Peter Jefferies

The Evening Standard, November 20, 1996

In a 7-11 in Vancouver, Canada, is a pinball game named Elevator Madness. Across the road from the 7-11 lives Peter Jefferies, born and bred in Taranaki, who thought the name of the game might make a good album title.

He was proved right when he realised that a musician named Roky Erickson, who plays with the 13th Floor Elevators and is by all accounts quite mad, was the first artist he had come across on Trance Syndicate -- the record label that has just released Elevator Madness.

Jefferies is one of the New Zealand musicians who has carved out a niche for himself in the world of underground music. He's toured the States eight times, Europe twice. His earlier two solo albums and a singles compilation were released by Chicago label Ajax, but its recent closure left him without a home -- until he met King Coffey, drummer in the infamous Butthole Surfers and owner of Trance Syndicate. Now Jefferies is happily ensconced on Emperor Jones, Coffey's imprint within Trance "for projects he's particularly concerned about, so they say. The ones that he's going to make an extra effort on."

Not bad for an unassuming lad from Stratford.

Elevator Madness is Jefferies' third solo album, but counting all the albums he's contributed to would take the total well into double figures. He started out playing with brother Graeme (whose own band The Cakekitchen is now based in France) in the early 80s, first in Nocturnal Projections, then This Kind of Punishment. He later played in Plagal Grind, Dimmer, and Cyclops, and collaborated with a nunber of other musicians including Sandra Bell, Shayne Carter and King Loser. As well as his solo recording and shows, he's a member of 2 Foot Flame and Mecca Normal, both with his partner Jean Smith.

While 1994's Electricity featured a number of guest musicians, Elevator Madness is pure Peter Jefferies -- except for Jean Smith's guitar on three tracks. Jefferies says it's "a bit more outward going ... with a bit of a wider world view" than Electricity. Recorded at Profile Studios in Vancouver, but with the initial tracks laid down in Jefferies and Smith's home studio, Elevator Madness was engineered by "engineering genius" Mark Cohen and produced by Smith.

"It gave me a chance to just be the artist instead of the engineer-produced guy that I normally am along with trying to do the music, and I think that was really important ... having the chance to just be into the music and not have to think about the process."

After the tour that has brought Jefferies back to New Zealand, he'll return to Vancouver in January, with a particularly busy year ahead. Besides touring to promote 2 Foot Flame's new album, due out in April, and recording and touring for the Mecca Normal album due out in September, Jefferies has been offered a residency at a club in Texas. And there are old as well as new releases planned; over the last few years many of Jefferies' earlier albums have been reissued by various labels. All except the first of the This Kind of Punishment albums were reissued on Ajax, with the first scheduled for release on another label next year, along with At Swim 2 Birds -- a 1986 album Jefferies recorded with Jono Lonie. And recently Graeme Jefferies organised the reissue of all the Nocturnal Projections releases on one CD, on Belgian label Raffmond. This contained a surprise for Jefferies, in the form of songs from the first two cassettes in a hidden track.

"Graeme sent me a tape of the 11 songs that were listed on the album, and that's what I thought the album would be, and then one day I didn't bother to turn it off and about quarter of an hour later this other stuff came on ... It made me shudder a little bit. As far as trying to make a complete statement with one CD, adding those tracks completed it ... (but) I personally make sure I turn it off before the 15 minutes is up."

It's certainly a long way from playing pubs in New Plymouth to the hip subterranean clubs of North America. Jefferies attributes his success in part to the wave of interest in New Zealand music that swept through the US music scene a few years ago.

"It was just a bit of luck really. I think Martin Phillips and the stuff that he did with the Chills had a lot to do with it ... He shone a little spotlight on this country with his efforts, and suddenly magazines were ringing up and wanting to know (about it). And right at that time Xpressway [the Dunedin label Jefferies aided Bruce Russell in setting up] came along and that did quite a bit to bring attention to NZ music."

But New Zealand's period in the limelight has been and gone, and although many musicians from down under are still known and respected in the States -- and to a lesser extent in Europe -- it's no longer "flavour of the month", making it harder for New Zealand artists to get attention overseas. But for Jefferies, the attention is already deservedly secured.

"The people that were lucky enough to get some exposure overseas during the first half of the 90s still manage to sell records and do shows. Bands like the Dead C and people like Chris Knox are known overseas and are viable as touring and recording acts, and I guess I'm in amongst that group."