“It’s been a huge year for us and it just seems to be getting bigger and bigger and hopefully it continues like that,” says the band’s chirpy saxophonist Chopper Reedz, aka Scott Towers. Indeed, last June Fat Freddy’s Drop launched their third studio LP, Blackbird, which certainly struck a chord with listeners. Blackbird’s vibrating impression pushed the dub titans into big theatres here in Australia and sent them off on a massive run of shows across the Northern Hemisphere.
“[Australia was] where we did the Blackbird launch. I think it was nine shows, actually they all sold out, which was an amazing achievement for us,” Towers says. “Then we came home and did five shows in New Zealand and they sold out, then we went over to Europe and we did 20 shows and I think 17 of them sold out.”
Since the beginning of their career Fat Freddy’s Drop have had a committed following and enjoyed wide praise in New Zealand but elsewhere the band have cumulatively built their profile, converting more listeners with each consecutive tour. Although their progressive career incline continues, they’re not taking it for granted.
“You know you’ve got a following in a certain place,” says Towers, “and you hope that you’re connecting with that following all the time. You want to stay relevant to those people. Sometimes it’s really surprising when you’re told, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve sold that out,’ and it’s the Brixton Academy – it’s a really big place. You think, ‘Wow that’s pretty awesome, that’s a place where pretty serious bands go and play.’”
The Fat Freddy’s Drop live show has long been an interactive experience, encouraging everyone to contribute to the good-times atmosphere. However, the fact that they’re now customarily selling out large venues has prompted the band to tweak some onstage details.
“You have to approach things differently if you’re a headliner and you’re playing to 4,000 people,” Towers says. “You actually have to really deliver a serious show and that means the best lighting you can conjure up for the night, the best sound experience for everyone. We invest a lot of money and energy into the production of these shows, as well as the music. We really look at the set now and think, ‘We’re going to play for two hours and we want that to be really interesting.’ We want it to be exciting and energetic and for people to sink their fangs in the new stuff and also have a few old favourites to sing along to. It is a tricky balance and it was something we really had to work at until we got the right mix of things.”
Blackbird is the band’s first LP since 2009’s Dr Boondigga and the Big BW and it’s actually only the third studio album they’ve issued since forming in 1999. The distance between releases might imply that they’re sluggish creators, but Towers reveals something else causes the delay.
“We’ve all got families, we’ve mortgages and bills to pay. [Playing in a band is] a fun thing to do but it’s not always the most lucrative thing you could have done in your life,” he says. “When you’re locked away in the studio for nine months you’re not earning any money. No one’s paying us to be there, we don’t have a label contract to fall back on. We know it’s really important for us to do it and do it properly and, at the same time, the pull of going and working is incredibly strong. It’s good to find some sort of balance and that is why it takes us a little bit longer than most to work through this stuff.”
There may have been a long wait for new music, but Towers clarifies that the band members weren’t just quietly biding their time. “We recorded one album but we had two marriages, one divorce and four babies born in the interceding years. One of our band members is about to have another baby. Real life takes control sometimes.”
Speaking of taking control, Fat Freddy’s Drop has always been an independent enterprise. They’ve self-produced and self-released all of their music through the label The Drop. Blackbird was the first LP recorded in their freshly established self-built studio. “We invested in the space and set up all DJ Fitchie’s incredibly impressive array of desks and pre-amps and compressors,” explains Towers.
Now that the band have a fully functional studio available to them, perhaps the next record will come together quicker than the last few. “We can walk in there and start playing and it’s all recordable. We write in a very loose way. No-one ever walks in with a, ‘Hey here’s a whole tune guys.’ They start from small ideas and they grow very incrementally. We’re able to do that much more easily now with this new space. We’re actually going to be in the studio in about a month starting the writing process.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
