Founded: 1998
Location: New Zealand
The Black Seeds are a reggae inspired musical group from Wellington, New Zealand. Their rocksteady song "One By One" became an international hit when it was played in top ranked TV series Breaking Bad. Their music is a mixture of big beat funk, dub, afro music, pop, rock, soul, and roots reggae/ragga.Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds perform with eight members, with instruments including vocals, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, bongos, keyboard and wood block. Black Seeds first album, Keep on Pushing, was released 2001 following a number of live performances. Already very successful in New Zealand and popular in Australia, Europe and North & South America, their third album Into the Dojo (2007) introduced Black Seeds internationally. They have released five albums, a live album, and two remix albums. They have two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand, and successful European album releases through the German-based Sonar Kollektiv label. In 2011 Black Seeds was described by Rolling Stone as "The Best Reggae band in the world right now".Lead singer Barnaby Weir, the son of veteran radio broadcaster Dick Weir, is also associated with the side-projects Fly My Pretties and Flash Harry. Former band member Bret McKenzie is also a member of international award-winning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, as well as playing the role of Figwit the elf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.The band released their 6th studio album "Fabric" in early September 2017.
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"Dub reggae vibes with downtempo rhythms and a smooth as hell lyrical hook."
"Sometimes not everybody in the band likes everything that's happening, but it's healthy to be able to compromise."
How The Black Seeds breathed new life into their band.
They're paying us a swift visit this November
The Black Seeds perform with so much energy and finesse that they could have played until dawn and still held a captive audience grooving by their side.
"Without giving too much away, most of the band is likely to be doing DJing beforehand, so hopefully we’ll whip the crowd up before the band plays."
North America is growing each time we go and there are lots of reggae bands there wanting to play with us and we were blown away by what they were telling us about how people appreciate our sound there.
“It was a slow start for the band, yeah. When we got together in 1998, it was a different set-up for the band and we didn’t really start making our first album until 1999/2000."
They're back after successful showings in the US and Europe.