Fat Freddy's Drop on their new exhibition - 'It's funny seeing my dirty tracksuits being treated as a taonga'

Based on a True Story - the fastest-selling independent album in New Zealand history - is inseparable from Wellington's lively creative scene of the mid-2000s, say saxophonist Scott Towers (aka Chopper Reeds) and trombone player Joe Lindsay (aka Hohepa).

"There was just a general feeling like you could do anything musically, or you could play with anyone and mix together whatever genres you liked," Lindsay tells RNZ's Music 101.

Before the band kick off their album anniversary tour next March, Fat Freddy's fans can reminisce about the origins of hits like 'Cay’s Crays’ and 'Wandering Eye' at a Wellington Museum exhibition from 22 November.

With lots of amazing and affordable warehouse spaces and bars open until 6-7am, the capital was a really cool place to be at the start of the century, Lindsay says.

The "genesis" of Based on a True Story, including the evolution of tracks like 'Wandering Eye', can be seen in the RNZ documentary MARAUDERS, he says.

"It was often just a matter of throwing out lots of ideas, and then paring it back and sort of sculpting in the computer."

Bay's Studio in Lyall Bay was a really special place for the band to record the album, he says.

"It was like an old bathhouse or something down below sea level as well. You'd go down some stairs into almost like a sea cave… and we'd be there for all hours and stuff, and managed to all squeeze into the room, it was pretty tight."

Wellington Museum's Based on a True Story exhibition features Iain Gordon's "magnificent" Trident keyboard, Warren Maxwell's saxophone - which at one point featured a glued-on shirt button instead of a thumbrest - and other miscellaneous items that band members have kept in storage from that time.

"It's funny seeing my dirty tracksuits being treated as a taonga," Lindsay says.

Scott Towers, who joined Fat Freddy's Drop in 2006, was "Freddy's adjacent" when Based on a True Storycame out, and feels "joyous" about being part of the album's anniversary exhibition and tour.

"It gives us a sort of chance to go back and revisit that material, and present it very much like the album, but then also do what we do, which is expand upon it and bring some new flavour to it, so it's going to be exciting to do that.

The exhibition also celebrates the formation of a band born out of the night-time scene of Wellington in the early 2000s, Towers says, when people had "a huge appetite for live music".

"Everywhere you went, there was a band playing or DJs playing. It just felt like there was a lot of music going on, and there were a lot of bars.

"I used to go along to the Funky Monks gigs. They were my favourite DJ crew, them and the Roots Foundation."

In Towers' view, Fat Freddy's Drop is less of a "band" and more of a "sound system" melded with instruments.

When they formed, DJ Manual Bundy and jazz performer Nathan Haines were already doing the DJ/live musicians thing in Auckland, he says, and that was a big inspiration for the late DJ Mu (Chris Faiumu) - the band's main creative force.

"Mu really took it and ran with it, really."

DJ Mu was a seasoned studio engineer by the time Based on a True Story was recorded, but he put together its tracks in an ambitious and unusual way, Towers says.

"They're kind of like, 'Oh, let's just see where this naturally lands. It's a weird shape and a weird number of bars, and ends on a weird beat. Who cares? Let's keep going. It sounds good to me."