It’s always nice to come home after a long day of work. And in the case of New Zealand reggae band Katchafire, returning home after a run of shows in Europe and the US is just part of the job description.
But for lead singer and rhythm guitarist Logan Bell, touring is the best way to bring love to fans, to spread the ‘fire’. So this month, it’s Australia’s turn to share some of that love, with the seven-piece bringing its chilled vibes to our shores ahead of a new album due for release by the end of the year. The constant touring, says Bell, also gives Katchafire creative inspiration.
“Definitely the boys have broadened our musical vocabulary travelling around the world and you’ll see a few of those styles coming through – maybe like some South American, you know, little hints of places and cultures and music that we’ve picked up along our travels.”
Starting off their musical journey studying and playing music of the classic ’70s and ’80s era of reggae, the members of what is now Katchafire were initially a Bob Marley tribute band. Bell says that while they’ve taken plenty of influence from past reggae stars about how to write great songs – listening to them, he says, represents Katchafire’s “deep school of learning” – they’ve come to develop a sound of their own.
“We get a lot of people asking us why we don’t have any females in the band, and we say, ‘Because we can still hit those high notes!’ But we take pride in that – the harmony is definitely, I would say, our point of difference in the genre of reggae music.”
He’s not wrong, either. Since 1997, when the group formed, Bell and co. have really grown to perfect the warm sound that makes reggae such a peaceful genre to listen to. Last year, Katchafire released a Best So Far compilation. And though Bell says he’s always trying to better his past work, he still values Katchafire’s earlier material highly.
“There’s really something to be said about artists’ first albums,” he says. “They have the whole of their life to prepare for this first album, and then every one after that, they’ve only got a couple of years or however long it takes to put their album out – so it’s usually some of the artist’s best work that comes from that first album.”
But part of being an artist for Bell is also about listening to what other people see in his work. “I still love other people’s interpretations of my songs, [and] not only with my old songs. When I wrote them, and my mindset, and my mood – everything comes back to me.”
Katchafire’s Australian setlist will be tailored to the audience, showcasing a mixture of old crowd-pleasers and some tracks that have seldom been performed live – but Bell also hints at the possible appearance of a new single currently being mixed in Jamaica. While he remains tight-lipped about the collaborators that have signed on for the band’s next studio album, the one thing we can be sure of ahead of Katchafire’s Sydney date is a mighty good time.
“I think anyone who’s been to our gigs will know that we absolutely love getting the crowd to sing and getting them involved, you know, giving incentive at our gigs. It’s always good to have that exchange, and we love to get the crowd amped.”
Katchafire will bring their mellow tunes to Sydney’s shores on Sunday June 29 at the Metro Theatre.
