TRiPS, a new musical collaboration from Andrew Christiansen and Barnaby Weir Photo:
Kiwi musicians Barnaby Weir and Andrew Christiansen go for a psychedelic-and-jazz-infused adventure on their new self-titled album TRiPS.
The duo - who first met as members of beloved reggae band The Black Seeds - set themselves ‘super-high’ standards for songwriting and recording with this collaboration, Weir says.
“We're just challenging ourselves to do something that's surprisingly good, that we want to listen to, that when you push play, it sounds really high quality within the genre. Just well mastered, well recorded,” he tells Charlotte Ryan.
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To Weir, the word ‘trip’ has three layers of meaning - the poker hand of three jacks, a psychedelic trip and, most significantly for he and Christiansen, an explorative experience - “getting outside and having an adventure musically”.
TRiPS is a psychedelic rock album with elements of “trippiness”, Weir says, and a couple of tracks reflect his and Christiansen’s shared jazz background.
Christiansen, who played the trumpet for The Black Seeds a few years back, is a talented and funny guy who was also Weir’s neighbour when they started collaborating on a songwriting and recording project.
“We began talking about music and doing some recording … and we were thinking, you know, what is it that makes great music? Let's challenge ourselves to do some really good songwriting together and challenge ourselves to make it sound really awesome in the studio.”
Christiansen is great on guitar, Weir says, and both are passionate about “classic” rock n’roll songwriting ala Tom Petty, The Traveling Wilburies and also blues and R&B.
Andy Christiansen and Barnaby Weir, aka the music duo TRiPS Photo: Supplied
TRiPS, which was produced by the acclaimed Lee Prebble, has Weir singing on three tracks, as well as other vocalists.
An instrumental track ‘Cobb & Co’ takes its name from the homestyle Kiwi restaurant chain that was big in the ‘80s, but is actually kind of punky and “balls to the wall”, he says.
“I just thought, well, [the title] is quite funny. It's kind of Kiwiana chic.”
Testing out his own ideas about how songwriting, recording and album promotion can be done with a new project has been “liberating” in his 40s, Weir says.
He is happy the TRiPS album tracks are being released all at once, without “too much build-up and teasing out”.
“We really just want to get some runs on the board, get some listeners listening, get some feedback and get into making another one. We can do it quicker, probably cheaper and probably just as good.”