Singer spreads her wings with Bird In Hand single

Anna Coddington talks to Mike Mather about new music and coming home. Spare a thought for Anna Coddington’s nerves on Friday night – they’ll be frayed.

The Raglan singer-songwriter will be performing a rare gig in front of her hometown crowd – an experience that is at once comfortable and disconcerting, she says.

‘‘I actually find it nerve-wracking in a way. When you’re in front of a room of strangers you can imagine that they see you how you want them to see you – as a mysterious performer person or whatever,’’ she told the Times.

‘‘They don’t know much about you so you kind of have control over what they get to know of you. But when you perform in front of people who have known you your whole life they know exactly what they’re looking at, so you’re more exposed in a way.

‘‘But I love it both ways. I just like playing music no matter who it’s to. Even to nobody. I still like it.’’

Having it both ways is also a theme that could be applied to the title of her new single, Bird In Hand, the first since her critically-acclaimed 2011 album Cat & Bird.

The song is a big development from the guitar-based, live band sound for which she is known. It was produced by 2013 Taite Prize-winning artist and producer SJD, who placed Coddington’s haunting vocals over angular drums, delicate keys and a heady string arrangement.

‘‘ Bird In Hand is the culmination of a lot of changes for me, both personally and professionally,’’ Coddington said. ‘‘I decided I just really wanted to try ‘‘ is the culmination of a lot of changes for me, both personally and professionally. I decided I just really wanted to try something different. I wanted to try different ways of writing, both by myself and with other people, which I hadn’t really done before, and different ways of collaborating.’’ something different. I wanted to try different ways of writing, both by myself and with other people, which I hadn’t really done before, and different ways of collaborating.

‘‘I asked SJD to produce a couple of tracks for me as a starting point for trying out working with others and, to my delight, he said yes and we’re both very happy with the results.

‘‘He’s an excellent writer and producer and has great taste for melody. So Bird In Hand received a great treatment from him. We did one other song together which will be out soon. I’m now working on a couple of songs with Jeremy Toy (She’s So Rad and Opensouls) producing, so those are sounding different again.’’

Bird In Hand follows the summer release of funk-pop song Noise Control by Street Neighbourz – aka Coddington and her actual neighbour Jason Smith. That single was assisted by a music video set in a party staged in her own backyard.

‘‘Jason is still my street neighbour – a street neighbour is your neighbour that lives across the road, rather than next door – and we both really want to do another track so it’s just a matter of finding time since we are both always busy trying to make money and pay rent. Street Neighbourz is not about that. It has to be fun. So maybe in summer again.’’

Coddington began her musical life in Raglan at age 11 as her father Peter’s protege on an enormous drum kit. At 15 she formed Hamilton band Handsome Geoffrey, which later morphed into Duchess. That band produced the 2005 single Raglan City which still receives airplay on some of the nation’s music channels.

After spending time as a backing singer for the likes of Anika Moa and Bic Runga, she began venturing into a career as a solo artist in her own right, and has to date produced two albums – The Lake and Cat & Bird.

As well as her work with SJD, Toy and Smith, Coddington has spent much of the last year travelling, collaborating, and honing the crafts of songwriting and production, including writing songs with London-based French producer Dimitri Tikovoi (Goldfrapp, Charlie XCX) and Auckland-based British producer Dick Johnson.

There are many more people on her list of future collaborations.

‘‘I’m very lucky. It’s a small industry really so you get to have a jam with everyone at some stage. I’m really keen to work with just about anyone . . . There are loads of people I admire for different reasons. I love [the Black Seeds’] Mike Fabulous. He’s an amazing producer. I love Mara TK’s voice. I reckon we should sing a song together one day. Lots of cool ideas like that, but they will happen when the time is right.

‘‘Sometimes it’s an unexpected combo that works really well like Street Neighbourz, or me and SJD – we were like ‘yeah, let’s just try it and see what happens’ and it has resulted in music I’m really proud of.’’

Anna Coddington plays The Yot Club in Raglan on Friday at 8pm, with entry available through door sales only. For more information go to annacoddington.com