With the release of the band's fourth album, Black Seeds guitarist Mike Fabulous (above) jokingly asks for the group's age - old compared with many in today's mainstream charts - to be kept under wraps.
"You have to keep this secret, but it's coming up 10 years. If word gets out, they're gonna label us as old fogeys and we'll be out of business."
After four months spent listening to the band's new release, Solid Ground, Fabulous thinks it sounds similar to the outfit's other albums.
His mother, however, pointed out the difference.
"I was kind of thinking that it's along the same lines of what we're doing, just kind of chipping away at the same block, which I reckon is quite cool, but then my mum said to me 'Ooh, that doesn't sound like The Black Seeds', so there you go. If Mum thinks it sounds pretty different, then maybe it does."
Once very much a Wellington band, The Black Seeds are now spread further afield, with Fabulous based in Dunedin since last year.
He says the move was to allow him more time for family and working on his own music.
"Wellington always seemed to be really busy, there's lots going on and I was just getting too busy and stressed out. I have a family as well and so I was always doing gigs during the week and then kids wake up at the crack of dawn the next morning.
"It's been really good. I've written lots of music down here and spent lots of time in the studio and probably been a bit happier as well, not being so overtired and so overworked."
The conversation turns political when Fabulous extends a thank-you to the Prime Minister for supporting Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment (the artists' benefit), which enabled him to survive when he began his musical career.
"We're so lucky to be able to live in such a great country and be full-time musicians. I feel very privileged. Thank you Helen Clark for the artists' benefit - that got me by when I didn't make enough money and then I got to ditch it when I did make enough money."
And while he does not want to push fans to buy the new album, he points out it will help pay off the $300 power bill, accumulated by the heat pump warming his Dunedin home.
