Bio

Dub Asylum is the latest musical alias for Peter McLennan, member of 90's reggae-thrash-punk-ska mutants the Hallelujah Picassos. Dub Asylum is a musical mash-up of dub reggae, hip hop and funk, genres that weigh heavy on Peter's ears. "I like a tune that throws sweet melodies in your earholes and shakes your ass at the same time," he explains.

Dub Asylum continues on with many of the musical elements present in the Picassos sound, taking them on a more electronic bent. Mixing up scratchy old hip hop drum loops and samples with dubbed out guitar and keyboards, Dub Asylum cook it all up in a massive sonic stew that is guaranteed one hundred per cent cholesterol-free, and full of your daily vitamin requirements.

Peter was in the Picassos from 1988 til 1995, when he left the band. They released two albums, Hateman in Love and Drinking with Judas, an EP and a bunch of singles. Peter also directed several music videos for the Picassos. He has been playing music since high school, starting out in a band called The Worst. "Well, the name was apt", he muses. Hindsight, aint it grand?

Dub Asylum started out in 1997, and hit the airwaves with demos back in 98. First gig was at The Gathering dance party on New Years 1998/99. The debut EP Dub Never Sleeps collected the aforementioned demos into a fine bag of dubwise delights, self-released in September 1999. Gigs with Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, and The Black Seeds have followed.

The following year a track off the EP (R U Ready) was picked up by Antenna Recordings for their compilation If Licks Could Kill, and Trevor Reekie from Antenna suggested doing an album with them.

The first full length album She Dubs Me, She Dubs Me Not was released in September 2002, and features contributions from Nick Atkinson (Supergroove, The Roughness), Bobbylon (Hallelujah Picassos), Sandy Mill (SJD, Spacesuit), John Pain (Hallelujah Picassos, Pains People) and Tom Ludvigson (Trip to the Moon, Alloy).

Actor Willa O'Neill (Scarfies, Topless Women Talk About Their Lives) joined in on vocals for You're So Sensible, revealing her hidden singing talent, and proving she is adept behind the mic as she is up on the screen.

The first single, called R U Ready, underwent a radical reworking at the hands of ace remixer Paddy Free, who is one half of electronica duo Pitch Black, and was responsible for producing Salmonella Dub's hugely successful album, Inside the Dub Plates.

Peter finished the video for R U Ready, using film footage he shot while visiting Japan late last year. He has previously worked in the film and tv industry, and has directed several music clips including ones for Trip to the Moon. He has also directed two documentaries, one on local music legend Chris Knox, called Songs Of You And Me; Chris Knox (1996) and Big Daze: Big Day Out (1997), both of which have screened on TV and at several film festivals.

Since that debut album, there's been a handful of EPs, including Ba Ba Boom, which also saw a vinyl 7" single released off the title track, which proved popular with DJs.

Hallelujah Picassos reunited in 2014 for some live shows (following two reissues McLennan co-ordinated and produced) and ventured into the studio, releasing new music, so Dub Asylum took a back seat for a while.

The most recent album, Beg, Steel or Borrow (2022) came out as a limited edition cassette, and featured a collection of McLennan's most loved NZ tunes, redone in a reggaematic steel drum style, an idea he had been developing for a few years prior.

He was a music writer for magazines like NZ Musician, Real Groove, Rip It Up and more back when music mags were still a thing. And he DJs around the place and has been an on-air DJ for Radio 95BFM and BaseFM. He published his first book in 2013, compiling some of his magazine articles focusing on interviews with New Zealand musicians and DJs, called 'I Believe You Are A Star.' He has also been a regular writer for AudioCulture since it began.

Band Members:
Peter McLennan

Links

• Artist Website
• Bandcamp Page