In Vida Sublime (2019)

In Vida Sublime came together at an interesting time for the band. Barry was living in Auckland and Pat (who had recorded drums for our previous album) had departed. Paul and I had been playing acoustic shows as a duo and had pretty much recorded the whole album with just the two of us. During this layover period I had been asked to play guitar for the album launch gigs of a country rock band in which John and Reuben made up the rhythm section.

After the shows were done they were going their separate ways so I took the opportunity to see if John and Reuben might like to have a jam. Fortuitously, things went well and they joined the band.

So we re-worked the songs with the new lineup and added the new parts to the recordings—and it really gave the album a new lease of life with some external input. We had eight or so songs so were casting around for a couple more and went to the hopper for a couple of oldies that had never quite made the cut for whatever reason (normally because the style/sound just didn't fit with a particular bunch of songs). Out All Night was one such song we'd been playing around with for years. The verse was great but various choruses failed to match it. This version uses one of those choruses as the intro/outro and finesses another one into the chorus you hear.

This Golden Life was originally recorded with Greg on drums way back so John and Reuben added their parts and hey ho we had a great song that really fitted the vibe of this LP. Lots of atmospheric guitar lines in this one, created by reversing audio and a whole lot of tricks!

The title track In Vida Sublime is an unusual song and one I'm proud of lyrically. It questions organised belief systems and how they are essentially about control and the exercise of power over populations. It's also quite a stonking rock song, so there's that too.

In the Half Light is one of my favourites and has, quite unexpectedly, become the goto closing song in our set. It's one of those album tracks I'd never expect to play again after recording it but we had rehearsed it a couple of times when we decided to throw it in as a closer when making our Saturday Night Live album and film. On the night I'm not sure Tim had even played the song before but he did a magnificent job.

Children At Your Feet is another one destined for album track obscurity that has become a firm favourite to play live.

Overall I think my favourite song is I Wish This Day Would Never End. It has a circular chord pattern that really appeals to me and is not altogether disimilar to an old song called See You Again, in fact it kind of builds on the theme of that song. In the background on this and few other songs you can hear the amazing vocal harmonies of Kate and Sarah Rowe.

I look back on this album with some fondness, the overall mood is quite sombre but grand and glacial, and represents a time of change and renewal for us. The title itself is just "This Golden Life" roughly translated into some pig latin but I thought it nicely represented the themes and sonic qualities of the record.

President Gas
January 2025