With a guitar in hand, he auditioned for "Rich and Shannon's" band, with no name in a "crazy audition".
"I kind of knew I would be in the band, whether or not I would be the only guitarist or not I wasn't sure," he says. "I was one who was writing music and we were friends already."
He was working at alternative radio station, Radioactive, 88.6FM, formally 89FM.
"From there we just started growing. We were passionate about music and we just started working on these songs."
He says it took a "wee while" but before they knew it, Gisborne-based percussionist and vocalist Daniel Weetman became entrenched in the group.
Soon after, Bret McKenzie joined.
"We had this jam band and we loved the kind of music we were doing which was funky upbeat reggae, as well as downbeat fat dub sounds. So we kind of grew into this weird party band."
It wasn't until late '99 and the early 2000s when they started touring around New Zealand and released their first album, Keep on Pushing, when the Black Seeds became the "Black Seeds that we know today".
With the others leaving amicably to pursue other opportunities, Weetman, Barnaby, along with Ned Ngatae (lead guitarist), Barrett Hocking (trumpet), Matt Benton (baritone saxophone) Nigel Patterson (keyboard), Francis Harawira (vocals) Jarney Murphy (drums) complete the tight knit "band of brothers".
"The spirit of the band is still totally intact and what we do and what we want to do, everyone in the band understands that."
"This is a really big part of my life and our lives now so without wanting to f*** it up and losing some money on a gig or have big fights, you've just got to look after the band. It's a beautiful musical thing. It's also a business, it's also great for our fans, it's also an outlet for expressing the artistic side of ourselves, so its a lot of things to me."
After a five year gap, the band's sixth studio album, Fabric, was released to critical acclaim.
"It was just such a big build-up to be honest. It was way too long in between albums, and so when it came to that one, I was kind of like way too inside the process of writing and recording it."
He says it was an "emotional release - good and bad".
"There are some deep lyrics and stuff for me in there and quite personal things to overcome. And when we look at our Spotify streams, it's going better than some of our oldest music that's on there, so that's really encouraging."
While the albums is still relatively new for the boys, they are into working on their next album.
"You are always working on writing new material. I think it is good not to rush it out the door, make sure that you're happy with what you're putting out and not regret putting out a song that's not finished or isn't up to scratch."
They are planning on touring Europe - for the first time in a while.
But first, their gig at Hawke's Bay's Black Barn Vineyard's will mark the fourth in a nine-show line-up for the first part of the year.
With L.A.B in the mix, Weir says fans can expect two bands at the top of their game.
"We will be buzzing on that stage and just entertaining you know. No filler, just killer."
For more information and to buy tickets, visit: http://www.theblackseeds.com/tour-dates/
