The Phoenix Foundation return with new single ‘Give Up Your Dreams,’. The song is is frank and funny de-glamourisation of life in a band spurred on by a conversation with dear friend, collaborator, and fellow New Zealander Lawrence Arabia.
Co-front man Samuel Flynn Scott: I wrote GUYD after listening to the Sonic Youth album Goo and the whole thing was about giving up on our aspirations. I intended it to be really clangy and noisy but it turns out it was actually an anti-motivational aerobics pop smash. Definitely one of those that didn’t know what it was until the band got hold of it, played it live, changed it, played it live, changed it again etc. The end result is very pleasing to me. It’s almost enough to make me dream again.
Listen to ‘Give Up Your Dreams’ BELOW:
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After huge success, sales and awards in their homelands it was 2011’s breakthrough album Buffalo and 2013’s colossal double album Fandango that saw the band reach a more global audience – 5 star reviews, appearances on Later… with Jools Holland and Glastonbury followed. Which brings us to Give up Your Dreams, the sound of a band with the pressure-off, embracing a freedom to explore and hone their sound at their own pace.
Channelling Fandango’s beauteous side, but this time fuelled by a spit ball of irrepressible energy, Give up Your Dreams feels like the band’s most contemporary offering yet. With the new addition of drummer Chris O’Connor, the album was written taking its lead from the rhythm section for the very first time; paving the way for an all new creative process. I was convinced we had to have a different sounding record, explains Scott’s counterpart singer/guitarist Lukasz Buda. So we completely removed any trace of acoustic guitar. It was important to leave room for the band to take it somewhere else and make way for a new vitality.
After 15 years together, this album feels like a total rebirth to us” reveals Buda “it’s uplifting feel comes as an act of defiance against all our fears in life.
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