Soaked Oats welcome you to their world and the way it works with their debut album Working Title.
On Working Title, Soaked Oats delve wider into the worlds of their beloved songwriters, drawing influences from funk, psychedelia, electronica and hip hop to deliver their strongest piece of work yet.
Written and recorded over the last eighteen months, the New Zealand four-piece group’s first full-length album explores the contrasting ways we perceive and interact with the world, how we define ourselves through work, And the subtle shift from viewing objects in the world as fixed ‘things’, to experiencing them as processes and interactions unfolding.
Produced by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams, The Chills), engineered by Tom Bell (David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights), and mastered by Christian Wright (Abbey Road Studios, Fontaines DC), the album delves into new sonic territory, with inspiration coming from 60’s psychedelia and dance-rock among others
The majority of recording took place in a community hall in the remote township of Okuru, Haast, situated on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island where the coastal road ends at the foot of Mt. Aspiring National Park. Partly in response to that isolated landscape, Working Title has unfolded as a more introspective offering from a band known for their cheerful sound.
Being a community hall in a small township, there was an open door policy and visitors were frequent, including a local school group, a Hare Krishna who had boyhood memories of the hall parties of yesteryear, and kind locals that would turn up with delicious freshly caught kaimoana (seafood). The visitors saw their beloved community hall transformed into a music studio with a blanket drum room and recording gear encircling the band. The gear was transported via multiple van-loads across the island in a five-hour haul from the iconic recording studio, Chicks Hotel, in Port Chalmers, Otago.
CCTV cameras were placed inside the hall to capture the recording sessions as a document of the process. Slices of the moving montage have been pieced together as the visual representation for the lead single, ‘The Way It Works’.
Of the first single, lead vocalist Oscar Mein reveals, “A dream got me started on this song and the record as a whole. A pretty dreadful dream where a giant arm reached out from the dark to greet me, and each time I tried to shake it, my hand would go limp and slip away, or I’d get hold of a finger and cling on. The more desperately I tried to shake the hand, the more I sensed this impatience and disappointment growing from who or whatever was on the other side.
We tried recording it a few times over the month we were in Haast. Each time it knotted the stomach of the room, and we’d have to take a break till it became this almost taboo thing to bring up. Finally, on one of our last nights in the hall – having recorded the bones of the record – we decided to let loose a touch to see what happened. Like a child we’d accidentally scared off, the song cautiously came back into the room, parts began building, the hand reached out, and we received it. And that is the way…”
Watch the ‘The Way It Works’ video here:
Okuru Hall, Haast – South Westland. Aotearoa/New Zealand
Soaked Oats percolated into existence in Dunedin, New Zealand in 2017. Catapulted by their fast-evolving song-writing chops, the band’s profile and fanbase are on the rise. The group have become known for endearing performances and live shows that have granted them access to tours and festival appearances throughout the UK, America and Australasia.
Having released a chapter of e.p.’s covering the important issues of Stoned Fruit (2017), No Slip Ups (2017) and Sludge Pop (2019), the band were cooking with gas playing the bigger festivals including The Great Escape, Laneway, Rhythm & Alps, and WOMAD. Alongside a three-week tour of the U.S. in 2019, the band have been welcomed so warmly across the ditch in Australia – they’ve toured there five times with two more tours in the works.
Their thoughtful lyricism, guitar-driven indie-pop sounds and renowned live shows have seen them receive triple j airplay, NZ Alternative Radio no.1 slots, and over 11 million streams on Spotify building devoted local and global fanbases.
Throughout the pandemic, Soaked Oats have been refining their performance and songwriting and have recently completed recording their debut album which they are excited to present to the world in 2022.
The band flew to Australia in August for a whip-around ‘Road Test’ tour of the new songs and will return in September to showcase as one of six New Zealand acts at Australia’s premiere showcase event, Big Sound, in Brisbane Sep 6-9.
Tues, Sep 6th – The Prince Consort Hotel – Tue, 6 Sep 2022, 11:40 pm – 12.10am
Wed, Sep 7th – Blute’s Bar – Wed, 7 Sep 2022, 8:00 pm – 8.30pm
Album release shows across Australasia and the U.S. to be announced for 2023.
Soaked Oats – Working Title
Dot Dash
Album Release: November 18, 2022
PreOrder/PreSave Working Title: https://soaked-oats.lnk.to/workingtitle
1. The Way It Works
2. Behind Their Years
3. Divide Symbol ft. Church
4. Headline Opinion
5. Something
6. Simple Pleasures
7. Pink Beach ft. Motte
8. Lake Ellery
9. Dæmon
10. Day To Day
FOLLOW SOAKED OATS
Official Website: soakedoatsband.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soakedoats/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soakedoatsband/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soakedoatsband
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SoakedOats
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/soakedoats
Bandcamp: https://soakedoats.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6J6UC5lC7h9fEJPCR7UM4m
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/soaked-oats/1220156557
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B06XWVFG7B/soaked-oats
