Katchafire You can’t stop the fire
With a 25 year long history, and a catalogue of albums that is impressive for any artist, one of New Zealand’s favourite acts is Reggae outfit, Katchafire. Formed in around 2004, this family band began life as a Bob Marley tribute act, but soon began creating their own good vibe infused brand of Reggae.
In a recent conversation with main vocalist and co-songwriter, Logan Bell, I learned a little more about the history of the band.
“My father started the band when I was 20 years old. I grew up around music. It was always there when I was a kid. Growing up in a family of musicians and having music around me all my life, I took it for granted, guess. Ive spoken to Muso mates of mine , and I realise how lucky I was to have that. It makes it so much easier.”
“At one point , I remember when I was around ten years old, Dad having to give up playing and get a job , and it was like music just wasn’t there for a while, and it was strange. I guess sometimes you have to make a choice, whether you keep going or go get a ‘real Job’. As the father of a young family, you don’t have a lot of choice”
“Dad worked hard as a musician for a long time, but never quite broke through until we all joined up . I guess it was meant to be”
There have been many lineup changes in the band’s history, including the departure of founding member, Dad , lead guitarist and manager, Grennville Bell in 2014. As the band stands currently, the lineup consists of Logan Bell (Guitar / Vocals), Jordan Bell (drums / vocals) Leonard Davey (percussion / vocals) Tere Ngarua (bass) Roy kaiki (keyboards / vocals) and Waerimu Barriball (lead guitar / vocals) The main songwriting duties fall to Logan, but it’s also a collaborative effort with brother Jordan and brother in law Leonard.
Their first album, ‘Revival’ met with success upon its release in 2003, and they have gone on to release a further 5 albums, ‘Slow burning (2005), ‘Say what you’re thinking’(2007), ‘On the road again’(2010), ‘a compilation entitled ‘Best so far’ (2013) and their 2018 release, ‘Legacy’
Recording and touring each release relentlessly.
“I spent 15 years on the road with my family. It’s a great experience. It’s priceless. We travelled all over the world, playing every festival we could. We are looking forward to the festival season this year. Growing up in a family of musicians and having music around me all my life”
After a hectic touring schedule over the last couple of decades, the impact that the Covid lockdowns had on the band was significant, but in some ways beneficial.
“Covid was the only point in our career when we had to stop. We couldn’t travel out of New Zealand, and nobody was going to shows. We were pretty crazy from the start. We were doing around 100 shows a year, wherever we could , and then it just stopped. Nobody was coming in or out, so it kind of forced us to stop and take a breath. Getting to spend time with our kids , who were all teenagers around then made us think. Since then we have been smarter about what we do and where we go.”
One of the factors to the success of the band has been their work ethic. Rehearsals 2 or 3 times a week and a rigorous playing schedule has led to an extremely cohesive “tight” sound.
“We gig a lot, and for this tour , we did a lot of rehearsing, just to make sure we are ready. As soon as we touched down in Australia last night, we headed straight to a rehearsal space and got ourselves ready for our first show.”
“We have been playing every song from our first album since forever. ‘Giddy up’ is a crowd favourite. We usually start our show with that one. It was our biggest selling single back in the day. It was the biggest selling single in New Zealand when it was released. It’s unusual for a Reggae band to hit no 1 in most places, but that is a testament to how big Reggae is in New Zealand. We are writing some new material for an upcoming album, and we will be performing some tracks from that on this tour. We will be playing ‘Commit, The magic what she do’ and ‘ Always with you’ in the show. They are our newest releases.”
“We are looking forward to the Cairns show. We always take a little extra time when we come up that way. We have family and friends up there, and it’s nice to catch up with our ‘cuzzies’, do some fishing and get out on the reef. It’s the best time of year to be up that way , too. The weather is always warm, and we always feel welcome.”
You can catch ‘Katchafire’ at Brothers Leagues Club on Saturday November 23. Tickets are available through Oztix.
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