Close to a decade from their final public performance, Powderfinger have returned with the new single, “Day by Day”. Released today, the track is the first taste of a forthcoming record of unreleased material, announced by the group last month.
“We were in putting together Odyssey Number Five 20th anniversary release and we went back and found like 50 songs that we had never released,” drummer Jon Coghill explained during an interview with Double J. “And we’ve got the 10 best, we think.
“There’s gonna be a new album this year at some stage. New songs. No one’s heard any of them. And it sounds pretty good to us. It’s been put together really well.”
Now, the first taste of this record has arrived, with “Day by Day” being released this morning. Originally recorded during the sessions to 2003’s Vulture Street, the song is a perfect example of the slick rock being produced by the Brisbane outfit during this era.
“‘Day by Day’ was never completed until we opened the archives and went sniffing around for tracks that had never been released,” frontman Bernard Fanning explained in a statement.
“We never even really had a rough mix of it as we had obviously decided at the time that it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the songs on that album. Looking back now, I’m not sure why and I’m actually amazed we didn’t find a place for it on the record. Once we found it, we had Nick Didia remix it and get it into shape.
“Like a few other songs on Vulture Street, it deals with the temporary nature of life and is a call to live in the moment, to be present.”
The song is also set to be accompanied by a music video, which is on track to premiere on YouTube at 5:30pm AEST this afternoon.
Despite this recent hive of activity within the Powderfinger camp, which included their one-off One Night Lonely performance, guitarist Darren Middleton used their recent Double J interview to urge fans not to hold to hold their breath for a fully-fledged reunion any time soon.
“There’s no plans to do any more live lockdown videos or record any new songs or write any new songs together,” he explained. “But, things change. Your views, thoughts and feelings and maybe even some of your memories change. Life’s short, we’ll wait and see what happens. But there’s absolutely no plans to record new material.”
Powderfinger’s “Day by Day” is available for streaming now. Its official music video will premiere via YouTube at 5:30pm AEST.
