For the past decade Edward Castelow has played various instruments in a variety of bands. With the release of Dictaphone Blues' debut album On the Down and In he finally moves to the front seat. JULE SCHERER of NZPA talks to him about his solo project and his brand new label Blah-lah-lah records.

Wellington, April 14 NZPA - Dictaphone Blues' album was a long time coming.

Edward Castelow started working on the material after he came back from a stint in Sydney in 2006.

His previous group, Degrees.K, had left Christchurch three years earlier and gathered new audiences in Australia.

After touring repeatedly with bands like Liam Finn's Betchadupa, Shihad and The Icarus Line, Castelow felt it was time to move back to New Zealand and work on his own material.

But before he was able to concentrate on Dictaphone Blues a couple of other opportunities -- too good to be missed for somebody dedicated to performing live -- crossed his way.

He was asked to take over the drums for Auckland-based band Ruby Suns and played shows across New Zealand, Australia and Europe. And when Ruby Suns' leader Ryan McPhun decided to cut the band down to a two-piece to save travelling costs, Castelow was recruited by The Brunettes to play bass in their tour through Australia, UK, Europe and the United States.

Whenever he found time he worked on his own pieces. He started Dictaphone Blues essentially as a solo project and asked friends to come along whenever he got a gig.

"It wouldn't exist in the live sense without just having really good friends who are interested in seeing it coming to life," he says.

"The first year when I was doing gigs there were a couple of members of the Ruby Suns who I was playing with at the time. And there were another couple of guys who were at the time in the band Heavy Jones," he explains.

All busy playing in many projects, they often just managed to learn five songs and Castelow would play the rest with an iPod as backing track and would sing along to it.

As time wore on, he wanted to focus more on Dictaphone Blues and realised he needed a steady band.

"The band was Heavy Jones, with me playing and singing, and then I went overseas for a couple of months and when I came back Heavy Jones had broken up and Kelly, their singer, had moved to Christchurch so we resumed as the three guys who were left from Heavy Jones and myself. And that's what we are now."

Most of the music on the album On the Down and In was recorded late last year -- half of it in Auckland's The Lab studio by Joel Mulholland and Olly Harmer, the other half in various flats Castelow was living in on a small pro-tool setup.

"Most of the time I could only record with two microphones and that served well, in a way that I couldn't stuff up too much," he says.

Castelow made sure that he had his hands on the whole process.

"I worked with different musicians but most part it's me playing most parts." Support came from now band members Ben Eldridge, Rob Collins and Myles Allpress as well as from ex-Betchadupas's Matt Eccles and various other guests.

"I did some mixing and producing sessions with Joel at The Lab and it became a bit of a home away from home where a quite a few friends recorded or rehearsed," he says.

To bring his baby to life Castelow set up his own label, Blah-lah-lah records. "I just didn't want to have nothing written on the back on the album and my friends have all released music and a lot have put their own record label out," he says.

While talking to a friend, he realised how easy the process was.

"There was no need to deal with the IRD or something.

"Within a week I had thought out the name and done a wee design. I just wanted to have a name to make it look more professional in an independent way, if that's possible."

Blah-lah-lah records was born partly because none of the labels Castelow sent his material to showed a lot of interest, but it all worked out for the best.

"I like my little projects and I like making little marketing things that go out to record stores and I don't mind ringing up record stores saying, `Hey, have you got this and how about a poster, how about a window display'."

"I am really glad that I did it because I could probably potentially have been quite annoying to a record label, calling them all the time and asking what I would do and what they would do and so on," he admits.

The Dictaphone Blues sound is extremely catchy without being shallow or cheesy. The songs are carefully tailored with a cheerful playfulness, completed with some psychedelic-pop elements.

The production sounds at times a tad home crafted in an engaging way. It's the little things, like the use of bells here and whistles there and of glockenspiels and plinking pianos, of little beeps and bleeps that makes Castelow's love and dedication for his music so transparent.

The memorable melodies go along with charming and quirky lyrics and the singer's warm voice. To sum it up, Dictaphone Blues' On the Down and In is a great guitar-pop album. His first singles Taken Aback and Spooky Room have already received decent airplay from NZ radio stations.

Compared with his former band Degrees.K style, which played raw energetic rock, his music has softened a lot.

Castelow attributes the change of the style from Degrees.K to Dictaphone Blues to a couple of reasons. "The songs tend to be more melodic because most of them came about from me just humming or whistling a tune and going `oh, I really like that' and figuring the chords around that melody.

"And I am also a little bit older and not so hell-bent being in a loud offensive rockband," he says.

Having always enjoyed playing live, Castelow now is really keen to tour the country. Audiences have already been able to get a first glimpse on Dictaphone Blues' material when he supported his friend Liam Finn on his New Zealand tour.

Castelow reckons that the songs have changed a lot over the past years. "With the album I had a lot more hold on the production and I was able to say how I wanted it to go.

"When we're now getting ready for a show now I might say how I want it to go and let's keep an eye on this or that, but I also want to let the guys to be able to let rip on the way.

"That's what brings the live Dictaphone Blues experience to another level than when you're listening to the album.

"If people get into the album and they listen to it and they come to the show they will get that and more.

"What I like when I go and see a band is, when they can just go up there and play their songs and take you on a journey and when they're naturally good then that's awesome.

"I would like to think that people coming to see us are going to get something that they are not going to be able to see anywhere else.

"I think the guys in the band are really talented musicians and the songs we have now are really good songs.

"You know, we're not going to be dressing up as ducks but if people miss out then that will be a shame."

On the Down and In is out now (April 14)

Live dates:

18 April - Auckland - Real Groovy - 5pm

30 April - Auckland - Cassette 9

12 May - Auckland - Kings Arms

22 May - Christchurch - Al's Bar

23 May - Port Chalmers - Chicks Hotel

29 May - Napier - Cabana Bar

30 May - Wellington - Happy

5 June Auckland - Cassette 9

Picture requests: reuben@isaacpromotions.com, 09 360 0270

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