The Bill

Rip It Up, Issue 197, 1 December 1993, Page 10

The Bill

BILL DIREEN is one of the living legends of NZ music. Since 1980, he's had one of the most astonishing, eclectic, powerful track records of any New Zealand musician. Yet he's been reduced to the point where he can't even get an album released. Until just recently, anyway. Flying Nun, with whom Direen's had a transitory relationship at different times, have just started releasing a comprehensive four volume retrospective that will hopefully give the world an opportunity to realise what they've missed out on. The first volume, Max Quitz, which compiles impossibly obscure early singles and the second, Beaten Hearts, the classic 1982 Flying Nun album that's been deleted for years as well. The third will take from his self-released albums Split Seconds and The Hat and the fourth, songs off Conch, Coolest Cats and various other experimental projects, where, as Direen recalls, "I did a batch of songs, six or seven attempts at trying something unusual and only one out of six or seven would work and that's the one that's gone on the compilation." The biggest difficulty came with the first album, where one of the early singles, 'Six Impossible Things', the master had disintegrated and copies had to betaken off unplayed records. The other masters were rescued just in time. It's come as a considerable relief to Direen that Flying Nun have rereleased the early Bilders material (Bilders in the moniker Direen gives most of his ever-changing bands). "It's really good that the music's going to be preserved because it was falling apart and I didn't know what to do about it. I'd written to a few people around the world, and there was some interest there, but I didn't even think of Flying Nun. It all happened quite suddenly. Roger said 'Do you want to do it' and I wrote back 'Yes' by return mail. They said 'Right, here's a contract' and I went up and signed it. It's definitely come at the right time.

I don't think I'd be able to sell a new album without the old stuff being available." What Direen is playing now is quite different from what he's played throughoutthe rest of his career. But he thinks he's remained true to the spirit of his music. "There's still something in the material that I did in the late 80s which is true to the spirit I began making music in, and I'm still doing that now. "But now the sound has become closer to the earlier stuff because I'm pared down, trying to make things pay. I think the most interesting musicians seem to be the people who are floating electrons, wandering around trying to do interesting stuff for themselves." Direen has also written plays (Raoul, Prince of Jeans, Dial A Claw) andpoetry (Crappings). He's been doing other things partly because of declining interest in his music. "People didn't seem to be that interested in the musical side of it, but I certainly enjoyed the theatre situation because it's away from a drugs based audience appreciation. Even though people might have a few drinks before they go in, they can actually follow something through for a longer space of time. People who see a band, they're not interested in the develeopment of an idea, they're interested in a sound. "But really there's nothing that beats having a song really well worked out and performing it from beginning to end with the people you worked it out with and having it recorded. For me, that's still the most satisfying performance." Bill Direen has got a rare chance of a richly deserved comeback. Don't let him slip into obscurity again. CAMPBELL WALKER