Despite international renown and relentless global touring, the fellas from Fat Freddy’s Drop are still humble, still your mates and mine.
They’ve been best described as the embodiment of “old-school cool”, and it shines through their love of live performance and their soulful fusion of jazz, dub and reggae. It’s there in trombonist Joe ‘Hopepa’ Lindsay’s voice as he lays back, comfortable in his hometown of Wellington. You could hardly believe he’s ever raised his voice in anger – this guy is the definition of chill.
“In New Zealand, we’ve just been doing beachy New Yearsy-type gigs, and it’s been great, the set’s been going down really well,” he says, flushed with contentment. “There’s a couple of tunes on [new album Bays] that are more dance-based that cross over to the stage really well – ‘Cortina Motors’ is pretty much a straight-up techno track. And tracks like ‘Razor’ have been working really well – they’re sort of, like, ideally suited to a large stadium rock sound,” he laughs.
Funnily enough, that works out perfectly for their upcoming Australian tour, which sees them taking to the Hordern Pavilion – their largest Aussie stage to date. “This one’s got some really big shows for us,” Lindsay says. “Hordern Pavilion’s a big step up for us in Sydney, and y’know, doing three shows at the Forum in Melbourne is pretty next level. We’ve never been to Hobart, as well, so that’s gonna be great. We love touring Aussie – it’s great, the crowds are really great and it’s an awesome place to tour.”
They’re no strangers to life on the road – Fat Freddy’s Drop are one of the hardest touring bands around and have visited our shores many times before on their round-the-world journeys.
“The reality is, you have to tour if you want to survive as a musician,” says Lindsay. “You can’t release an album and expect to get rich off it, you know? It’s about putting in the hard yards on the road, unfortunately. Or fortunately, actually! I think it’s led to a greater connection with musicians in many ways … I think you see more touring bands and you get more chance to actually just become involved with your favourite bands, which I think is great! I think that’s really positive. So yeah, I’d love to stay home all the time, but I’ve also gotta go out and tour. [At the] end of the day, it’s a pretty good job – I can’t complain too much,” he laughs.
The classic question for any touring band is, ‘How do you keep it fresh?’ For Hopepa and co., it comes naturally, as the band’s whole approach to music is about keeping the seal intact. Fat Freddy’s Drop are constantly revising, reshaping and rejuvenating their own work on the road, and it keeps them engaged as individuals.
“It’s really important to stay fresh; I don’t think we’re the kind of band that would suit playing our songs identically every time,” Lindsay says. “We’d probably sound a lot tighter if we did, but… I’m trying really hard not to be safe, y’know? Not to take the safe route. I don’t resent bands that do – I just think that’s not very interesting for you or your audience, really, and I think our audience has probably come to expect us to do things a little bit different.”
Another key aspect has been making sure to take time – despite the busy schedule – to spend with their families on their island of origin, and return to the source of their new inspiration, the band’s spiritual home and the namesake of their latest album: their Wellington studio, Bays.
“It’s our home, so it’s really comfortable there now,” says Lindsay. “Because [Bays] was the first album that was fully realised at Bays, it just seemed like the right sort of title for us and just sort of felt like a fitting tribute to a place that’s helped us grow as musicians.”
Bays represents a shift in the band’s compositional style. Normally the boys will put together their new tracks on tour and road-test them on unsuspecting audiences, but this time they decided to build the album at home.
“It was more of a condensed thing,” says Lindsay, “but in that, the process of writing them was almost a jam session, really. Being able to set up and improvise together in the studio was really important. It’s a different approach but I think it still stays true to our ethos of improv and jamming.”
Lindsay is quick to correct when referred to as just the band’s trombonist – “among other things”, he quips – as in this jam phase, he’s an instrumental part of putting together vibrant grooves, laying down basslines, guitar licks and synthesiser stings.
“A lot of the time, the horns are something like this layer that you put on at the end, so when we’re improvising, we’re jamming the beats, really,” he explains. “I really enjoy playing guitar – sort of adding to the bed rather than the cherry on top, if you know what I mean.
“Toby [Laing, trumpets] and Scott [Towers, sax], they’re both great keyboard players as well, so it’s often a fight, a race to get the best synthesiser on the transitions, y’know?”
They’re not just having fun with each other, either. As he’s already mentioned, Lindsay loves meeting people and enjoys the close interaction the band has with its fans. Spoiler alert – where he ends up at any given gig may surprise you.
“Something I do sometimes is I get out and have a little dance in the crowd while the show’s going on,” he says cheekily, like a young boy bragging about a prank. “I try to sneak up on people, have a dance with them and leave before they realise it was me.”
Sounds like something your mates would do, right?
Fat Freddy’s Drop play Hordern Pavilion on Friday February 26, andBaysis out now through The Drop/Remote Control.
