* En anglais uniquement
Embracing the pastoral calm of alt-country and the passion of indie rock,
the Phoenix Foundation are one of the most successful independent acts to emerge from New Zealand in the early 2000s.
Buffalo was their international breakthrough, earning them an audience outside their homeland in 2010, and 2013's
Fandango was an ambitious double-length album that gave them an opportunity to work out their ideas at greater length.
The Phoenix Foundation were formed in 1997 by singer and guitarist Samuel Flynn Scott, guitarist and keyboard man Conrad Wedde, and
Luke Buda on vocals, guitars, and keyboards. Though they grew up listening to
Pantera,
Slayer, and
Sepultura, they were eager to explore other sounds and spent their first two years woodshedding and mapping out their creative direction.
The Phoenix Foundation released their first EP, China Cove, in 2000. A year later, the band grew to a six-piece with the addition of bassist
Tim Hansen, drummer
Richie Singleton, and percussionist Will Ricketts.
That edition of the group began writing and recording songs in their home studio, and one of the tracks that emerged, "The Drinker," was named Best Unreleased Song of 2001 by the New Zealand radio outlet bNet. The band earned a similar accolade in 2002, when "Blue Summer" became the year's most-played song on New Zealand independent radio. They soon booked time with producer
Lee Prebble to record their debut album,
Horsepower. Released in 2003, it was a major critical success in New Zealand, and the following year, the album was released in Australia, where the band again earned enthusiastic reviews. In 2005,
Hansen left and
Warner Emery stepped in on bass.
The Phoenix Foundation also recorded and released their second album, Pegasus, and supported it with extensive touring in New Zealand and Australia, including a well-received spot at the Aussie Big Day Out Festival and a sold-out hometown gig at the Wellington Botanical Gardens.
In 2006, the group's own Caravan Records label established an American branch to release
Horsepower in the United States; the band also came to America for the first time to play a few East Coast shows. They began scoring for films, with Eagle vs. Shark released in June of 2007, followed that same year by their third studio album,
Happy Ending. Their fourth LP,
Buffalo, arrived in 2010, and shortly thereafter, they signed with British label Memphis Industries, which gave
Buffalo a worldwide release. The year 2010 saw the premiere of the movie Boy, for which the band wrote and performed the score. Recording at
Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios, they delivered the ambitious double-album
Fandango in 2013. Sporting a new member in drummer
Chris O'Connor,
the Phoenix Foundation released their rhythm- and synth-heavy sixth album
Give Up Your Dreams in the summer of 2015. Members of the band wrote the score for Taika Waititi's 2016 comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople under the alias Moniker. 2020's
Friend Ship found the group recording most of the material in their home studios while using orchestral arrangements for their more ambitious compositions. Singer and songwriter
Nadia Reid guested on the song "Hounds of Hell." ~ Mark Deming