Interview: The Black Seeds

You spent part of the summer on tour with UB40. How was that?
‍It was brilliant, Ali Campbell's just a really great guy. He's seen so much, so spending time with him and his band, you just pick up a lot. And the shows were big, like at the Bowl of Brooklands. It was great to get into those places and have some fun out there supporting them. By show number six, we were really tight again.

The Black Seeds are scattered across NZ. How do you actually function as a band?
‍Haha yeah, there are eight of us in Wellington, New Plymouth, Auckland, Nelson and Christchurch. Funnily enough, booking gigs is actually the easy part - someone throws out a date and a place, and everyone can get on board with that pretty quickly. The harder bit is getting the music together. But honestly, we're in a really good space with that right now.

We'll get together over a weekend for a couple of days, and everyone brings something - a riff, a tempo, a sound. Usually, no lyrics at that stage. We just jam it out for a couple of hours and see where it goes. If it's not working, we move on. If it is, we keep going. And that actually works better now than it ever has. It just seems like a better way of writing for us.

Was it always like that?
‍Not really. There was a period where I felt like I had to show up with songs ready to go - like sometimes it was on me to deliver for everyone. That pressure's gone now because there's just more trust in each other and in the process.

When it comes to lyrics, I write the parts I'm going to sing, and Daniel does the same for his bits. We both just prefer it that way - bring it in, talk it through. That’s why we don’t usually bring in lyrics at the start

8 Bit is the new single - tell me about it.
‍The song is really about conflict and how it exists at all these different levels. Within yourself, between people close to you, friends and family - and then it spreads out from there, all the way through to global conflict, world wars. That's what the whole thing is built around.

The name 8 Bit was just the demo title - our working name while we were writing it. But it stuck. And honestly, for a song about all those layers of conflict, there's something that just works about naming it after old-school shoot-em-ups.

You've got young kids. Did that feed into thinking about conflict at all?
‍Yeah, I've got a six-year-old and a three-year-old. And even at that age, conflict's already there. We try to keep guns and that kind of stuff out of the house, but it finds its way in anyway - through presents, through friends. They just pick it up. Nobody teaches them how to shoot or fight; they just absorb it somehow. I find that really interesting.

Did you set out to make it sound a bit different?
‍We definitely wanted to play off that 8-bit sound. It's still recognisably The Black Seeds, but there's something else going on in the track - that 8-bit riff really cuts through and adds something different.

We’re also very lucky to have Anika Moa lending her voice on backing vocals. She’s just a really good friend and a long-time fan of the band. I supported her solo on a tour ages ago too. She’s super busy, but had time to lay down some quick BV parts - and knowing Anika, she probably nailed it in one take, then stacked a few more on top for good measure.

The video feels pretty different to the lyrics.
‍Yeah, it goes full old-school arcade - it's pretty light-hearted, which is kind of deliberate given how heavy the lyrical content actually is.

There's also a dub version. How did that come together?
‍So the main single is built in Pro Tools, and then we give it to Lee Prebble, who puts it through the desk at The Surgery. He gets the channels set up so he's got full control over the mix, and then he does a live dub take - completely spontaneous, using his effects how he wants, bringing elements in and out. It's 100% his call in that moment.

Then Ryan - Lee's brother, and one of our guys, did a separate mix on top of that. More extreme, heavier on the effects. He'd do three or four takes, and we'd pick one. That version went out alongside the single.

Album eight is on the way. What can you tell us?
‍Still unnamed, still working on it. Hoping for around September, though. I mean, maybe "8 Bit" could be the album name too, but we've still got some more to work through on that one.

And you've got Canada coming up?
‍Yeah, ten days. We kick off with a headline show in Squamish on June 24, then we're heading across to the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival on Vancouver Island. Third time back there - I think 2009 and 2016 were the last two. We just love the place and the promoter's ethos. Not exactly a money-making run, but the love keeps us going back.

Check out The Black Seeds new single, 8 Bit, and stay up to date with them HERE.

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