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Fat Freddy's Drop -- New Zealand Band Brings New Sound
Artist Interview, Band, Album & Concert Review
By Angela Angel & Jean Melesaine

The industry - they'll never find me, here among the trees
My footsteps will be, will be all that I leave
Oh lonely island, so rich and fair, we leave your shores for reasons unclear
Looking for a better life, and you are all that I need,
All that I need. -The Raft

AOTEAROA HAS OFFICIALLY ENTERED THE BUILDING! One of the finest bands coming out of the Pacific has finally come to the States. Composed of a Maori vocalist, a Kiwi brass section, and a Samoan beatmaster/producer, tying it all together, Fat Freddy's Drop is no sound like you have ever heard before. Or rather, they are nearly every sound you've heard mastered into a perfect blend of soul quenching music.

You can call them Reggae but you'd be missing the Jazz. You can call them Electronica but you'd be missing the Soul. Blessed with the sound of a 7-piece musicianshood from New Zealand, attempting to describe Fat Freddy's sound falls short of their compositions and even more so with their live performances. Try to find words to name them, Chilledout Funk or Dubbed Jazz, but you are better of not naming it all because their music transcends those all-too-crowded genres. With their diversity and innovation, each song in each show can possibly be turned into a new album. They are masters of improvisation and with some of their songs clocking in at nearly 11 minutes, critics have complained of their long introductions but perhaps in the age of ADD, good music is hard to pay attention to. And perhaps, with Pop Music controlling our minds, critics need to start expanding their listening skills.

Fat Freddy's What? Their first live album, Live At The Matterhorn came before their first studio album, Based On A True Story, saying a lot about their dedication to playing as a collective and to live performances. Based On A True Story had been secretly rationed in the Dub DJ scene. Official release of the album in the U.S. happened four years after its distribution in New Zealand. It is no wonder the public is just now unraveling their sound. The band has been touring New Zealand and Australia and Europeans have surely gotten a good dose of them but now they have finally arrived to California.

Dr. Boondiga and The Big BW, their sophomore album, brings a continuum of their integrity. Singer, Dallas Tamaira, aka Joe Dukie's, comes back with his smooth, tender, buttery vocals:

            Tried everything, then tried it again
            Been watching the flame burn to the end
            Been wasting my bones, been takin my time
            A bird from the ashes, burning to fly
            Home from the sea, a thief in the night
            Like Mr. Apiata, just doing what's right
            My brothers and me, my sisters and I
            We're waiting to arrive...

You can hear New Orleans tooting out of the brass section, in the song, The Nod, an ode to cooking in the kitchen while Wild Wind and Shiverman are faster on the tempo.

While it seems they are breaking taboos by blending sounds and crossing genres, really the band is just doing what they love. Coming from a small, beautiful island, it's easy to just be yourselves. This close yet independent spirit can be heard easily in their music making. There is something to say about the well-roundedness of their sound. They are in it for the quality, the long-haul and most of all, for the love of music. America is finally ready, Fat Freddy.

With sold-outs show along the West Coast, Bay Areans happily welcomed FFD at The Independent this fall. We sat down with singer, Dallas Tamaira and guitarist, Tehimina Kerr to ask them how did this little island come up with such a big sound?

WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO COME TO THE STATES?

DT: I think we did it the right way. I think we started off pretty small in New Zealand then took it to Europe, which is a nice transition from New Zealand.

TK: We worked on the Europe tour that's probably why we haven't been here, we've been concentrating on the Europe side of things. We've toured Europe every year for the last six years.

WHAT GROUNDS YOU WHEN YOU ARE ON TOUR?

We pretty much have all of us to ground ourselves to home. We're our own connection to home.

DO YOU HAVE DIFFICULTIES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

Not really. We try to stay away from the whole music industry. We do what we do, our way. We're an independent label and we make our own rules. Not only is our success based upon the music that we play because it also has a lot to do with the label on a very small, independent scale.

WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT INFLUENCES?

DT: I still listen to a lot of old music. Bill Withers, Bob Marley. More currently, soul singers like, Bilal and D'Angelo, who I haven't heard of much lately but these are the people who inspire me to do soulful music.

TK: I always love Bob Marley. I like rock too. Frank Zappa inspired me to play guitar.

DO YOU CATEGORIZE YOUR MUSIC?

TK: No, not really.

DT: I usually say, Dub Electronic Soul. The thing is, in New Zealand, you'll hear all of that in one night. You won't just go to a concert, like in many other places, maybe in the States, you would only go to a "Soul night," where in New Zealand people are a bit more open-minded.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND AMERICA? (MUSIC WISE)

The layout of the land and how we associate where we live, first and foremost, that's always a factor in our music. It influences us a lot.

BEING BOTH MAORI, DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU HOLD A LOT OF WEIGHT FOR BEING MAORI BECAUSE YOU ARE REPRESENTING A SMALL POPULATION?

DT: I Feel it sometimes.

TK: Not that much weight, but we honor it. I feel it sometimes. There's a lot of Maoris in Europe. We always get a haka. In Amsterdam, there were just 3 of them, they did a haka for us.

IN YOUR MUSIC THERE ARE SO MANY INFLUNCES, WHICH IN SOME WAYS IS HELPING TO EVOLVE MUSIC, HOW DO YOU THINK MUSIC IS EVOLVING?

DL: It's hard to say. That's a hard question.

TK: It's going back to the 80s disco type of thing with a tinge of the 21st century.

CAN YOU SPEAK TO THE SPIRITUALITY OF YOUR MUSIC?

TL: Without being too obvious the best music comes from the soul. When I am trying to write my best and perform my best, I believe that the music comes from the soul. That's when spirituality comes is for me, always trying to give a little bit of my soul, just like T gives a little bit of his soul, to make the music vibrate. When it vibrates it means that the vibrations, it's welcoming everyone and everyone can find their place within that vibration. Good music is spiritual.