The Rob Mob

Rip It Up, Issue 120, 1 July 1987, Page 10

The Rob Mob

This Boy Rob are two — and neither of them is called Rob. Greg Johnson and John Fraser are the ones responsible for those haunting ambient songs on your local campus radio.

Crazy Notions is the five-track EP they've just released on Pagan. It’s. an unusual record, with elegant, captivating sounds. Johnson says it's great on headphones, and as this month's Pagan maxim says, “No opiates required!” Johnson and Fraser were both in Diatribe, a completely different band, and one with “too many songwriters,” says Johnson. “In This Boy Rob, with just two songwriters, it's easier to get a consistent mood to the record. I'm into writing a mood. But it's quite a melancholic voice, so to some it might be depressing.” Outside of the Rob project, the pair are part of a trio that plays jazz for a restaurant. The third member of that trio, Nathan Porter, is a major feature of the EP, playing sax and keyboards. “Nathan’s a classically trained pianist, and one of those one-in-a-million people that can just pick up and play anything.” Between them, the Rob’s play an

extraordinary number of instruments: trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards, percussion, bass. “The electronics are lowkey. We're both proponents of real instruments,’ says Johnson. Consequently, players such as trombonist Mike Young and guitarist Dean Cochran help out, with Fiona McDonald on backing vocals. This Boy Rob plan to use more musicians on their next record, plus more “real sounds” — a feature of Crazy Notions: “On the fade-out sax track Nathan played in the corridor, while | drove around in the carpark,” says Johnson. “On our new one, we're going to use sounds of the stockmarket.” Thefield recording comes about through Fraser’s work as a video sound recordist. Johnson has been working at Campus Radio for a couple of years, and they used the Auckland student station’s small studio to record the EP. “It's-a tiny

studio, you can hardly get a drumkit in there” Nevertheless, the sound is remarkable: the EP's been digitally mastered, transferred off video tape. As Johnson says, the sound is indeed a credit to Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly. They're already recording an album. “It will be completely different,’ says Johnson, “maybe more saleable. But | feel it's almost pointless aiming anything at the commercial market, though a quota should help people like us — not alternative, but not middle of the road.” This Boy Rob will “eventually” play live, but it's not a priority. “We've done the tours with various bands,’ says Johnson. “| can't see why we can't build up some sort of following on vinyl. | want to develop a sound so that people can say, ‘That's This Boy Rob!" "

Chris Bourke