The Phoenix Foundation are an indie rock band formed in Wellington, New Zealand. Founded by Conrad Wedde, Samuel Flynn Scott, and Luke Buda in 1997 while students at Wellington High School, they were joined by Tim Hansen (bass), Richie Singleton (drums) and Will Ricketts (percussion) in 2001. The band gets their name from a fictional organization on the popular television show MacGyver.[1] After playing for several years they released the China Cove EP. Their first full length album Horsepower was released by Capital Recordings in mid 2003 to critical acclaim, and was moderately successful. Horsepower included such singles as "This Charming Van" and "Let Me Die A Woman", which received extensive airplay on alternative radio stations such as 95bFM and RDU-FM. The Phoenix Foundation's second album Pegasus was released in early 2005 and again gathered further plaudits. The album was met with some commercial success, eventually obtaining Gold status in New Zealand. Warner Emery replaced Tim on bass before the recording of Pegasus.[2] The album reached Gold status for sales in New Zealand.[3] It was released by Remote Control Records in Australia in October 2006. In 2005, the Phoenix Foundation toured with the Finn Brothers and put on their own theatre tour which included shows at the Wellington Opera House and Auckland's grand St. James Theatre. In June 2005 producer Jet Jaguar released remixes of songs from Horsepower on his website which are available for download.[4] Luke Buda was the first of the group to release solo material. His 2003 EP The C-Sides met with unabashed critical acclaim in local music reviews. This recording features the long time live favourite from the early days of The Phoenix Foundation "Television Songs". Band members Luke Buda and Samuel Flynn Scott both released solo records in 2006. Buda's Special Surprise came out on Arch Hill Recordings, and showcases his love of synth pop and carefully crafted melody. Scott's record The Hunt Brings Us Life was released on Loop. It has a more ramshackle feel than the music of The Phoenix Foundation and delves deeper into the Americana that Scott's songs on Pegasus hinted at. The band recorded the original score to the Taika Waititi film Eagle vs Shark in early 2006. The film was released world-wide on Miramax at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. Following this success they also provided the score to Waititi's 2010 film, Boy. The Phoenix Foundation signed a deal with US label Young American Recordings to release their records. The first American release was Horsepower, released March 13th 2007. The Phoenix Foundation released Happy Ending, their third album, in New Zealand in September 2007. This release was a switch from the Festival arm of Warner Music Group to Flying Nun, and features the single "Bright Grey". After the release of Happy Ending, Scott and Buda again pursued solo projects. In 2008 Scott released Straight Answer Machine under the name Samuel F. Scott and the B.O.P. and Buda released Vesuvius. Wedde also released his debut solo album, Bronze. In 2009, Scott and Buda composed the soundtrack for the film Separation City, written by Scott's father, the well-known New Zealand cartoonist Tom Scott. Also in 2009, Ricketts released his debut solo album under the name Wild Bill Ricketts, entitled John Dryden and Singleton, under the name Rebel Peasant, his debiut solo album as well, entitled The Walls of the Well. The Phoenix Foundation played support to the Split Enz tour of 2008. The material The Phoenix Foundation collected between Happy Ending and Buffalo was large enough to release the Merry Kriskmass EP in December 2009. It included songs that, according to the band, wouldn't fit in to the atmosphere of their then soon to be released LP. The Phoenix Foundation's fourth album, entitled Buffalo, was released on 26 April 2010. For the first time in the history of the band, their album was released on vinyl and as digital download together with the The Do Son EP. Warner Emery left the band during the recording of Buffalo on amicable terms. He was replaced by Tom Callwood, who had previously provided double bass on the 'Merry Kriskmass' track 'Forget It', and cello onHappy Ending[5]. At the end of September, The Phoenix Foundation announced signing a record deal with UK record label Memphis Industries, which will see their award winning album Buffalo released worldwide in early 2011. The band will head to Europe in January, 2011 for a two month release tour, before returning again in mid 2011.[6] "Pot" was the first single from Buffalo released in Europe on 3rd November 2010 and is available for free download on NME.[7] The Phoenix Foundation started to receive awards with the song "The Drinker", which won Best Unreleased Song at the 2002 bNet Awards. Their first album, Horsepower was one of the most acclaimed New Zealand albums of the 2003. It was the only album to be nominated for 'Best Album' at both the Vodafone NZ Music Awards (aka the Tuis) and the bNet Awards. It was also voted the 'Best NZ Album' of 2003 by nzmusic.com and was the only New Zealand album selected in The Listener's 'Top Ten Albums of 2003' by Nick Bollinger. The video for the album's first single "Let Me Die A Woman"[8] was made by Richard Bell and went on to win the 'Knack Award' (best video made for under $5000) at the 2003 NZ Kodak Music Clip Awards. The follow up video for "Going Fishing"[9], also directed by Richard Bell, again went on to win the 'Knack Award' at the 2004 NZ Kodak Music Clip Awards as well as 'Best Cinematography' at the 2004 Handle The Jandal Awards. The band's second, NZ Music Award nominated, album Pegasus has achieved Gold status sales in New Zealand and "Damn the River"[10] won Best Pop Track at the 2006 bNet Awards. Happy Ending brought more nominations and awards. The Phoenix Foundation got five nominations for the 2008 VNZMA (in Single of the Year - for the song "Bright Grey"[11], Best Group, Best Rock Album, Best Engineer and Best Producer) out of which they received two Technical Awards. Both went to Lee Prebble of The Surgery. Buffalo, the most recent album, was nominated for 8 'Tuis'. They won all three Technical Awards announced on September 1st, 2010: Best Producer (the band for producing the album Buffalo), Best Engineer (Lee Prebble for the album Buffalo) and Best Album Cover (Paul Johnson for Buffalo). On October 7th, The Phoenix Foundation won the NZ Music Award for Best Group (they were also nominated in Album of the Year, Single of the Year - for the song Buffalo, Best Rock Album and Best Music Video - Nathan Hickey for the music video Buffalo[12]). The band's soundtrack for Boy won Best Original Music in a Feature Film at the Qantas Film and Television Awards 2010.[13] |
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