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Local Dunedin musical legend Robert Scott with his long-time band The Bats in the second in the trilogy of interviews, this time talks of his latest release The Guilty Office and the process that it took to make the album and the favourable press it received.


DMC: What was the main idea for the album? How did it all come about?

Bob: We really needed to do a new one, it was overdue. It was a case of us all touching base and me coming up with a new bunch of tunes and get the ball rolling. We had a few practices and went from there, the vibe was good.

The songs were mainly written in the 2 years previous to the recording. Some came together in the studio, like The Guilty Office and Two Lines. There were some early ideas but I merged them into some of the newer songs I had written.


DMC: What are some of the themes alluded to in this album? Is there a recurrent theme running through the whole album?

Bob: No I don’t think there is an underlying theme, maybe if there is it's something The Listener comes up with. It is a bunch of songs that I worked hard on and the themes or ideas are really about the way people interact with each other and their perception of the world around them.


DMC: The title of the album, 'The Guilty Office' - where did that come from?

Bob: It's an idea that popped into my head while I was playing the riff, it was quite hard to play so I couldn't play it too many times before the take, The Guilty Office is somewhere you go when you have transgressed, maybe it comes from being caught doing something wrong at school. I did have a picture in my head at the time of grey drizzling streets with people shuffling along on their way too work.


DMC: Who did you record with?

Bob: We recorded it with John Kelcher at the Heathcote Valley in Christchurch. He has a studio there and it's quite a nice spot so it made for a good place to do it. The overdubs, mixing and mastering were done at Bats HQ in Christchurch with Paul taking care of that.


Related artists: Robert Scott

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