Making music with Andrew Penman

Times, music and technology have changed much during the last three decades, yet the legend of Kiwi favourite Salmonella Dub lives on. Frontman Andrew is now older, wiser, and more tech savvy.

Making music has evolved hugely, opening up far more opportunities now, he says. “In the early days living in Ōtautahi and playing regularly at The Dux and Quadrophenia through the 1990s, we would rehearse twice a week, writing material for albums that were recorded reel to tape. By 1995, with help from David Harrow of ONu Sound, we switched to recording on the grid digitally and started experimenting with our first forays into jungle tempo switches. This digi process contributed to more opportunities to develop our sound and our ability to remix and cut album tracks for radio,” Andrew explains.

Now with band members spread far and wide, between Ōtautahi, Kaikōura, Nelson, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Wellington, Tauranga, and Queenstown, and studios in Kaikōura and Wakatū Nelson, rehearsing can be “rather expensive”, he laughs. “The flights for rehearsals for our failed tour through the 2021/22 lockdowns were costing $660 one way from Tauranga and Queenstown to our studio in Nelson,” Andrew recalls.

Inspiration for the band currently comes from old and new generations of musicians, and also a few classic Kiwi legends. “Sleaford Mods [an English post-punk music duo] are my go-to at the moment,” says Andrew, although admitting that his real inspirations still sit with early emerging Aotearoa literary voices, such as Keri Hulme, Janet Frame, and Frank Sargeson. “Musically, I am also still inspired by Nick Cave, the Gladiators, and Public Enemy.”

Past gigs and gig memories from the 1980s are clear as a bell in his mind, gigs such as supporting The Skeptics at the Gladstone, and as a punter watching the Headless Chickens when they were a three-piece band supporting Nico at the Carlton in Christchurch. “The drummer for Chooks was Chris Knox’s four-track reel-to-reel tape machine, experimental and inspirational stuff. Nico was cool too; we loved her harmonium playing and tabla players; it was so cool how she stalked off stage in a huff when ‘Vodka Robin’, a known Christchurch entity, got raucous during the first track.”

Looking at the past, present, and towards the future, Andrew attributes the continuing success and longevity of Salmonella Dub to the “Mainland landscape and our connection to the whakapapa of it”. Both have been incredibly important to the band and its members, he says.

“Keeping our feet on the ground, maintaining other jobs, and engaging positively within our collective community with respect for our collective whakapapa has been an important part of who we are,” he explains. “A case in point is the recent collaboration with Nino Birch on our new single Never Too Late – We’ve Got This Gift. The first vocal takes included the line “I’ve got this gift”.