Black Seeds

The Black Seeds
Performing in Leicester, August 2012
Background information
Origin	Wellington, New Zealand
Genres	Reggae, roots reggae, funk, dub, rock, pop, soul, world music
Years active	1998–present
Labels	Sonar Kollektiv, Easy Star Records, Loop, Capitol
Associated acts	Fly My Pretties Flash Harry Flight of the Conchords Video Kid Hollie Smith Fat Freddy's Drop
Website	www.theblackseeds.com
Members	Barnaby Weir Mike Fabulous Daniel Weetman Lee Prebble Jarney Murphy Tim Jarray Jabin Ward Nigel Patterson Barrett Hocking
Past members	Bret McKenzie Rich Christie Shannon Williams Andrew Christiansen Toby Laing

The Black Seeds is a musical group rooted in reggae from Wellington, New Zealand. Their rocksteady-influenced song "One By One" became an international hit when it was played in top ranked TV series Breaking Bad. Their music is a boundary-crossing sound fusion of big-beat funk, dub, afro music, pop, rock and soul – and a large or small touch of original roots reggae (like it was played 1972-1985) or ragga is almost always present regardless musical style.

Formed in 1998, The Black Seeds perform with eight members, with instruments including vocals, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, bongos, keyboard and wood block. Black Seeds first album, Keep on Pushing, was released 2001 when the band already had established themselves as a strong live act. Already very successful in New Zealand and popular in Australia and south east Asia, their third album Into the Dojo (2007) introduced Black Seeds to the rest of the world. They have released five albums, a live album, and two remix albums. They have two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand, and successful European album releases through the German-based Sonar Kollektiv label. In 2011 Black Seeds was described by Rolling Stone Magazine as "The Best Reggae band in the world right now".

Lead singer Barnaby Weir is also associated with the sideprojects Flash Harry and Fly My Pretties. Former band member Bret McKenzie is also a member of international award-winning comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, as well as playing Figwit the elf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. In June 2011, trumpet player Andrew Christiansen left the band and was replaced by Barrett Hocking.