Time for TrinityRoots to go, bro

TrinityRoots will never forget your name. Your name is "bro"'. It's a friendly name. They call each other bro, too. Collectively, they're the bros - until next weekend, that is.

In mid-December the band announced they were splitting up. A press statement gave no reason why the band would play their last gig at the SoundSplash Reggae Festival in Raglan, on February 5.

But singer/guitarist Warren Maxwell, bass player Rio Hemopo and drummer Riki Gooch are parting on "friendly" terms.

It seems friendly enough when we catch up with them at the Big Day Out for one of the last interviews with them as a band. But then again, being friendly is just as much in TrinityRoots' nature as their music - a mix of roots, rock, reggae, psychedelia and jazz.

Hemopo can out-laugh anyone. Maxwell greets me with an all-encompassing hongi. And when this interview is over, Gooch has a bro handshake and a hug. They're good bros.

As we huddle around a tall pub table with the dance tent rippling the window panes and a background din of quaffing spectators, there's interruption after interruption from well-wishers and photographers.

It's clear a lot of people are going to miss this band, who met at the Wellington Polytechnic Jazz School six years ago. So why, with all this love, are TrinityRoots breaking up?

"There's definitely a bond that's been created, and a sound," says Maxwell, "but we've definitely got stuff inside us that needs to grow outside of Trinity I think."

"It's the little things," laughs Hemopo, in reference to the band's breakthrough song from 2000. "It's the little things, bro'," he says again, as the other two belly laugh along with him.

"It really hasn't come to an end at all," says Gooch. "It's kind of evolving into other things. We've had six years of really good learning and experiences. Things change, and things move on, like the earth does.

"I don't want to get too soppy on it ... " The other two start sobbing and laughing.

"Oh, here we go," scoffs Hemopo " ... but this has been the greatest learning experience I've ever had. As bro says, six years ago I wouldn't've had a clue at all about how this all works."

Their first recording, the Little Things EP, was released in 2000. The title song and its video by director Chris Graham became instant New Zealand classics.

However, the band's first album, True, had a difficult birth. They ended up re-recording it three times before it came out in May 2002. The band's first sessions, recorded at a remote central Hawkes Bay homestead, were canned.

In contrast, the recording of their second album, Home Land and Sea, was done at the band's studio, the Surgery, in Wellington, and treated as a nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday job. The recording ran so smoothly they took weekends off.

Along with Katchafire and Salmonella Dub, TrinityRoots are - or at least were - taking roots music to a whole new audience in New Zealand.

But while Katchafire's traditional reggae and Salmonella's dance influence have scored them hit singles, TrinityRoots have never had a commercially successful song.

Despite this, both TrinityRoots albums have sold just under platinum status (15,000 copies) and continue to sell well.

One of the reasons for these numbers is the band's affinity with New Zealand and its people and the way this comes through in their music. Plus, their trippy yet spiritual live shows are addictive.

Fan and TV presenter John Campbell, who included a live performance from the band in his Queen's Tour series, says: "What I love about them most of all is that they could only have come from New Zealand."

Maxwell agrees that they have helped to grow the roots scene along with others such as Fat Freddy's Drop, the Black Seeds and Cornerstone Roots.

"But," says Hemopo, "there's a long history of roots music in New Zealand with the likes of Herbs and Aotearoa. They might have hit a more Maori audience when they were about, but I think for us we were just doing our thing and it was good timing."

"The crowd make the music their own, too," continues Maxwell. "It's that kind of support-the-underdog type music. They don't go for the commercial stuff, they go for the integrity."

Hemopo: "I definitely believe that bro's songwriting [referring to Maxwell] is different to other standard kind of roots music too. It's not formulaic."

"And that's another thing about this blooming, this parting. We all have the ability to write songs," says Maxwell, "but we've gotta give it space. Like you have to push the little bird out of the nest to make it fly. Pretty much, I reckon, that's what's happening."

Maxwell's new band is called the Little Bushmen. "It's a three-piece, more along the lines of a psychedelic, out-of-it styles."

Gooch has got his solo project, Eru. "Freaky beats, man, freaky beats," is the way Maxwell describes the drummer's music.

And Hemopo is "writing a book about our journey. Nah, I'm going to be a Tai Bo trainer." He's joking. But seriously, he says, he's working with Mu from Fat Freddy's on more music.

"We're just moving on to other vehicles really. Three vehicles," says Maxwell.

The sun has set on the 10th Big Day Out and the whiff of weed is strong on the top field where TrinityRoots are playing their second-to-last gig.

They start with Aotearoa, the first song off Home, Land, and Sea, which, on the album, treads a fine line between beauty and cheese. But tonight, it sounds more like a karakia - a prayer - than a song.

"This is our second-to-last gig before we separate into three separate waka," announces Maxwell.

One of the other reasons he gives for ending the band is that he's going to be a daddy this year. During the set he rings his partner - "Mumsy" he calls her - who is expecting their baby in May, so the fans can say hi. "Gotta go to work now honey," he says, as he folds his phone away.

Forty-five minutes isn't long enough for a TrinityRoots set. They can easily make one song last that long.

Hemopo is upright, eyes often closed, bobbing gently as he plucks away. Maxwell is on his own trip. As always, he's seated, eyes closed and occasionally holds one arm in the air with his Rasta wristband like a beacon. While Gooch - you can tell he's a jazz-trained musician - is all over his drum kit playing his freaky beats.

"We've realised over the years that our job is to take people on a journey through our music," says Maxwell, before going on stage. "It's humbling playing live because that's the realness. The thing I love about New Zealand audiences is that they're brutally honest. If you've got 2000 people in tears, then that's honest."

Their last three shows - New Year's in Tolaga Bay, the Kaikoura Roots Festival earlier this month, and the Big Day Out - have been emotional affairs for fans and the band.

Next weekend, take your last chance to see TrinityRoots. And you'd better take some tissues, bro.