Dub Asylum is the latest musical alias for Peter McLennan, former member of 90s reggae-thrash-punk-ska mutants the Hallelujah Picassos. Dub Asylum is a musical mash-up of dub reggae, hip hop and funk, genres that weigh heavy on Peter's ears. "I like a tune that throws sweet melodies in your earholes and shakes your ass at the same time," he explains.

Dub Asylum continues on with many of the musical elements present in the Picassos sound, taking them on a more electronic bent. Mixing up scratchy old hip hop drum loops and samples with dubbed out guitar and keyboards, Dub Asylum cook it all up in a massive sonic stew that is guaranteed to fry your brains.

Peter was in the Picassos from 1988 til 1995, when he left the band. They released two albums, Hateman in Love and Drinking with Judas, an ep and a bunch of singles. Peter also directed several music videos for the Picassos. He has been playing music since high school, starting out in a band called The Worst. "Well, the name was apt", he muses. Hindsight, aint it grand? (trivia - the other 2 members of The Worst were Troy Ferguson, now a BFM DJ and music writer, and Jim Abbott, who lives in London these days and plays in The Ghost Club, along with Dave Mitchell and Denise Roughan, ex 3Ds).

Dub Asylum hit the airwaves with demos back in 98. First gig was at The Gathering dance party on New Years 1998/99. The debut EP Dub Never Sleeps collected the aforementioned demos into a fine bag of dubwise delights, self-released in September 1999. Gigs with Salmonella Dub, Fat Freddys Drop, The Nomad, and The Black Seeds have followed.

The following year a track off the EP (R U Ready) was picked up by Antenna Recordings for their compilation If Licks Could Kill, and Trevor Reekie from Antenna suggested doing an album with them, and I said Yes please.

The first full length album 'SHE DUBS ME, SHE DUBS ME NOT' was released in September 2002, and features contributions from Nick Atkinson (Supergroove, the Roughness), Bobbylon (Hallelujah Picassos), Sandy Mill (SJD, Spacesuit), John Pain (Hallelujah Picassos, Pains People) and Tom Ludvigson (Trip to the Moon, Alloy).

2004 saw the release of the She Dubs Me Remix Ep on 12" vinyl, featuring remixes by Timmy Schumacher vs Susbstax, Rob Warner and Josh Webb, the Audioslut, and Matt Scott at Woodcut. The covers featured individually hand-painted graffiti-art stencils from Dan Tippett and DLT, which are incredibly cool. The Ba Ba Boom! Digi-EP dropped in August 2008. New album due soon.

Peter also DJs around the place, and on BaseFM and KiwiFM. Never a dull moment.

In his spare time Peter likes to play pinball and collect Hawaiian and Polynesian shirts; the cover art for the album features numerous photos of him wearing as many of his favorite shirts as he possibly can. If you happen to own any of said clothing items and wish to donate them to his shirt collection, he will be more than happy to accept them.

Top five records
Eric B and Rakim - Paid in full
Kraftwerk - Man machine
Augustus Pablo - Original Rockers
Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul
Temptations - Masterpiece
(but if you asked me tomorrow, it would probably change).