Chart success sparks reggae band Katchafire into action

There's no denying Hamilton band Katchafire have earned their success.

On average, New Zealand's new reggae stars are on the road playing gigs for 49 weeks each year as bass player Ara Adams-Tamatea knows only too well ... he's in charge of bookings.

"We had a release party for the album on Friday in Hamilton, and that's the beginning of four months' promotion around the country.

"That's not too different from what we normally do, but the content of the show has changed slightly - instead of concentrating on Marley and UB40, now that we've got our album out we're promoting that by playing a lot of originals."

It was as a tribute band dedicated to playing the hits of reggae's greatest artist, Bob Marley, that Katchafire began five years ago. Grenville Bell (guitar) was managing the band that his sons (Logan, vocals, guitar and Jordan, drums) played in, and ended up joining it.

Katchafire's repertoire expanded to songs from other reggae legends and - increasingly - songs by Logan Bell and Jamey Ferguson (keyboards, sax, guitars, vocals).

The band's line-up also expanded to now encompass Thompson Omeka Hohepa (guitars, vocals), Haani Totorewa (keyboards, vocals) and Leon Davey (percussion), making what for the past two years has been one of the most impressive showbands in New Zealand.

While hugely popular on the pub circuit, Katchafire were still relatively obscure until last year. Then they released what unexpectedly turned out to be the biggest-selling New Zealand single of the year - and they have the Tui Award to prove it.

Giddyup was certified platinum in January after 17 weeks in the charts, and the follow-up, Who You With , reached No 10 in the charts.

While Giddyup was destined to change Katchafire's lives, the band didn't know that, Adams-Tamatea says.

In fact, after recording the single in a day to use up a recording time prize earned in a competition, Katchafire then sat on the song for months.

"Jamey wrote that song and it was meant to be a B-side for Bounce," says Adams-Tamatea.

"The song sat on our shelves for ages. No way did we know we were sitting on something that was wanted by lots of people. It was quite surprising because we thought we could have done the recording better - you're always your worst critic - and were then humbled by so many people wanting it.

"It's a really nice feeling but kind of weird because we never would have guessed the reaction the song got. Not at all."

Two factors came together for Katchafire to be instantly successful. First, the solid fan base the band had developed through live work voted with their pockets and bought the single, and secondly they had the good fortune to be signed to Mai Music - the label affiliated with radio station Mai FM.

"That meant we had a radio station backing us as well as a record company," says Adams-Tamatea.

"I think that's a major factor because Mai is a big and influential station. We know iwi radio stations use them for what songs to play and that sort of stuff."

With Mai's interest, Katchafire were given a budget and timeline to work towards for the recording and release of Revival.

The album sees Katchafire continue with their crowd-pleasing pop reggae formula, and sees the band add a faithful and thankful cover of Marley's Redemption Song to the album's 11 originals.

"Personally I found the studio mentally draining," says Adams-Tamatea.

"Touring, yeah, it's physically demanding, but you tend to get over the tiredness. It's a physical grind, but there's an audience there.

"The studio's a mental grind. You've got to maintain peak performance but you've got to keep yourself there. There's nothing to drive you to stay there."

Having reached such a high level straight off the bat, Katchafire are now aiming to stay there. Giddyup touched so many different people from so many different places and has added to an already diverse fan base, says Adams-Tamatea.

The band also know their sound will travel - they played two gigs in front of a total of 55,000 people in Noumea, New Caledonia, last December.

Katchafire head for Australia later this year, and hope to utilise some contacts in France to open doors into Europe.

"Our goals are to go international," says Adams-Tamatea.

"We love New Zealand and we're definitely going to be based in New Zealand - we will never forget New Zealand and where we've come from - but we also want to take our music overseas. That's the ultimate goal."

Performance

Who: Katchafire

Where & When: Roadhouse, Papakura, tonight; Naval & Family, K Rd, tomorrow

- NZPA