Having returned to his homeland from Melbourne, after four decades as a working musician across the ditch, multi-talented Kiwi musician Brian Baker has hung out his shingle in Whanganui, with a newly built recording studio and boutique label both named Nixon Street Recordings. An accomplished solo performer, songwriter, guitarist and producer, he’s also the BB of BB & The Bullets, a blues rock trio releasing their debut album ‘High Tide’ in September. Richard Thorne caught up with him in his studio.

Before moving to Whanganui Brian Baker spent a few years up north in Paparoa, near Dargaville, where he had bought a permaculture farm on returning to Aotearoa. Having enjoyed a 40-year career in Australia as a guitarist, songwriter and producer, he evidently found he couldn’t leave the music alone, setting up a recording studio in a 40′ container on the property.

Tagging it The Bakery, he recorded his own 2022 EP, ‘Open Up Your Heart’, and produced songs for local artists. His technical skills, in tandem with ability to play guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion also translate into an acclaimed live solo show.

Shifting south to be closer to family, towards the end of 2023, Baker chose his new home in Whanganui with the intention of converting the insulated garage space into a music production studio. Before starting on that project he founded a boutique record label called Nixon Street Recordings, the roster including Dargaville teen rock band Socially Awkward, and two of his own acts, The Makers and BB & The Bullets.

The Makers is a long-standing duo with former Split Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner. The two have been mates since the 1980s when Rayner produced the first single for Baker’s Melbourne band, The Ones, which had a recording deal with Sony. They later co-wrote the score for the movie Rikki and Pete, before forming The Makers and releasing a couple of albums. BB & The Bullets is a relatively new blues rock three-piece that stems from his time in Whanganui.

Speaking from the relaxed surrounds of his Nixon Street Recordings studio in late August, Baker says the studio has really only been operational for a year, and business is slowly building. While there are plenty of home studios around, he doesn’t know of any other professional music production studios in town.

“The nearest real competition is The Stomach in Palmerston North. That’s a community facility and gets funded by their council, so it’s really cheap. Which is cool, I mean, it’s a really important facility. Price is always a hurdle, but I think Nixon Street is reasonably priced, especially for what I do. Still, it’s asking people to spend their disposable income, and that’s always going to be hard.”

With a history that includes a wide variety of music, advertising jingles and soundtrack credits, his studio services include as multi-intrumentalist, house engineer and producer, a role he says new artists still often don’t completely grasp. The goal is to help clients up their game, and given his own passion for songwriting, his first step is always to look at the song.

“Some people are a little bit shocked when they come in for a recording session, and the first thing I ask to see are the lyrics written out, and we sit down with an acoustic guitar and look at them. Songwriters are like storytellers, and there’s no need to tell the whole story in the first line, or the first verse! ‘We could maybe make that your last verse, save something for the wedding night!’” he laughs.

Nixon Street Recordings is billed on its website as ‘the vegan-friendly studio experience, a sanctuary for artists seeking a mindful approach to music production’. Baker is gently spoken with a natural warmth, and the relaxed confidence of a well-practiced musician at ease in any studio space, particularly one of his own making.

The studio’s major engagement so far has been in recording his own trio, BB & The Bullets, working up the tracks for the band’s debut album ‘High Tide’, scheduled for mid-September 2025 release.

“I just had this idea that I could be in a little blues band, a lovely little three-piece, and we could do some original stuff and get it to a point of making and releasing a vinyl record. With that we could get the band up to a profile enough where we’d get some good gig fees, and we could play around the NZ festivals, and it’d be fun! That was the aim!”

His early association with the Whanganui Musicians Club paid off when he was casting around for bandmates.
“When I first arrived here, I discovered that the Whanganui Musicians Club is highly functioning, and a fantastic organisation. When I walked into the hall I saw this huge PA, and lights and stage, and massive digital desk all set up ready to go!”

The club was at the time planning for a local songwriters competition and the arrival of Baker, an experienced professional musician, producer and engineer was timely.
“Anne Keating, who was the secretary then, showed me around and later asked me to come and be musical director for their competition, which was brilliant! So I said, ‘Hey, if we do a live recording of the of the night, I’ll make it into a CD.’”

A band of club musicians rehearsed with the singer-songwriters over two weekends, before the final performances, in front of judges including Whanganui star artist Anthonie Tonnon. A few roadblocks meant the CD didn’t end up happening, but the compilation album, ‘Whanganui Songwriters 2024’, is available on Spotify.

“And I guess the best thing for me was that I had 11 absolutely delighted artists, people who quite possibly wouldn’t have had their music arranged, played by some pro musicians and produced to that degree, to be released.”

He’d met drummer Brad MacMillan at a party for Sacha Keating, a local cinematographer. Bassist Stu Duncan was also suggested for the band they put together for the Whanganui Songwriters gig, so the rhythm section now known as The Bullets had its first outing in the backing band for the competition recording. (Keating’s brother Johnny was initially on bass, before Duncan took over the role.)
“It’s very connected in Whanganui,” Baker laughs happily.

“I’m really busy at the moment with BB & The Bullets. That is my major focus because we have this deal and the album’s going out internationally. It’s taken on a life of its own, which is great, you know, and so gratifying.”

They’ve already travelled far afield for a variety of festival gigs, and with an album to promote the band have a hectic calendar for the remainder of 2025. The sound deliberately doesn’t stray too far from that of a three-piece blues rock band, Baker’s own songs embellished with covers from the likes of BB King (The Thrill Has Gone) and Willie Dixon (I Can Tell).

In some ways the cart overtook the horse, because BB & The Bullets rather quickly gained enough local attention that it turned into international interest from Paris-based blues label Dixiefrog Records. The connection likely came through guitarist Grant Haua, one half of the popular Kiwi blues roots duo Swamp Thing with Michael Barker, who back in the day was touring drummer for The Makers. Haua is signed with Dixiefrog and the label has since shown increasing interest in Aotearoa’s blues talent.

One major bonus of being signed internationally is that Dixiefrog press both vinyl and CD copies in quantities enough for distribution around the States and Europe, helping keep production costs low. A delivery is sitting on the Auckland docks when we talk.
Something In The Water is the first track on the album, and was the first single, released in April. Baker describes it as positive and vibrant, in a simple rock/blues format.

“I wrote it when I first moved to Whanganui, because in Whanganui the river is there, and it’s all about the water. I was doing a lot of driving back and forth to Northland, to sort out the stuff in Paparoa. And coming back there’s an energy here, there’s something in the water. I guess it’s that feeling of when you change place and then suddenly you’ve kind of freshened up your life, yeah?

“I haven’t tried to be clever, kind of with the birth of the band in mind. I would like to see a band that would go out and do that!” he laughs.

Released in May, the album’s title track, High Tide, was written while he was living in Paparoa, and takes a more singer-songwriter approach.

“When we play it live I generally introduce it as a song about a person trying to control the uncontrollable. It can be metaphorical, and it can be literal as well, because it is Ruawai I’m talking about, and the berms that hold back the Wairoa River that the guys have to constantly dig out to drain their fields. There was a scheme trialled there, and unfortunately the council pulled it, so it’s an observation on that.”

The album’s third single choice is a ballsy one, Lennon-McCartney’s I Want You (She’s So Heavy) from ‘Abbey Road’. It’s a chance for Baker to show off his exceptional guitar chops, but also a bold statement of artistic intent.

“Well, it’s such a blues song!” he exclaims excitedly, explaining that popular contemporary blues guitarists like Joe Bonamassa and Eric Gales generally include covers on their albums.

“And I wanted to do that, particularly because it puts BB & The Bullets in that blues genre. You go, ‘Okay, we know what this band is, because look at those songs they’re doing.’ You don’t have to kind of try and guess from my original material.

“I Want You is not in the blues gospel, but I think it should be! Because it’s a classic John Lennon blues song, and apart from the weird kind of psychedelic bit, which is cool, it’s absolutely classic blues in the pentatonic mode. Boom, there you are. The verses don’t change, as simple as. When the band started to play it live, and Brad started to play it, I knew we had it nailed it and that it must go on the record. Yeah, we put a rocket under it!”

Recording for their second album has already begun, and Baker is happy that any success the band have is part of building a grassroots local music scene.

“People go, ‘I want to go to Melbourne and do my music career.’ ‘I want to go here, and I want to do this.’ But in actual fact, how music blossoms is from a scene, and a community. So growing your community, and your local scene, is the absolute best thing you can do, because it will grow.”