Speed Date With Ben Lemi From Trinity Roots

1.Your Profile

Sound-wise we like to explore a wide range of dynamics from quiet, intimate moments to heavier rocked-out sections and for elongated periods. We like to take our time with some of the psychedelic jams in order to build up a trance-like energy for the live shows. We’re all influenced by heavy Jamaican roots music like early Bob and The Wailers, Lee Scratch Perry and Toots and The Maytals. With Citizen we’re also drawing on bluesy flavours and even more folky moments to allow different sentiment and messages to come through in the songs.

2.Keeping Busy

The last four months have seen a combination of a lot of time spent in the studio and also on the road. We’ve been crafting Citizen for the last 18 months but in the last couple we’ve really worked hard to refine everything and to make sure that the initial ideas in the music are still clear amongst all the fine details. On the touring front, we’ve been hitting a few good summer festival slots around NZ and managed to slip away to Glasgow and London for a few gigs and a quick reconnaissance/contact-making mission. The last few weeks have definitely been all about prepping for this Australian tour both in the rehearsal room and on the email/admin front.

3.Best Gig Ever

So many highlights to reflect on – one that comes to mind is a gig I played whilst on tour with NZ band Urban Tramper in Europe a few years back. We were put on the bill to play at festival in a decommissioned train station in the middle of Stuttgart. The station had long been inactive and was overgrown with all sorts of vegetation, but the place was anything but asleep as thousands of people wove in and out of old train carriages, carrying pints of weissbier, dancing to music that was coming from all sorts of different makeshift stages and DJ booths. We were set up inside one of the old carriages with enough room for the three of us in the band on a tiny stage and about 30 heaving punters squished into the carriage between us and the bar.

4.Current Playlist

Right in this very moment I’m listening to Gillian Welch, who is one of my faves – although I’m not a huge country connoisseur, I really love her voice and songwriting. Gillian’s work with producer T Bone Burnett is beautiful stuff.

5.Your Ultimate Rider

We’re all big single malt whisky fans, so as long as there is some decent Scotch around then we generally have no complaints. I personally would love to have some clean rainbow-coloured socks on each rider, that’d be grouse, but I’m not fussy otherwise.