Phoebe Rings have announced their long-awaited debut album, Aseurai.
Originally the songwriting vehicle of former jazz school student Crystal Choi (watch her INTROS episode here), Phoebe Rings’ forthcoming album sees the whole band – Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent (guitar/synth), Benjamin Locke (bass), and Alex Freer (drums/production) – get in on the songwriting fun.
“I feel more precious about this LP because it includes everyone’s gems. The broth is richer with more cooks in the kitchen, and the brewing of textures creates a distinct ‘Phoebe Rings’ sound,” Choi says.
Aseurai is set to incorporate disco and city-pop flourishes into the band’s traditional dream-pop sound. As for the album title? It’s as poetic as you might expect from a dream-pop band. “Aseurai means around you in the atmosphere, hard to reach, fading away,” Choi explains. “It’s a poetic expression. You wouldn’t say it in normal conversation, but I like that.”
To celebrate today’s album announcement, Phoebe Rings have shared a pair of new single, “Drifting” and the title track. Listen to both below.
Aseurai will be released on June 6th via Carpark Records, who reissued their 2021 self-titled EP late last year.
Phoebe Rings impressed at Rolling Stone House at SXSW Sydney last October, before they returned to Aotearoa for a national tour in celebration of their reissued EP.
Ahead of their Rolling Stone House performance, Choi had lots of praise for her bandmates.
“[…] 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,” she told us. “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.”
If you’re in New Zealand through March and April, you can catch Phoebe Rings play shows in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch. Tickets are available here.
Phoebe Rings’ Aseurai is out June 6th via Carpark Records (pre-order here).
