Grant Lee Phillips: Hat's Entertainment.

Grant Lee Phillips plays The Zoo on Saturday and Sunday.

For many people, Grant Lee Buffalo were one of the greatest American bands to emerge from the 1990s, an emotive trio who had in frontman Grant-Lee Phillips the perfectly distinctive voice for their combination of dusty lonesome blues-folk and cathartic acoustic-powered rock. As much as the best of alt-country today, Grant Lee Buffalo specialised in a particularly evocative, frequently surreal brand of Americana.

Now, GLB’s journeyman singer is solo and has released his second going-it-alone record, following the Internet-available Ladies Love Oracle, which was released on his own label Magnetic Field Recordings. He’ll also be in town as special guest on the Paul Dempsey tour and looks forward to playing songs from the new album, entitled Mobilize.

It’s a gorgeous record, rich with lush melodies and an effective marriage of acoustic and electronic textures. At times, it evokes a new-millenium version of Bowie’s Hunky Dory, at other times it soars with Beatle-esque psychedelic-flavoured pop and ballads so intimate, it’s like Grant’s whispering over your shoulder. It also boasts a striking picture of Grant on the cover. He’s dressed as Napoleon, you see.

“The album title had already been floating around,” Grant says of the interesting cover concept. “Meanwhile, we had thrown a costume party with some friends and my wife had taken a snapshot of me in that get-up. I suppose considering the militant nature of the album title, it seemed like a humorous combination. I like the idea of being a commander of sorts who no longer has anyone to push around but himself. Uhhh, and I like the look of the hat!”

It’s an eccentric touch that has always been part of Grant, whether solo or with Grant Lee Buffalo (for example, check out the Fellini-style circus imagery of GLB’s Jubilee album sleeve of 1998).

“I’m one to place high importance on my right and privilege to embrace the ridiculous,” Grant says. “If anything, I would venture to say there is a certain cross section of our audience that may have not been so quick to embrace those eccentricities, and would focus on the serious nature of certain songs. But I guess that’s something genuine about the band and hopefully about what I have to put forth. It can be looked at from a number of different angles. Comical or quite tragic."

As mentioned earlier, Mobilize makes use of technology, mixing acoustic and electric instruments with electronics and drum programming.

“I had the knowledge that I could make any sort of album,” says Grant. “The area of electronics, abstract noises and a more mechanical approach was something that I had yet to explore. But these things have always been of interest for me and I’ve always been one to allow my curiosity to lead me. It was a good time to unleash these investigations. There are certain artists like Bjork that I find interesting. I think she’s found a way to put some very abstract sounds and approaches to work, but with a very organic spirit. If anything that’s been my revelation, that you can approach things like this if you have the right attitude and it’s more about discovery. But on the whole, I doubt that I have an allegiance to electronic or acoustic instruments based on the instruments alone. I think it always comes down to the mind and the spirit that animates those tools.”

Grant is clearly excited about playing his ambitious new material to Australian audiences.

“I have amazing memories of Australia, dating back from our first tour with Grant Lee Buffalo in 1995. It was incredible,” he recalls fondly. “The next time I visited would have been about ’98 or so and by that time I had contracted some sort of viral infection en route from LA to New Zealand. So I was heaving and coughing my way through what ended up being the last ever tour for Grant Lee Buffalo. What a way to go out!”

My own memories of Grant Lee Buffalo in concert go back to 1995, when I saw them perform at Brisbane Entertainment Centre with REM. I was struck by the enormity of sound provided by a group noted for their stripped-back, often acoustic approach to music. There was a duality to Grant Lee Buffalo: big, stirring wall-of-sound coupled with an intense intimacy. Grant agrees.

“It’s probably true that Grant Lee Buffalo struggled constantly with that duality,” he says. “We were forever trying to get a handle on what exactly we were bound to become or what we intended to become. Because it’s true, there’s a side to my writing that is often very intimate and introspective and when we stepped on stage, we felt obliged to explode! It’s funny with three-piece bands, they tend to over-compensate for their numbers. Some of the biggest, most bombastic groups of all time have been made up of three people: Nirvana, Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and so on.”

It’s apt that Grant studied at film school for a time, because to this day, there is something cinematic about his music. Every song seems to conjure an image for the listener.

“I do have little movies that flicker behind my eyes when I’m writing,” says Grant. “It is most often the case that I have some sort of image to work with, even though it might not function as a narrative or a story. Most times, there is an image I’m attempting to describe or an atmosphere I’m struggling to bring to life through lyrics and whatever the music has to offer. Recently I became involved in scoring a film. That was most gratifying, because film has always been an inspiration for me. It’s an independent film called Zig Zag starring Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo and Natasha Lyonne. It’s a very human story and the director was a long-time fan of Grant Lee Buffalo. He had followed me into my solo career and ended up seeking me out.”

Do you have any personal favourite movies?

“Oh goodness. The ones that come to mind are like everything from Taxi Driver to The Wizard Of Oz. In Cold Blood, as well. I guess the thing they all have in common, is that they’re all road movies in some sick way!”

Spoken like a true traveler.