The last time James Milne a.k.a. Lawrence Arabia played in Ōamaru, it was as live music tentatively began to find its feet after the pandemic. With band in tow, he performed his much-loved second album Chant Darling from start to finish at the Grainstore Gallery, and it felt precious.

 "The tour was somewhat overshadowed by a whole heap of different Covid reschedulings, so we were very lucky to get to play there at all!" says Milne. "I remember it being beautiful weather and feeling genuinely privileged to be able to do this given what everyone had been through for the previous year or so."

This Friday (November 17) he's back at the Grainstore for a solo show, giving music lovers a chance to relax after a hectic day hunting haggis or toppling from penny-farthings at the Victorian Heritage Celebrations. And Milne is planning something a little special.

"Playing solo like this gives me the opportunity to play more obscure songs from my catalogue and jump around stylistically a little bit," he says. 

"I'll be playing piano and guitar to change things up a little and there's a couple of new songs I'm starting to road test."

Milne has a lot of catalogue to work with. Since Chant Darling won the inaugural Taite Music Prize in 2010 (the annual award given the best album released by a New Zealand artist) he's released three more. 2012's The Sparrow saw Milne named Best Male Solo Artist at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards (now the Aotearoa Music Awards), while 2016's Absolute Truth picked up the Best Alternative Album prize.

Milne has also written music for Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s vampire mockumentary series What We Do In The Shadows, while two tracks by his old band The Reduction Agents appeared on the soundtrack to Waititi's film Eagle vs Shark.

He's also written with Bic Runga, been signed to Sub Pop – the label that gave us Nirvana – sung on a Lorde album, and released a single with the great American songwriter Van Dyke Parks, who worked with Brian Wilson on his legendary Smile album.  

Have we finished? Not quite. Milne is also one half of Fabulous/Arabia (a collaboration with Lord Echo's Michael August) one third of Auckland electronic trio Half Haxagon, and a member of BARB, the Auckland super group formed by Liam "Son of Neil" Finn.

Friday promises to deliver a unique night of pop smarts and self-deprecating wit. And, hopefully, an outing for the classic Apple Pie Bed, which won the APRA Silver Scroll Award for NZ song of the year in 2010. All in all, another special night at the Grainstore.

"It's a magical place in all possible senses of the word," says Milne. "And Donna Demente provides such genuine enthusiasm for the music and the people who make it. It's hard to beat and Oamaru is lucky to have such a place and person."

Lawrence Arabia plays at the Grainstore on Friday. Doors open at 7.30pm, the performance starts at 8pm, and tickets are on sale now from Under The Radar.