Black Seeds

THE BLACK SEEDS

‘… as marvellous a work of modern reggae as you're likely to find in any corner of the world today’
Niceup.com. (U.S.A) – Nov, 09

‘There’s no beating the old-fashioned lure of a band who have built up a mighty following through sweaty, hard-gigging performances… an immediate appeal to their fresh Pacific grooves… packed with funk, reggae, dub, and good time soul…’
The Metro, London

‘...one of the best live reggae bands on the planet.’
clashmusic.com, UK, June 08

The Black Seeds will tour Europe in July/August 2010, including festival performances at
The Big Chill (UK), Juicy Beats (Ger), and Sudoeste (Portugal), club shows in Berlin, Paris & Amsterdam, and a double header with Easy Star all Stars at the HMV Forum in London.

With platinum-selling albums, an acclaimed live show, and a number of successful European and North American tours and releases under their belt, The Black Seeds fan base is rapidly spreading across the globe.

Formed in the windy capital city of Wellington, New Zealand and led by the vocals of Barnaby Weir and Daniel Weetman, it is The Black Seeds’ unique ability to fuse infectious grooves and melodies with undiluted roots music that continues to set them apart.

Described by Clash Magazine as ‘one of the best reggae acts on the planet’, their legendary 8-piece live show delivers raw energy and good vibes wherever it goes, with a trademark boundary crossing fusion of big-beat funk, dub, soul, afro-beat, and vintage roots-reggae. With countless sell-out New Zealand and Australasian tours behind them, the band regularly performs at many of the world’s biggest festivals.

Lyrically, The Black Seeds music expresses universal messages of personal triumph and failure, the fear of love, death, apathy, and relationships, whilst giving a personal insight into the lives of the musicians. Ultimately though, their songs are always under-pinned with an underlying message of positivity and optimism.

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Headquarters is, and always has been, the Surgery Studio in the capital city of Wellington – a small, close-knit creative community, which in recent years has churned out the likes of Flight Of The Conchords and Lord Of The Rings. A former Karate Dojo and condemned building, the band’s sound engineer Lee Prebble took advantage of the cheap rent to set up the studio, which has since been responsible for producing some of New Zealand’s finest albums of recent years (Trinity Roots, The Phoenix Foundation). The Surgery is the practice room, recording studio, and general hangout space for the band, with all four of their albums having been produced there.
ALBUMS:
The Black Seeds released their debut album Keep On Pushing in 2001 and despite a tiny marketing budget the album reached platinum sales in New Zealand, as well as being successfully released in Australia through Shock Records.

The second album, 2004’s On the Sun, added a heavy dose of funk and soul to their dub reggae sound. Debuting at No. 3 in the New Zealand Charts, the album achieved double-platinum sales with the single ‘So True’ becoming one of the most successful New Zealand singles of 2005.

In July 2007, The Black Seeds released their third album Into the Dojo in New Zealand. Spending five consecutive weeks at No. 1, and a total of 52 weeks in the album charts, the album has sold well over double-platinum sales and spawned four radio hits with singles ‘The Answer’, ‘Sometimes Enough’, ‘Cool Me Down’ and ‘One by One’. The album showed a great deal of development in the group’s sound; and for the first time song-writing duties were shared between the band members.

The Into the Dojo LP was the start of the bands successful movement from their New Zealand base to the rest of the world. After signing a 2-album deal with respected German-based label Sonar Kollektiv, Into The Dojo was successfully released in Europe in 2007, supported by two 12’’ vinyl EP’s (Best Seven/Sonar Kollekitv). The album received critical acclaim and strong airplay, particularly in Germany and France where it reached high rotate and was featured as ‘Album Of The Week’’ on stations such as Radio Nova (France), Radio Eins (Germany) and more.

Tracks from the album featured on compilations such as Nova Tunes 07 (alongside songs from Radiohead, Jose Gonzalez) and ‘The Answer’ featured as iTunes France’s ‘Single of the Week’, all of which contributed to the start of a fast-growing fan base for the band in Europe.

‘Ce nouvel opus des Black Seeds est une perle’ (‘The Black Seeds new album is a pearl’)
- French Reggae Magazine