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Barry Saunders Moves To The Magnetic South

© Anne-Marie de Bruin

Barry Saunders is a Southern man, and his geographical roots certainly couldn't be more apparent than in the title of his new album, Magnetic South, out this week on Pagan Records.

Saunders has played music in various bands since 1967, but most would remember him as frontman for folk-country outfit, the Warratahs, who found fame around New Zealand in the eighties.

He may be a Mainlander at heart, but the past few years have seen him resident in the Wellington-Wairarapa region, where Magnetic South (which takes its title track from a song written driving down the Kaikoura Coast) was recorded by Neil Maddever on location.

"There was a little hall in Greytown where we took a lot of outboard gear and set up out there."

After recording was completed in the Wairarapa, the tapes for the album were taken to Auckland's Airforce Studios to be mixed by Chris Van de Geer, whose previous credits include work with Greg Johnson and Paul Ubana Jones.

"It was good because he was experienced and he's done a lot of stuff and he doesn't mind being locked up in a dark room," Saunders laughs.

Saunders' previous effort as a solo artist was 1995's critically acclaimed Weatherman. The two albums cover similar territory, yet there are substantial differences, with the new album the first outing on record for his new band, consisting of ex Chill Caroline Easther (drums/vocals) and Alan Norman (piano and accordion.)

The new band is also very different from the Warratahs.

"Its a different frame of mind. The Warratahs were a five-piece band and there was a lot to think of instrument wise. This sort of comes a lot easier."

It may be easier, but Saunders' old band still seems to be stuck somewhere inside the collective consciousness of New Zealand music history- something that does not bother the songwriter.

"The Warratahs just doesn't seem to go away, part of the old fabric really. There are still a lot of people out there who want those songs, and I still play a lot of them."

Providing inspiration to people is something that Saunders feels he does for a living, and as a youngster in Canterbury he was similarly influenced by the music of his day.

"I liked anything that was on the radio really and I liked songs like Tom Dooley. I like the darker songs, I've always been on the darker side."

But of course Saunders was affected by country music, even if it was not classified as such at the time.

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