond in Amsterdam.

But small wonders seem to be the most rewarding of all his musical feats since co-writing There is No Depression in New Zealand as a 22-year-old drummer.

"I think when you're 22 you just want to make it to the next drink really and you're thrilled that people come to the gigs. Since then there's been so many times in my career where you could say, 'that's a milestone, it's not going to get any better than this'. I've played big audiences with The Mutton Birds overseas, I've played with Crowded House at Glastonbury in front of 50,000.

"But at the Raglan Club, the RSA, the other night, about a hundred people were there, at the pokies, talking, and when I started playing, people shut up. That's a powerful energy when you tell a story through a song and people are leaning towards you. In a way that's the big time, that's making it."

McGlashan, whom Masterton promotion company Up With People is bringing to town as part of the Kokomai Creative Festival, said his Wairarapa performances were few.

"I haven't played so much in that part of the world. I did a Toast Martinborough - my cousin Neil McCallum started Dry River Wines down there - and I did a really cool gig about 15 years ago with The Mutton Birds and the National Symphony at Alana Estate. It was very cool, very enjoyable.

"I've stayed doing what I love to do and that's a blessing. It's been a charmed life.

"Even more so when you get to do a solo tour, which can be quite nerve-wracking because there's no safety net. There's just playing a guitar and singing, and if I forget to do one of them, heaven help me."