Sometimes on a record, it pays to set the tone early. When you hear the first notes of ‘Cheshire,” the opening track on Phoebe Rings’ debut EP, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled upon an undiscovered Stereolab B-side.
“Cheshire” is pure, glossy dream-pop, the kind of song Stereolab poured out effortlessly, and the kind Phoebe Rings are quickly learning to master.
The Tāmaki Makaurau quartet clearly don’t mind being compared to their ’90s predecessors (and why would they?), but their style of dream-pop is more gentle than droning, more breezy than dizzying.
Following “Cheshire” are five equally charming and twinkling dream-pop gems, culminating in the perfect record for this time of year; when spring has fully settled in and blue caresses previously grey skies.
Leading the band from the front is Crystal Choi, but her career in music could have gone a lot differently. Trained as a pianist at a jazz school, the Korean-New Zealand musician never found her groove within the genre, admitting, “I got very sick of jazz… I just didn’t want that sound anymore.”
She fell in love instead with Stereolab and countless other dream-pop luminaries. “It fits the vibe and visuals of where I wanted to go,” Choi says.
Choi may be the band’s primary songwriter, but she’s joined in the lineup by several notable local musicians: Alex Freer on drums, Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent on guitar and synths, and Benjamin Locke on bass. In true DIY fashion, all four have outside projects – Kavanagh-Vincent is also a prominent member of Princess Chelsea‘s band, Freer moonlights as his solo project A.C. Freazy – but they’ve found a cosy communal haven as Phoebe Rings.
Freer puts it best: “Everyone is very selfless and in service of the music. We’re all on the same mission statement… We might add an interesting spice, but everyone wants to make a good soup.”
This Friday, October 18th, is set to be one of the biggest days of Phoebe Rings’ career to date.
Previously released in 2021, their self-titled EP will be reissued via Carpark Records (an excellent home for the band; the US-based label has previously supported fellow Aotearoa bands like The Beths and Hans Pucket), and they’ll also perform at Rolling Stone House at SXSW Sydney, providing some feel-good, mellow moments before the frenetic 9lives takes over at night.
They’ll then return to New Zealand for a national tour in November, stopping in Christchurch, Auckland, and Wellington to celebrate their EP.
To celebrate Phoebe Rings’ forthcoming Rolling Stone House performance, we caught up with Choi to find out more about their music and more. Read the full interview below.
SXSW Sydney badge holders will have priority access to Rolling Stone House, which opens its doors from October 16th-18th, in partnership with American Apparel, Cholula and Vinyl.com.
If you’re keen to experience the whole event and receive priority access, consider purchasing a badge or wristband here or register your interest for the guest list here.
Phoebe Rings’ self-titled EP is out Friday, October 18th via Carpark Records. Tickets to their New Zealand tour can be purchased here.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: First of all, are you looking forward to playing at SXSW Sydney?
Crystal Choi: Yes, we’re super excited!
Will this be the band’s first time playing in Australia?
Yes, and the first overseas show as well.
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Describe Phoebe Rings to a new listener in one sentence.
We play dreamy pop songs with bleepy synths
Do you have any particular favourite dream-pop bands?
Too many bands to choose from but I’ve been really loving Melody’s Echo Chamber recently! Love the unique song form, sound and harmony, and the melody really sticks!
It’s so nicely typical of the Auckland music scene that the band is made up of musicians from several other projects. When did you realise the four of you had something really strong and special working together as Phoebe Rings?
Great question! Well, what I feel particularly lucky about this band is that we’re all songwriters. I think our playing reflects that: I can hear that everyone thinks about how to make the whole song sound great rather than their own playing, whether it’s guitar tone, bassline, drum fills, or synth sounds. We also realised that our taste matches really well and what each one brings to the band makes the band into something we like better and better.
What’s the songwriting and recording process like within the band? Do you lead the way or is it more of a communal effort?
The EP recording happened in and out of lockdown so our process was quite mixed – I remember the strings recording for “Cheshire” was done when we were out of lockdown so we were able to track it altogether, but the other parts were recorded individually in our own studio/bedroom.
The EP songs are all written by me and the arrangement was sometimes fully formed and sometimes a bit more stripped out. But the next release is going to feature everyone’s amazing writing so stay tuned!
Tell me about your new single “Cheshire.” What’s it about?
It’s about wanting to embrace myself the way I am, which I struggled to do at the time, but I didn’t want to write about that feeling in an overly emotional or self-pitying way, so I gave a lighter and more whimsical character to it. The reason why the title’s “Cheshire” is because the moments I do embrace myself smiles and disappears like the Cheshire cat.
What themes do you explore on the EP?
When it comes to the lyrical content I think there’s a common theme of introspective things – wanting to embrace myself, challenging my passiveness, loneliness, feeling stuck in life etc.
I think those more heavier and bitter things have all been packaged with sweet, dreamy and groovy music which are all things that I really like!
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Are you excited for your new EP to be out in the world? What do you hope listeners get out of the record?
Yep! For NZ audiences it’s maybe not as new because it’s been out before in 2021, but it’s out again with the new single “Daisy”. It comes in a vinyl too, so we’re happy to see it get another life. If we could make the listeners smilin’ and head boppin’, we couldn’t be happier!
What else do you have coming up this year? An NZ tour?
Yes! To celebrate our first vinyl release we’ll be playing in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
