And the ones that didn’t come easy?
My theory is it’s a good thing to wait sometimes. Even when you get anxious about coming up with new material. I think waiting’s good. It makes you really think about why you’re doing it in the first place.
Has your knighthood changed you?
In a way. It’s humbling and makes you more ready to serve. It’s a title yet it’s also an honour. But I’m just happy to be Dave.
Twenty-five years ago you chose James K. Baxter’s poem Song of the Years to put to music. Why that poem?
I was researching which of Baxter’s I could choose, and was seriously struggling. Then I stumbled across Song of the Years and it blew me away. I was born in 1957 and it was written in 1958, the year Baxter quit drinking. I just thought this is the song for me as I stopped drinking once, then started again, stopped-started a number of times and now don’t drink. That song solidified things for me.
What lingers about Napier’s live-music icon the Cabana?
The walls would drip with condensation. A woman named Charlie ran the place back then. On Monday nights she used to put on gay nights – there was lots of jollity, shall we say. We kept the bar up and gigs were always solidly packed and sweaty. There were plenty of towels, water – and beer.
Given your Pike River tribute This Love, do you have a stance on the renewed push for prosecution?
Definitely needs a prosecution. That’s the thing that annoys me the most is that boards of directors get off scot-free. The families deserve a deep apology from all successive governments who’ve dicked around and haven’t moved swiftly to get those bodies out of there. It’s a cheapening of human life and it makes me really embarrassed on everyone’s behalf 15 years later. The point is the dignity of the families of those men who need a proper burial and memorial.
It’s Sunday afternoon, Dave Dobbyn’s home alone, who’s playing?
A bit of Thelonious Monk, maybe Ernest Ranglin – there’s an album of his called Below the Bassline and it’s just great. I really love Cuban music too. Most of it is sung in Spanish so you don’t have to concentrate too much.
Do you think your music will endure – and do you care?
I think the songs will outlive me which is a good thing. Maybe they’ll encourage other songwriters to do the same thing. It would be nice to think that young songwriters, in particular, I had some influence on. I’d be happy about that – but of course, I won’t be around to know.
– Sir Dave Dobbyn – Selected Songs – plays at Napier Municipal Theatre on Tuesday, November 4. Tickets at napiermunicipaltheatre.co.nz.