They are ostensibly an AfroCuban band with a versatile party style that integrates all kinds of global rhythms, as well as hip-hop, rock, R&B and reggae.

On the album cover of their recent European release, Follow Me, is a bikini-clad woman with long dark hair and headphones on, leading a donkey whose two panniers double as an archaic DJ turntable kit. The lady in question is the Cuban singer Ilena Padron, better known as CuCu Diamnates, also Levin's wife, and co-founder of the band. "That's me she's leading; I'm actually the donkey from Shrek, " Levin says laughing in his silky, Barry White tones.

The band's name has a variety of meanings. It means "good weed/ herb" but is also the name for San Francisco given by Spanish settlers in the 18th century, due to the abundance of the herb Satureja douglasii, used as a medicinal tea, in the area. It also refers to a mint tea found in Latin America . . .in particular in Cuba where it gives food a distinctive flavour.

There's also Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay. The island holds an annual music festival which the band has played at.

"The name really refers to the fact that we're all from different parts of the world; a tea of flavours if you like, " Levin explains. "For example, on the track 'El Burrito' there's a cumbia beat from Mexico, pedal steel guitar, Russian accordion, mariachi horns, Brazilian percussion and guitarist Peret . . . the godfather of flamenco rumba. If you put together all the people who played on that record, you'd have 20 musicians."

Levin handles the production side of the band himself. Born in Venezuela to Argentinean parents, he moved permanently to the US in 1987, having spent some of his formative years in North Carolina with his mother. He moved to New York when he was 17 and soon started working in studios as well as studying at the Berkeley School of Music and Juilliard.

The revered producer Nile Rodgers became his mentor.

"When I came to New York I started assisting him and a year later I had my name on nine albums, " Levin says. "At the time I was also working in a hip-hop studio where the likes of Run DMC were recording. It was hip-hop central. And with Nile it was a B52 or Diana Ross session. I had the best of both worlds."

The first record he produced was Mica Paris's Contribution and soon he became one of New York's most sought-after R&B producers, with the likes of Chaka Khan and Tina Turner clamouring for a slice of his magic. At the same time, he was immersing himself in what he terms "the underground electronic, noise stuff". This included producing five albums with the great avant-garde musician Arto Lindsay and David Byrne. "I started shifting out of R&B back to Brazil and Latin bands, " he says.

He produced the Monterreybased cumbia-rock fusionists El Gran Silencio and Colombian alternative rock band Aterciopelados. Parallel to that he was getting involved in making records for the Red Hot Organisation, flying to Africa and Europe.

The culmination of this was Red Hot & Riot in 2002, which reproduced the music of Fela Kuti with a variety of artists. "It was a big challenge for me to produce his music without really taking away the essence of it, " Levin says.

His experiences led to the formation of Yerba Buena. "It was born from my need to mix all these urban and roots influences together. I met CuCu and she introduced me to the whole Cuban community and I introduced her to the jazz and world communities. And soon we started going on tour along with Pedro Martinez, who's the other main singer and percussionist of the band."

Follow Me lifts tracks from the band's 2003 debut album President Alien and its 2005 follow-up Island Life. Levin says it was difficult to choose 14 tracks because of the other 12 or so that got left out.

"The other stuff would also make a great record but it would be more like the African side of Yerba Buena. It's much more experimental with the African rhythms.

"Each record was inspired by trips, " he continues. "For the first record, I'd just gone to Nigeria to do the Red Hot & Riot record and was submerged in Fela. So it became a triangle of Nigerian, Cuban and New York influences.

The second has a lot of gypsy influence . . . hence the inclusion of Gogol Bordello . . . and also cumbia.

In one way, the band is a diary of my travels and also CuCu's experiences but it's also our shared experience of New York's immigrant life and all the other colours and sounds that you hear in the city."

Levin recently moved into film scoring and this autumn five films will bear his name. The biggest of these is El Cantante, the Hector Lavoe story starring Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez.

'Follow Me' is out on Wrasse Records
Cormac Larkin is on leave