Bio

Lock up your bass bins! Perennial soul shakers Fat Freddy's Drop are ready to lift the lid on their new album Blackbird.

Fresh from a run of barnstorming, sold-out shows across Europe in late 2012, where they road-tested and refined the music that has formed the basis for their third full- length studio album, Freddy's are bristling with new ideas.

The third full-length studio album from the seven-headed soul monster documents a rich period of writing, recording and playing, and continues the band’s aim to stretch themselves by integrating diverse styles and approaches into their music.

The writing and recording of Blackbird has seen Freddy's increase their armoury of drum machines and synths, pushing their sound deeper into the realms of Afro- and dub-laced electronica.

The first public preview for Blackbird was at two back-to-back sold-out concerts at GRAPHIC Festival held at Sydney Opera House in November 2012. Here the Wellington-based collective collaborated with renowned street artist and illustrator, Otis Frizzell (Freddy's fans know Otis’ work from the album art, CD booklet and poster art from the release of 2008’s Dr Boondigga and The Big BW) to present an animated journey of the album.

While that musical direction had a new (old) twist, the actual recording process for Blackbird harks back to the classic albums of the past; literally everyone in a room playing together, fuelled – in typical Freddy's fashion – by some home cooking and fine aged rum.

The first official single to surface was Silver And Gold a staple of the band’s European shows for nearly a year. Released as a free digital download on Freddy’s Soundcloud, the track sounds like the monster love child of George Clinton, The Congos & John Lee Hooker.

Over the course of the New Zealand summer Freddy's left the hot environs of their studio and hit the road for a nationwide winery tour, their biggest ever tour on home soil. From this journey emerged a window on the new album, a video of Freddy's performing new gospel funk monster Mother Mother live at Ascension Wine Estate, Matakana. DJ Fitchie mixed the live music recording on the road and the final video ultimately provides a tantalising taste of a song destined to feature on Blackbird.

Fat Freddy's Drop have carved a place for themselves in NZ music lore; highest selling album by an independent artist (2005’s Based On A True Story), a slew of RIANZ Tuis for everything from Best Producer to Album of The Year to People’s Choice awards, invitations to perform at internationally acclaimed festivals including Glastonbury, SONAR, Bestival, WOMAD, Lowlands, DEMF and Roskilde. ot to mention now legendary shows at venues such as Brixton Academy (LDN), Paradiso (Amsterdam), Vega (Copenhagen), The Coliseum (Lisbon), Henry Fonda Theatre (Los Angeles) and Le Trianon (Paris).

The band first emerged from the underground club scene of Wellington in 1999, jamming along to instrumental mixes of funk, house and hip-hop records dropped by DJ Mu (aka Fitchie) at parties around the Capital.

Thirteen years later and Freddys are still together, still doing things in their inimitable way and still getting better and better.

Band Members:
Dallas 'Joe Dukie' Tamaira (vocals)
Chris 'DJ Fitchie' Faiumu (MPC, samples, effects)
Tehimana 'Jetlag Johnson' Kerr (guitar)
Iain 'Dobie Blaze' Gordon (keyboards)
Toby 'Tony Chang' Laing (trumpet)
Joe 'Hopepa' Lindsay (trombone)
Scott 'Chopper Reedz' Towers (saxophone)

Links

• Artist Website
• Amplifier Page
• MySpace Page
• Facebook Page