The Phoenix Foundation Announce 'Friend Ship' Tour Of Aotearoa

It’s been an action-packed day of announcements for The Phoenix Foundation, who'll be embarking on their first nationwide tour of Aotearoa in five years this November, celebrating the launch of their seventh studio album Friend Ship. Spearheaded by the Taite-nominated songwriting talents of Samuel Flynn Scott and Lukasz Buda alongside Conrad Wedde, Tom Callwood, Will Ricketts and percussionist extraordinaire Chris O'Connor, the Pōneke sonic adventurers’ long-awaited record “stands for the power of friends and communities to carry us through life, for better or worse.” Featuring contributions from Nadia Reid, Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins) and Anita Clark (Motte), Friend Ship promises nothing less than “the full glory of the NZSO, a Polish choir, disco pop about archaic forms of communication and the true origin story of the band.”

With a fanbase including such earth-shaking figures as Taika Waititi (with whom the band have created soundtracks for Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Boy and Eagle vs Shark) and Jarvis Cocker (who featured them on his 2019 Sunday Service compilation), The Phoenix Foundation have doubled today’s excitement with the release of their lush single ‘Hounds Of Hell’ featuring Nadia Reid, and the news Friend Ship is launching in a variety of formats on 16th October. A spine-tingling cinematic epic reportedly stemming from a humble harpsichord motif, the new song’s proggy instrumental intricacies recall Ennio Morricone and Goblin’s works for Italian horror film legend Dario Argento at their most ornate. Accompanied by a vivid clip directed by Anita Fontaine, starring Samuel Flynn Scott and Nadia Reid (in a post-apocalyptic take on Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s collaborative hit ‘Don’t Give Up), and created with the support of NZ On Air, you can enjoy ‘Hounds Of Hell’ below and commit the following dates to your diary for The Phoenix Foundation’s Friend Ship tour…

UTR proudly presents…

The Phoenix Foundation - Friend Ship tour of Aotearoa

Friday 6th November - St Peter's Hall, Paekākāriki
Thursday 12th November - Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
Friday 13th November - Starters, Dunedin
Thursday 19th November - Totara St, Mount Maunganui
Friday 20th November - Sawmill Cafe, Leigh
Saturday 21st November - Powerstation, Auckland
Friday 27th November - The Cabana, Napier
Saturday 28th November - The Opera House, Wellington

Tickets available via Banished Music from 9am, Friday 14th August

’Friend Ship’ releases on Friday 16th October, preorders are available here.

Press release:

On the band's first nationwide tour in 5 years, they will perform 8 dates across Aotearoa this November. Celebrating the expansive new album Friend Ship ; a post-apocalyptic love letter from the future to the present and the soundtrack to the swirling oblivion that is 2020.

The Phoenix Foundation have lived many lives. From high school distortion addicts to indie folk trippers to masters of motorik dream pop. It’s been five years since GUYD but that down time has been spent writing, recording, touring with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, creating the acclaimed soundtrack for Hunt For The Wilderpeople, building shrines to light, creating scores for VR, producing other bands, baking sourdough. Slowly, when they could, the six old friends found time to work together in studios, garages, forests, and sheds around New Zealand to put together the concise ten song set of that is Friend Ship. Featuring Nadia Reid, Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins) and Anita Clark (Motte) their 7th album is both a classic collection of Phoenixy songs and a new palette of sounds and characters.

Both Lukasz and Samuel’s songs delve into the dissatisfied confusion of contemporary content dominated life (a working title was The Age Of Anxiety). The album also features the full glory of the NZSO, a Polish choir, disco pop about archaic forms of communication and the true origin story of the band; Lukasz’s tale of moving to NZ from communist Poland and how hard that was until the arrival of cherry red strat in his life.

Friend Ship stands for the power of friends and communities to carry us through life, for better or worse. After 20 years the band has had its internal ups and downs but in this rather brutal time in history it’s our genuine friendships that can move us through to a potentially brighter, more equal, less pandemicy future. “I will answer when you call me on the Landline.”