
Photo: Mike Higgott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · credits
The Black Seeds
Group · New Zealand · formed 1998
New Zealand band
Timeline
1990s
Biography
Biography
The Black Seeds are a reggae inspired musical group from Wellington, New Zealand. Their rocksteady song "One by One" became an international hit when it was played in top ranked TV series Breaking Bad. Their music is a mixture of big beat funk, dub, afro music, pop, rock, soul, and roots reggae/ragga.
Formed in 1998, the Black Seeds perform with eight members, with instruments including vocals, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, bongos, keyboard and wood block. Black Seeds first album, Keep On Pushing, was released 2001 following a number of live performances. Already very successful in New Zealand and popular in Australia, Europe and North & South America, their third album Into the Dojo (2007) introduced Black Seeds internationally. They have released seven studio albums, a live album, and two remix albums. They have two double-platinum selling albums in New Zealand, and successful European album releases through the German-based Sonar Kollektiv label. In 2011, the Black Seeds was described by Rolling Stone as "The best reggae band in the world right now".
Lead singer Barnaby Weir, the son of veteran radio broadcaster Dick Weir, is also associated with the side-projects Fly My Pretties and Flash Harry. Former band member Bret McKenzie is also a member of international comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, as well as playing the role of Figwit the elf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.
The band released their sixth studio album Fabric in early September 2017.
Their song "One by One" was used in AMC's Breaking Bad Season 2 episode "4 Days Out" and also appears on the series' official soundtrack.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 5 | 32th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 0 | 0th |
| Studio albums | 0 | 0th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 1 | 40.6th |
| Recording span (years) | 28 | 62th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (0 release groups)
No discography rows stored yet
MusicBrainz enrichment for this artist is still pending. Release groups appear here once it runs.
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put The Black Seeds head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 5 | 32th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 0 | 0th |
| Studio albums | 0 | 0th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 1 | 40.6th |
| Recording span (years) | 28 | 62th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlackSeeds1.jpgcore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q847361genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q847361seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Seedsbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Seeds
Why this artist is in the database
- List of reggae musicians
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: Mike Higgott · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q847361 · MusicBrainz: dc76f538-7a10-461e-84ba-aa44888f9f2d
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