Well-known as one of New Zealand’s best bands and with a legion of fans all around the rock The Black Seeds have established their excellent reputation on back of the multi-platinum selling albums, captivating and masterful live shows, and a sound which blends enchanting melodies and grooves with the undiluted roots music genre of sorts 🙂
With several European festival and musical tours behind them, and a very successful release of 2009 North American album, their fan base has grown rapidly around the world for more than two decades.
The sound genre of The Black Seeds casts a broad net, layering big-beat funk, dub, soul, pop, Afrobeat, rock, and other diverse elements over their reggae/dub foundations.
Quick Start Guide The Black Seeds:
The Black Seeds were were described famously in 2011 by the German Rolling Stone Magazine as ‘The best reggae band in the world right now, the bands cracker live concerts infuses good vibes and raw energy wherever they perform making them a constant headliner at the world’s prominent music festivals.
The Black Seeds are a band from the beautiful city Wellington, New Zealand. Their terrific music is a blend of soul, dub, afrobeat, and funk (how cool is that). Founded in 1998, the band play with eight to ten members, with various instruments including guitar, vocals, saxophone, bass, wood block, drums, keyboard, bongos, and trumpet. All members bring their musical creativity to the band.
The band has very successful European album releases via a German-based Sonar Kollektiv label, and two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand. They’ve issued one live album, five albums, and two remix albums.
The vocals of Daniel Weetman and Barnaby Weir led the band. Lyrically, their songs express lots of messages on various levels. Personal failures and triumphs, good and bad relationships, provide a personal and amazing insight into the lives of these musicians. Though, in the long run, their tracks are constantly underpinned with the underlying optimism and positive vibes.
Barnaby Weir, the lead vocalist, has also worked on the side projects Fly My Pretties and Flash Harry. Bret McKenzie, a former member of the band, is also a member of the global award-winning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and even playing Figwit the elf in The Lord of the Rings. In June 2011, Andrew Christiansen, the trumpet player departed the band, and Barrett Hocking replaced him.
While they are predominantly a reggae band, the band actually seem highly comfortable when they allow the funk/soul side shift to the fore, as it does with “Afrophone,” for instance, or “Make a Move.”
Even though reggae may take a back seat then, but it remains an integral part of the entire music style, granting it an edge and delivering something fairly unique to the party. For once, sounding a bit retro isn’t terrible thing, and it’s to be said that they do it so well.
Career Highlights:
The release of their recent album, Dust And Dirt, marked an exhilarating new chapter for the group capturing their unique brand of the reggae-funk combination at its most fundamental and authentic.
The band issued their first album; Keep On Pushing in 2001 that despite a small marketing budget, it moved on to gain platinum sales in New Zealand. The 2nd album, On The Sun of 2004, added a strong dose of soul and funk to their dub reggae sound.
Debuting at No.3 in the New Zealand album charts, the studio album featured one of the group’s greatest tracks to this day (‘So True’) and proceeded to attain triple-platinum sales in New Zealand. The third album; Into the Dojo, indicated the start of the group’s introduction to the world.
Spending 5 weeks at No.1 in the New Zealand album charts, the third album was then successfully unveiled in Europe via Berlin-based label Sonar Kollektiv, garnering extensive airplay and critical acclaim, especially in France and Germany.
The follow up in 2008; Solid Ground went on to establish international fan base of the band after it was successfully issued via trailblazing North American label Easy Star Records. The JamBase labeled it as being at ‘the forefront of reggae today and tomorrow,’ and the Huffington Post did describe the album as ‘…a damn fine record…thick, bottom-heavy, and melodic.’
The live album in 2009; The Black Seeds Live: Vol 1 included live recordings acquired by the band from 2001 to 2009, and the release of Solid Ground remix album Specials followed it. Their track “One by One” was incorporated in the Breaking Bad Season 2 Episode, “4 Days Out” of AMC and also features on the official soundtrack of the hit TV series.
Present Status:
The bands latest album called ‘Fabric’ will be released to the world on 8th September, 2017. It’s their only album release in more than 5 years so it’s going to be a cracker, they are doing a few live shows here and there during 2017.