Picasso finds asylum and group therapy

NZ Herald, 09.10.2002
By NATASHA HARRIS

The first thing you notice about Peter McLennan is his shirts. They're bright, colourful and covered in flowers.

It's not exactly what you'd imagine from this seemingly quiet and thoughtful musician. But then again he was a member of Hallelujah Picassos, then Auckland thrash-ska band from the early-to-mid 90s.

McLennan, aka Dub Asylum, started wearing Hawaiian shirts as a way to get noticed in the band, and his obsession has never stopped - he now has 30.

"Hawaiian shirts are bright and colourful and whenever I put one on, it immediately puts me in a good mood," says McLennan.

McLennan doesn't have one on today, but he's in a good mood. It could be because he's happy at how his album, She Dubs Me, She Dubs Me Not, has turned out.

"I'm very happy with it and it sounds 10 times better than I thought it would," he says.

He should be happy with it - he's been playing around with his "crazy mash-up of hip-hop and reggae" since he left the Hallelujah Picassos in 1995 and it took 36-year-old McLennan two years to make it.

She Dubs Me, She Dubs Me Not can't be solely labelled as a dub album as it also encapsulates reggae, hip-hop, dancehall and drum'n'bass.

It is packed with soulful female vocalists (including Sandy Mills and actress Willa O'Neill), but it's no cheesy St Germain copy - this is music that exudes Kiwiness in a similar way to Salmonella Dub.

The name Dub Asylum came about after McLennan linked words that combined with dub.

"I tried a million combinations and Dub Asylum appealed as I liked the idea of musical insanity."

McLennan says he's not mad. "Music is my passion" is how he describes it, but there was a time when he questioned that musical drive - when he left the Hallelujah Picassos after eight years.

"I spent six months in a musical wilderness - it was six months of angsting. But I became very unhappy and I realised that making music wasn't something that I wanted to do - I needed to do it."

But starting on his own was "bloody hard" as he was used to working in a band. "I had to start from scratch - I had to learn how to do music production and how to make music sound good."

McLennan's first demo was Dick Dale in Outer Space, which reached bFM's top 10 in 1998 and his first gig was at the Gathering in 1999. Later that year he released his first single, Dub Never Sleeps, and he describes it as his first major success, as it generated more interest in his music.

McLennan continued to write tracks and decided to make an album after people wanted copies of his demo.

He signed up to Antennae in 1999 but after Paddy (Pitch Black) Free's remix of RU Ready was added to the track listing, perfectionist McLennan spent eight more months reworking it.

"The remix changed the feel quite a bit and the way it sat with the rest of the album, so I spent another eight months writing new tracks and re-editing old ones."

Spending your every spare moment on something you love would be enough to make any person protective and sensitive.

But McLennan is not nervous - he's excited about seeing people's reactions to his music.

"The next exciting step is what people make of it and how they react to it. People make of it what they will and you can't be precious about it.

"The main thing is getting it out there so people can hear it."

McLennan is already working on a second album and is planning gigs around the country.

And you'll know if McLennan is in town - just look for the man in the brightest Hawaiian shirt possible.

* She Dubs Me, She Dubs Me Not is out now.