When last we caught up with the Herbaliser in 2005, bandleader Jake Wherry was in a terrible funk. Having just released an album, Take London, that debuted at number 126 on the U.K. charts, the Englishman fumed about the lack of recognition for his band, trailblazers in the epic sample-based style that film composers like David Holmes (Ocean’s Eleven) were hitting the jackpot with.

Three years later, the London-based seven-piece has returned at an opportune moment, adding soul singer Jessica Darling to its ranks and getting swept along in the mainstream’s baffling obsession with the likes of Adele, Duffy, and Amy Winehouse. For musicians used to playing the underdog role, getting caught up in a pop fad has proven to be a curious experience indeed.

“We never strive to be in fashion,” says the Herbaliser’s DJ and cofounder, Ollie Teeba, reached at home. “It just so happens that, on this occasion, we seem to have caught a wave. But we don’t see ourselves as part of that scene. With a lot of those guys, it’s all about the authentic details and reproducing exactly what was done back in ’68. That’s not what we’re about, at all. We’ll take a bit from here and there, but we’ll try to mix it all up and push it into a modern context. We do like old sounds, but we’ve never wanted to be retro.”

Teeba is right: the Herbaliser isn’t a vintage group, but a pastiche outfit. On its recent Same as It Never Was, “Clap Your Hands” is typical, as the band casts Darling’s booming voice against mid-’60s Motown drum fills and a horn attack ripped straight out of James Brown’s ’70s-era funk odysseys. Where past efforts saw band members piling up arrangements to the toppling point, the addition of a lead singer has allowed them to slim down, thus lending a greater degree of space and groove to their tracks. “We needed to shake things up, change things around,” says Teeba of bringing Darling into the fold. “It’s like when you live in a house-sometimes you need to rearrange the living room to give yourself a fresh perspective. We’ve been doing this for 14 years. We’ve got to keep mixing it up. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

Since starting the band with Wherry in 1994, Teeba’s become a poster boy for music-making in the digital era. Once just a DJ, and now a songwriter and producer, the Londoner still doesn’t know how to play an instrument or read music.

“It’s always frustrating to be the guy in the room with the least amount of technical knowledge,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that I’ve attained much in that regard over the years. But I’m an ideas man. I’ve had musicians tell me that sometimes all that musical training can get in the way of a perfectly good idea. So I guess I’m the man with a perfectly good idea, and no ability.”

The Herbaliser plays the Commodore Ballroom tonight (November 27).