Lorina Harding - Second Time Around

It took the unexpected death of bass player Willy Seiffert to spur singer-songwriter Lorina Harding into making her second album 'Clean Break'.

"When he died it shook me out of complacency and made me do it."

In fact Harding was considering a break from music and a return to theatre, her other passion, at the time of Seiffert's death in 2003.

Seiffert co-wrote Clean Break, one of the breezier songs on Harding's album of the same name, released in October. Tragically, he did not get to record his bass riff which inspired the song.

"He always gave me a gentle nudge [to record the album] when he wrote or spoke to me. He always signed his letters and emails 'Your Bass Player'. It's sad for me that he's not on the album."

The songs on the album are an exorcism of several demons, which makes for some fairly grim listening. Her own protracted marriage disintegration and messy custody battle feature, along with a song about the truly sad fate of the Canadian aboriginal people.

"A lot of the material comes from a fairly black time for me... but [the songs] can be beautiful at the same time."

The song Tug, more subtle than the rest, fits this bill perfectly. It is stark, sad and very beautiful. Harding is pleased the meaning of the song is hard to pin down.

"Sometimes you just have to allow it to come out, or sometimes the meaning changes."

Her formative years in Canada are evident in her songs, as well as in her impassive gaze and black sense of humour. Harding left home aged 15 and says she has always been attracted to the underbelly of society. She sold drugs for a while.

"Not for very long and not very seriously."

She befriended lost souls from an early age.

"When I was 11 I had a friend who was a 14-year-old prostitute."

Her name was Adele and she had her eye scooped out with a spoon by a boyfriend.

"I'd like to write about her but it'd be too black for Nick Bollinger," she deadpans, referring to the music reviewer who is clearly skating on thin ice.

"Tell him that I'll write a song about Adele but I'll keep it light.

"Joking, joking, love you Nick," which might be just as well for Mr Bollinger.

She also indulged in some petty crime as a youngster.

"I loved the danger and the adrenaline."

These days she gets her adrenaline rush feeding the bull at her idyllic home near Geraldine, South Canterbury where she lives with her Greenie partner and teenaged daughter Hannah.

Hannah co-wrote and sings on the track Exactly What To Say with a voice that belies her 13 years.

Working with her was fantastic, Harding says. She wrote and first performed the song at Oamaru's Whitestone Festival after eavesdropping on a conversation between a group of teenagers who had landed in a spot of drunken bother with their parents at the event. The album version was a rewrite, with Hannah's help.

Stranger bedfellows on the recording were Pluto's Milan Borich and Michael Franklin-Browne, while Goldenhorse's Ben King was co-producer along with Nick Abbott and Harding herself.

"They are clearly young musicians on their way up. I liked their spirit.

"I decided on using Ben King, who then suggested Nick Abbott, based on one song I heard called Lavender (by Ben King)."

King and Abbott gave her a different perspective on the arrangement of her work, particularly in the rhythm section, and she is pleased with the result.

"I think of the songs as being the body and the face. The arrangements are the clothes you put on. If songs end up with too many clothes and too many layers that doesn't work for me. I approached it as each song standing completely alone."

The recording, mostly completed at the now-demolished Helen Young Studio, was the straightforward part and was done in one visit to Auckland from Geraldine. The two-year period it has since taken to turn the songs into an album was spent on the finishing touches.

"[That part of it] seemed to take forever. I had trouble downloading files... it became difficult."

Harding's plans for the future include an international tour next year in Australia, Canada and Europe as well as hosting the Waihi Bush Festival, which is in its eleventh year, on her South Canterbury property.