THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Lindon Puffin

Lyttelton-based singer-songwriter Lindon Puffin has been around the traps for a decade now, first in the glam-tinged band the Puffins and for the past eight years as a solo artist. He has been quietly building a steady reputation as storytelling musician who has something to say.

He's also opened for some of the brightest and best, among them Billy Bragg, Shona Laing, the Warratahs, Gin, Dave Dobbyn, Chris Knox . . .

He has also toured Europe, Japan and the States, been the subject of road movie doco Figure 8000, and has just released an excellent new album Hope Holiday (reviewed here) which is really quite a step up into classy pop-rock with intelligent lyrics and terrific hooks.

But while he was basking in the first flush of favourable reviews he took time out to join the long list of worthies who have answered the Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire. 

The first piece of music which really affected you was . . .

The War Of The Worlds by Jeff Wayne scared the bejesus out of me the first time I heard it. My friend’s dad played the whole thing really loud in the car on a long drive through Arthurs Pass. I cowered in the backseat while my friend slept & still recall that feeling every time I put it on. Secretly every musician fantasises about writing a terrifying concept album with a repetitive disco groove and Phil Lynott playing the part of a demented Parson.

Your first (possibly embarrassing) role models in music were . . .

John Lennon, Annie Lennox, Barry Saunders, Kate Pierson (B-52’s), Freddy Mercury...

Lennon or Jagger, Ramones or Nirvana, Madonna or Gaga, Jacko or Jay-Z?

Lennon, Nirvana, Gaga, huge respect for both Jacko & Jay-Z

If music was denied you, your other career choice would be . . .

I’d love to be a sports commentator alongside Jeremy Taylor from Slow Boat records ... or a saltwater fishing guide.

The three songs (yours, or by others) you would love everyone to hear are . . .

A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke, Naive Melody by Talking Heads & my new single Outta Reach which I’m hoping will be played mercilessly by mainstream radio so that you f#ckers don’t have a choice!

Any interesting, valuable or just plain strange musical memorabilia at home?

Nah, I actually sold it all at the end of last year to fund the new album. No kidding, I had a vintage Korg MS 20 analogue synthesizer that lasted just a few hours of a week long auction on Trademe.. waaahhhh

The best book on music or musicians you have read is . . .

Mansion On The Hill by Fred Goodman. “The Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce”. Jim Wilson who owns Phantom Billstickers would get me some great music books & this one is a very illuminating read, albeit bloody depressing! Also love ‘Fleetwood’ the Fleetwood Mac story.

If you could get on stage with anyone it would be . . . (And you would play?)

Peter Cook & Dudley Moore singing Goodbye-ee

The three films you'd insist anybody watch because they might understand you better are . . .

Yellow Submarine, Big Fish, End Of The Golden Weather

The last CD or vinyl album you bought was . . . (And your most recent downloads include . . .)

From A Basement On The Hill. Elliot Smith’s posthumous release & Bob Seger’s greatest hits.

One song, royalties for life, never have to work again. The song by anyone, yourself included, which wouldn't embarrass you in that case would be . . .

Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen

The poster, album cover or piece of art could you live with on your bedroom forever would be . . .

A large print of the album cover of Soft Bomb by the Chills. Been a favourite for many years.

You are allowed just one tattoo, and it is of . . .

A Cabbage Tree over my shoulder or a Yin Yang moon rising behind a dolphin leaping out of koru shaped waves in a Celtic-patterned swirling ocean… on the small of my back. mmmmmmmmm.

David Bowie sang, “Five years, that's all we've got . . .” You would spend them where, doing . . .?

Fishing half cut, from a small dinghy off the point of Kahikatea Bay near my old family home in the Marlborough Sounds with test cricket commentary coming from a wee battery powered radio that’s lying in the bottom of the boat next to the single malt & ginger nuts.

And finally, in the nature of press conferences in Japan, “Can you tell me please why this is your best album ever?”

For this album, I let go of my obsessive control freak man alone DIY recording approach and enticed a motley gaggle of gifted children into a decent studio to sprinkle fairy dust over my simple songs. Also managed to somehow coerce the honorable Wayne Bell to produce away my kitsch kiwiana folk tendencies & reclaim the melancholy rock of my youth. Combine this with a very stable new hair product, some fairly decent songs and I think we might be onto a winner.