Katchafire bring full circle ‘Revival’ with Mike Love collaboration ahead of US tour

Katchafire are giving one of their best-known albums a new life.

The Aotearoa New Zealand music icons are teaming up with Hawai’i reggae artist Mike Love on a reworked version of Sensimillia more than two decades after the original was released.

The new single is part of Revival 2.0 Guest Edition Album, a new take on the band’s 2002 platinum debut Revival, with the full album due out on 27 November.

Logan Bell, a founding member of Katchafire, told Pacific Days that returning to the recordings has brought back memories of the band’s early days.

“Music has a really powerful nostalgia for me,” Bell says. “All of those feelings and memories came flooding back.

“Just listening to the raw tracking audio, just soloing some of the different performances, I was really proud to hear what that sounded like.

“Revival was the first time, a lot of those first recordings were our first time in the studio together. It's 25 years old and it’s still standing up in comparison to what we're releasing these days.”

The partnership with Love was a natural fit for Bell, who was impressed after watching the Hawai’i artist perform in Tauranga.

“It’s [Sensimillia] 21 years old, I was just a young fella then. It’s very hard for me to sing these days,” Bell says. “Mike blew me away. In comparison to a lot of the artists, I was just like, ‘Yep, that's tough’. One listen and I could feel it, I could hear it. He did an amazing job.”

Watch Logan Bell's full interview below.

Love is one of several international artists joining Katchafire for the project, alongside UB40's Ali Campbell, Kolohe Kai, Australia's Emily Wurramurra and Jamaican funk-fusion legends Third World.

Bell says keeping the spirit of the original songs intact was important when choosing the guest artists.

The artists were selected because they already connected with Katchafire’s music and not just simply being big names to add to the record.

And when it comes to the new track’s name, Bell is happy to leave some mystery around it.

"Sensimillia? I don't know...It's a seedless herb. I'll just leave it there," he laughs.

For Katchafire, the story is also about whānau. Bell’s father, Grenville, helped take the band from local pub jams to an international touring career.

Now Bell’s 20-year-old son has joined the group as its drummer.

“Playing with my son has given me a new kind of vigour and strength to go out there and perform as we do in the world. In the same way it would have been awesome to see from my father's eyes, his sons coming through and supporting that journey,” Bell says.

The band will take that family legacy back on the road with a major US tour in September followed by a five-week Australian run with Love in October.

But before they leave Aotearoa, Katchafire will play two home shows - at Ruakākā Tavern in Northland on 28 August and Auckland’s Stampede Bar and Grill on 29 August.

With the band set to remain overseas until next year, the August shows will be their last Aotearoa performances before they head into another major chapter of their international journey.