Salmonella Dub needs little introduction. 

The seminal New Zealand band has built up a strong reputation as multi-platinum-selling Mainland Dub originators and bass music pioneers with a global following.

Andrew Penman founded the group back in 1992 and since then, they've gone on to perform on stages around the world, recording and touring with a number of talented performers along the way.

As their new album, For All Things Alive Disc 1, prepares to drop on 8 October, Penman shared some pearls of wisdom - learned the hard way over the course of his career - that he wished someone had told him when he was starting out of his journey.

Protect your ears!

Tinnitus is a life-affecting issue!!

I spent my teenage years unprotected playing in Stu Buchanan’s CSIM Big Band touring the country and winning the national Jazz awards. At the same time, I also played in garage/punk bands - so by the time I was 22 and at the beginning of Salmonella Dub I really needed to have ear protection - it wasn’t a thing back then though.

Sustained volume as a musician especially on big stages is a major health issue - it never goes away. It only gets worse. And for some like our beautiful e hoa Redford Grenell originator/drummer of Shapeshifter, it affected him so badly he had to stop music altogether. For Redford, It became so bad it would cause spikes of high-frequency sound that lead to other health issues. 

For me now - I have 3 constant oscillating frequencies. They are like 3 high-pitched band saws crossing over in stereo - not unlike the ghost trains of the main zones at the BDO fests we used to play - the only thing that gives me relief now is cicada season and occasionally psychedelics. I have often wondered about making earrings that have little cages with a cicada in them - not good for a cicada though, eh? 

Lesson to my 22-year-old self: ears are one of your most important assets - look after them!

Don’t walk away from failure

Poppa always said - “if you don’t fail, you haven’t set your goals high enough.”

Don’t write things off completely when you fail. Over the years, you will need to fail in order to learn from your mistakes. 

Looking back on Salmonella Dub’s history, I have taken such huge risks both financially and emotionally. At times when things went wrong, I buried my head in the sand and walked away from what may have been a project that - if nurtured - could have grown into a beautiful thing. 

Case in point; after 5 successful Kaikoura Roots festivals with partner Leo Harnett, I decided to take the whole 62 artist entourage to Oz. With the help of good friends Leo, Mark Sequeria in Oz and Pat Fife in Auckland, we booked 280 flights and I fronted the $240k in costs. The tour was a success but left a $35k hole in my pocket so I threw my toys and walked away from the whole thing - even though the compilation album with all the artists went Gold. 

Lesson to my 22-year-old self: it is good to shoot from the hip sometimes - but in order to avoid shooting yourself in the foot, it is also good to step back and reflect.

Trust your gut

When you make a decision (after consulting the team), stick to it. 

In January 2021, We had our new 22-track album ready to go with a tour scheduled for Autumn. Unfortunately, we got distracted by the call to help the Electric Avenue Festival by changing our contracted line up for that show because the Aussie bands who were booked could not fly due to lockdowns. 

The agreement to change our line up resulted in the decision to push our 2021 autumn album launch tour into the Spring of 2021 - just in time for Aotearoa 2021/22 lockdowns.  

We have now only just recovered from all the postponements, cancellations and ticket refunds from that failed tour and can only apologise to our audience for all the no shows and the 3 years delay in the release of our new digi album For All Things Alive.

Lesson to my 22-year-old self: Keep it strong! Learn how to say NO! 

Salmonella Dub's new album For All Things Alive is released on 8 October, followed with a Trans-Tasman tour that takes in Auckland, Ōakura,, Melbourne, New South Wales, Lyttelton, Hokitika, Mapua and the AUM Festival between 11 October and 30 December.