French for Rabbits
RELEASE NEW ALBUM
The Overflow – Out NOW
New Zealand dream-pop luminaries French for Rabbits have dedicated nearly a decade to creating warmly detailed and expansive music together. Today they release their prophetic third LP The Overflow. The LP arrives via AAA records (NZ/AUS), Reckless Yes (UK) and A Modest Proposal (Italy) and is out in digital formats, CD, and on limited-edition vinyl. The album follows on from their elegantly stated second LP The Weight of Melted Snow and their 2014 break-out Spirits.
With hints of psychedelia and folk – the five-piece offer masterful musicality, gossamer vocals and storytelling across the ten tracks which celebrates the introverts’ spirit, and expresses nostalgia in climate grief – with understated strength and breathtaking fragility.
Prior to release, the band shared videos for album singles ‘The Overflow,’ ‘Ouija Board,’ ‘The Outsider’ and ‘Walk the Desert’ working alongside director Martin Sagadin (Aldous Harding, Marlon Williams) to create a visual world around the record.
Led by songwriter and producer Brooke Singer, the project came to life when she started working with guitarist John Fitzgerald in the coastal township of Waikuku Beach back in 2012. His minimalist, shimmering guitar lines proved to be the backbone of their early work, and over the years the band has expanded to include multi-instrumentalists Ben Lemi and Penelope Esplin alongside drummer Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa. The Overflow was recorded with NZ producer/musician Jol Mulholland (Tami Neilson, Neil Finn, Delaney Davidson, Troy Kingi) in Wellington at The Surgery and in Auckland at The Lab, with mastering by Carl Saff in Chicago.
On the album, the group offer up their most compelling, vibrant work. Recorded in 2020, but written across the years prior, the songs on The Overflow explore contemporary themes from digital dystopias (‘Passengers’), climate change (‘Nothing in my Hands’), to having it all (‘Money or the Bag’) but ultimately this is a work portraying the world through an introvert’s lens.
Brooke Singer (vocalist/producer) says of the record, “I wrote these songs sitting on my bed, at my piano, and on some trips overseas where I got to explore songwriting in more detail than I have before – a chance to push the boundaries. The band pulled them apart and put them back together, and I’m really proud of what we all made – this reflection of self.
It’s hopefully, like a warming cup of tea, but accompanied by a very serious newspaper….something that makes you calm, but also makes you think”.
French for Rabbits
Photo credit: Lily Paris West
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