We cop a sneak listen to L.A.B’s new album, which drops on Friday 23 Feb, and get to put some questions to lead singer Joel Shadbolt on the eve of the band’s return to Electric Avenue.

We’re loving the sound of the new album. Thanks. You’re hearing the evolution of L.A.B on this album. It’s an expanding sound. The horns are quite strong on this; more and more we’re writing songs with that in mind.

How was it working with producer Lee Prebble on this one? Dr Lee – he’s a legend. His studio in Wellington is our second home. We are super blessed to be working with him. He opened his doors for us and has become part of the L.A.B sound. He knows how to work with creatives. He’s a wizard. He makes these quirky suggestions that we would never think of.

You started with 30 tracks for this album and whittled it down to 11. What about the other 19? Will we ever hear them? We’ve definitely got a bit of a back catalogue. Some of those songs might make it one day. For this album we’ve pulled some stuff from our early work, for example the first song on VI, ‘Give Me That Feeling’. We’ve also reworked ‘Oh-No’ from our first album for this one.

You must be one of our hardest-working bands. The mindset from Day 1 has been to grow and move forward. We’re all in that waka but Brad [founding member Brad Kora] is the visionary. We want to get overseas more, that’s a market that’s new to us. We’re heading to the US this year; last year it was the UK and Europe. Amsterdam was special, one of those magic moments. The audience knew the songs, and we were playing at the Paradiso, on the same stage where Nirvana played.

You get pigeon-holed as a reggae band but your sound is much wider than that. What unites it? We all grew up with the 70s’ style of music – Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden. But also Bill Withers and Donny Hathaway. That era of the 70s is the common thread. Then there’s Prince – he blew everything up the wazoo, playing different styles. We’re not putting ourselves in a box, we’re not just reggae.

Like Katchafire, you’ve found a big audience in Hawaii. We’re doing well in Hawaii on the radio with some of our songs. When we performed in Waikiki we had a powhiri pre-soundcheck with the indigenous Hawai’ians. It was magic. The concert at Waikiki was a crowd we had never met before but they knew all the songs, even the B-side stuff.

What’s coming in 2024? We’ll be doing a lot of touring. We head to the US in May – we’re playing a reggae festival in Las Vegas.

Other band members had already tasted fame with Kora and Katchafire, whereas this was your big break. How’s that been? It’s had its moments. I’ve learned to put it in its place. Fame is a massive distraction – it’s nice and it’s part of the gig. But it’s a distraction from how you got there and I’m making sure I understand how to deal with that.

What are you looking forward to in Christchurch? It’s been a slow burn building the band in the South Island. Playing Electric Avenue last year was huge for us, playing to 35,000 people. The energy of a Christchurch crowd is always good. We’re flying in and flying out unfortunately but I always try to get in a jog around Hagley Park.

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