All Hands On Deck

UK's The Herbaliser began life as a DJ set between two crate diggers with a love of old school funk and hip-hop. Signed to Ninja Tune in the early '90s, they were part of a golden period of electronic music entrenched in a community of artists like DJ Food, DJ Vadim, Amon Tobin and The Cinematic Orchestra, creating forward-thinking funky music that pushed the envelope without forgoing a deep groove. Inevitably the funk took hold and The Herbaliser morphed into a live band that increasingly made its presence felt on their recordings. More recently they've chosen to go it alone, running their own label, even shipping their latest album And Then There Were Seven – an inspiring slab of heavy duty psychedelic funk hop – from founder Ollie Teeba's lounge room.

“I have to pack the boxes too,” Teeba laughs from that very same lounge room, clearly surveying the wreckage around him. “It was quite nice. It was like having a normal job again where you have to do mundane boring things that are not creative. I found it quite therapeutic.”

Going it alone wasn't all wine and roses, however. To release this album the band got a loan from the bank and elected to spend money like a label on promotional strategies. While they secured distribution for the CDs, they pressed 500 copies of their LP and sold them from their website.

“We've got less than 100 left,” offers Teeba more than happy with the result. “I mean, a few years ago if you said to me you sold 400 LPs I'd have said that's a bit of crap. But today to sell 400 LPs by yourself with no distribution…”

This is the reality in which The Herbaliser and numerous other bands find themselves. While it doesn't diminish the love Teeba and co. have for their old school sounds, it does give them pause; particularly when it comes to survival in this overly saturated and synthetic musical landscape. In fact, this was part of the inspiration for the last album.

“The hidden back-story is seven warriors that have to save their world from a machine that has taken over. And that is essentially how we feel about the music business. It's been completely synthesised. All pop, rap or dance music is almost entirely electronic. You rarely hear any real instruments anymore. Alright, you still got your guitar rock bands and stuff, but that's dull as hell.” He laughs at the irony. “I mean we come from the electronic tradition and we're saying that it's gone too far.

“It seems the kids today are into hip hop more now than they ever were,” he continues. “But they're into this stuff and it isn't even fucking hip hop. I kept hearing about this Nicki Minaj, this is probably 18 months ago and now she's very famous and on X-Factor or whatever it is. I thought I'm going to go check out what this is. So now I've made a rule to myself whenever I'm reading on the internet about a hot new rapper or whatever, I made a mental rule to myself not to go on YouTube to check it out because it will upset you.”

The Herbaliser aren't coming to Australia with their band. Instead they're going back to their roots as a DJ duo, promising to leave the dubstep for others and bring their own mix of funk, hip hop, jazz bits, mash ups and the like, alongside their own tracks.

“As long as there's funky people there who like funky things and like dancing then we'll be good,” he laughs. “We do what we've always done which is bring the funk and the old school hip hop, because we're old. I mean we're older now than Coldcut were when we signed to Ninja Tune. I mean, they're even older now.” He puts on an aged professor's voice. “I'm 43 this year, you know.”

Thursday 28 February - The Beresford, Surry Hills NSW
Friday 1 March - Coniston Lane, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 2 March - Perth Festival, Chevron Gardens WA
Sunday 3 March - Pourhouse Bar & Kitchen, Dunsborough WA
Wednesday 6 March - Mobius, Hobart TAS
Friday 8 March - Womadelaide, Adelaide SA
Saturday 9 March - The Espy, Melbourne VIC
Sunday 10 March - Transit Bar, Canberra ACT