Two Free Hands release, EP pre-order and New Zealand tour
I'm excited to release 'Two Free Hands' - the first song to come from the last two years of experimentation and touring.
The song was produced and recorded by Jonathan Pearce and myself, and features Anna Coddington on vocals, Stu Harwood on percussion and Octatrack, and Elizabeth Stokes on French Horn. Daniel Blackball Alexander, once again has made the artwork. We're getting the old band back together.
On October 27, I'm also releasing an EP to go with the song, which includes a remix and collaboration with Jet Jaguar, the moniker of Wellington electronic producer Michael Upton, and a reworking of a song fromSuccessor which has changed shape in my live set. This is an EP in the orginal, 'Extended Player' sense - a collection of songs that expand on a single song, rather than the modern, mini-album sense.
While Two Free Hands is available on all good (and malignant) streaming services, the EP will only be available through this store and Bandcamp. It will be available digitally and on CD. You can pre-order it now from here.
I’m taking all this around New Zealand in November with a set of shows that include an art gallery, a museum, and that great Grey Lynn meeting point - Freida Margolis. For those who didn't see my set supporting The Chills in May, this song plants the flag in the ground for what the set will sound like. I'm going to be taking my personal take on semi-electronic music into intimate, refined venues, with all shows to start a little earlier than the average nightclub.
The new music has partially developed out of touring overseas as a solo performer, and looking for ways to expand the sound with strange and wonderful technology, like my home-built matrix mixer made in a workshop run by the Music Electronics Library, or my new Synthstrom Deluge. In this new music, I've been trying hard to play with electronic elements the way I feel an instrumentalist should - in way that is fragile, different every time, and takes repetitive practice and concentration to keep together. I've never made music that is easy to dance to, and learning to use a drum machine hasn't helped. However I think can bring a electronic music into an intimate environment and play it in a way that is not so different to the unamplified shows I once did at Freida's or Inch bar.
I'm also using this opportunity to launch this website. You can now buy tickets and merchandise directly from me, with no middle people. You can buy some things you'll find nowhere else - like the instrumental tracks to Successor As time goes on I'll be populating these page with lines of communication that feel true and necessary, while my social media presence becomes all the more dedicated to short, practical news and updates.
Two Free Hands New Zealand Tour
Sunday, November 5: Christchurch - Blue Smoke, early show at 4 pm,
Thursday, November 9: Dunedin - Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 7.30pm
Friday, November 17: Wellington - After Hours at Wellington Museum, 8.30pm
Sunday and Monday, November 19 and 20: Auckland - Freida Margolis, 7.30 pm