Seeding Mike Fabulous

Kuranui old boy Mike August has a tall tale to tell of the stellar fellows who helped score his freeform jaunt into double platinum-selling Kiwi band The Black Seeds.

August said he first performed with the band a decade ago after hooking up with friend Brett MacKenzie - who along with former Masterton man Jemaine Clement is one half of Flight of The Conchords.

MacKenzie was at the time playing with the now eight-piece group and was also jamming beside August in another band "that I forget the name of", that was playing support for The Black Seeds at a gig in Gisborne.

"I literally forced myself on to the stage. I bumrushed the show I guess and from there I just stayed with them. I played percussion at first for a few years but I knew I could do guitar well, so that's where I gravitated; and into production and engineering."

And so, trailing semi-quavers and a love of queered beats, Mike Fabulous of The Black Seeds was unleashed upon the world.

The multi-instrumentalist had claimed the Fabulous title as a Kuranui College nickname to which he gave stage life in his second, though unrealised, Rockquest band, Mike Fabulous and the Star Factory Orchestra.

The Orchestra was his second college contest band after he helped capture the Rockquest crown in an earlier competitive group, Atlas Woods.

August's performance nom de plume has stuck fast, although he has returned to his given name for his first solo album of 11 tracks that he wrote, realised, engineered and produced, Lord Echo.

The album was released in Japan and New Zealand in December under the Japan-based Beautiful Noise label and is available at amplifier.co.nz through Economy Records.

Seminal to his early musicianship, he said, were Kuranui College music teachers Bill Carter - who tragically drowned - and Katherine Hodge, and the college's art teacher, Roger Thompson.

August brushed shoulders as well with Phillipa "Pip" Brown - aka Ladyhawke - and struck up a friendship with the now international high-flier during a year spent in the 1990s at Chanel College in Masterton.

August, who went on to become a father of two, also carried on his Star Factory "branding" to record original music, and credits his early musical days when based in hometown Carterton as crucial to his move to study music at Victoria University in Wellington and his consequent loves and lives with The Black Seeds.

"We tour New Zealand, Europe, America, Australia - I'm based in Dunedin and Wellington and it feels like I've been living out of a suitcase for 10 years now - because I have.

"I believe the Seeds have stayed around so long because of our live shows, even though I prefer the studio."

The band is led by the vocals of Barnaby Weir and Daniel Weetman, and is legendary for creating live "a boundary-crossing sound fusion of big-beat funk, dub, soul, and afro-beat, mixed with vintage roots-reggae".

Described by Clash Magazine as "one of the best reggae acts on the planet", The Black Seeds' have amassed countless sellout New Zealand and Australasian tours and regularly perform at many of Europe's biggest festivals.

In 2009 the band fired a highly successful release in North America, produced out of their Surgery Studio in Wellington. A former karate dojo and condemned building, the band's sound engineer Lee Prebble took advantage of the cheap rent to set up the studio.

The Surgery is the practice room, recording studio, and general hangout space for the band, their bio continues, with all four Seeds albums having been produced there.

The Black Seeds released their debut album Keep On Pushing in 2001 and despite a tiny marketing budget the album reached platinum sales in New Zealand, as well as being successfully released in Australia through Shock Records.

The second album, 2004's On the Sun, added a heavy dose of funk and soul to their dub reggae sound. The album achieved double-platinum sales with the single So True becoming one of the most successful New Zealand singles of 2005.

In July 2007, The Black Seeds released their third album Into the Dojo that like a bullet shot to No 1 and like a billet stayed in the prime slot for five consecutive weeks.

The next live performance of The Black Seeds is at the inaugural Sacred Hill Festival at Rifleman's Vineyard in Hawkes Bay on February 19 , when they will share headliner duties with Shapeshifter, Kora, Ladi6 and Downtown Brown.

For more on the inaugural Sacred Hill Festival go to www.sacredhillfestival.co.nz