Sound System Men

Hamilton reggae group Katchafire are touring the US “spreading their Aotearoa Roots” to big crowds from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Hawaii, where the band headlines at the One Love Reggae Festival. Lead singer Logan Bell explains that even though New Zealand isn’t traditionally considered a hotbed of reggae music, the country’s homegrown variety has a deep and rich history. “There was a statistic I heard, that [New Zealanders] were the biggest buyers of Bob Marley records per capita in the world,” Bell says. Katchafire was formed in 1997.