Studio inspires a darker vibe
Fat Freddy’s Drop’s latest album, Bays, was written, recorded and edited over months in a studio above a tyre shop, writes Sarah Catherall.
THE studio and moniker of Fat Freddy’s Drop’s latest album isn’t particularly notable from the outside. But behind the curtains of the yellow concrete building, on the second floor above a tyre shop in Wellington’s Kilbirnie, it’s where the acclaimed band’s latest album, Bays, was written, recorded and edited over the past two years.
The Bays studio – named after Kilbirnie’s Bay Rd – was also trombone player Joe Lindsay’s flat until the band moved their equipment in six years ago. ‘‘Yeah, I lived there till the band evicted me and my flatmates,’’ he laughs.
Sitting outside a Wellington cafe, Lindsay talks about the band’s fourth album being released today. It opens with the slow burn funk of Wairunga Blues, moving through reggae, jazz and techno sounds, to the final track, Novak, described as a ‘‘crooked blues jam’’.
Reggae-heavy Slings and Arrows will rock at summer festivals, Joe Dukie’s soulful and introspective vocals blaze throughout, while Razor isa departure for the band, with techno and 90s grunge beats. ‘‘It’s got a different energy, definitely a darker vibe to it which I think is great. We’ve got more of the synthesiser in there,’’ says Lindsay.
The album comes at a time when the band is both comfortable and confident on the world stage, and approaching its 1000th show.
With a global reputation that continues to soar, its last album, Blackbird, sold more than 200,000 album copies worldwide, with Britain, the United States and Germany becoming the band’s strongest markets.
Fat Freddy’s Drop often plays to packed crowds, and has played sold-out gigs at London’s 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace and three Sydney Opera House shows.
Unlike Blackbird, Bays was predominantly written, recorded and edited in the studio, rather than evolving live on stage.
‘‘It’s been a more creative process writing this album in the studio, rather than recording songs which have been well road-tested,’’ says Dukie.
Asked about a new direction for the band, Lindsay’s straw hat bobs as he nods. The sound is more polished, and the trombone player who also hops on the synthesiser and bass guitar for some tracks says: ‘‘I think we’re getting better in the studio. It was a different genesis, and we’re just refining our techniques in the studio and collecting better gear and learning how to use it . . . This album happened a lot quicker. It’s usually three years between an album. But we had some material left after Blackbird, a few ideas and kernels of songs, which we could use as the basis for new developments.’’
Bays began with a couple of weeks of long-form jazz sessions, says Lindsay.
‘‘Jams would last a couple of hours. It’s a really good way of letting a beat roll and keep rolling. Someone will come in and play a little line and it will kick something off for the group. Toby, our trumpet player, he’s got a history degree and he’s a really good archivist, and he’s really great at sifting through this mountain of material to find these bits where the band was clicking. It’s a process of refining improvisations into songs.
‘‘A lot of guys in the band are great at the technical side of things. I enjoy the jamming and improvisation side, but a lot of the band have great skills in music production. It’s a bit of a fight for the mouse.’’
During rehearsals, the band members would stop for competitive cook-offs in the studio kitchen.
Keyboardist Iain Gordon (aka Dobie Blaze) is a keen cook, along with Scott Towers (aka Choppers) who comes down from Auckland for rehearsals.
Says Lindsay: ‘‘Scott is really good at curing meats. He’s making chorizos and curing duck. He’s turned an old fridge into a curing chamber. No-one has died yet.’’
Stopping this interview to answer his phone, it’s a call for ‘‘Chopper’’, who is also assigned to give media interviews today.
‘‘In the band, we joke that there are promophobics and promosexuals,’’ Lindsay laughs.
Mind you, publicity has helped get the message out, and the band’s popularity has soared through social media. On Facebook, Fat Freddy’s posts daily updates about its album release. Fans from London agree to paste stickers in exchange for free show tickets.
This promosexual is renowned for dancing around and having fun in colourful, outlandish suits he often changes between sets. He’s a natural performer, too, and toyed with drama school rather than jazz school when he finished high school in Kerikeri.
‘‘I always thought I was going to be an actor when I was growing up,’’ he says. ‘‘The band allows us to express ourselves in the way we want to be. How we are on stage is how we are in our daily lives. You don’t have to put on a face as such.
‘‘I don’t know what to wear yet on Saturday night. Dancing is the best hangover cure.’’
The band will tour Scandinavia again, where Lindsay says the audiences are smaller, ‘‘which means we have to work extra hard to show how good we are. It’s a bit of a first meeting kind of thing. I really like those first impressions’’.
But Lindsay says the band doesn’t wear its nationality on its sleeve. While New Zealand is key to its roots and some of the lyrics are about the country’s natural features, Fat Freddy’s Drop is an international band which happens to be based here.
Now our number one independent label offshore, he says: ‘‘Music speaks for itself. We’re not flying a flag. In France, people don’t care where you’re from.
‘‘They just care how good your stuff is . . . But you’re informed by your surroundings and you can’t help being influenced by your surroundings, and you can’t help being a New Zealand band.
‘‘We’re proud to be New Zealanders, but we’re not going to shout about it too much.’’