Psychedelic pop hits town
Flamingo Pier takes over Seek this weekend to share their chill unique sounds at their first Queenstown show. They head here off the back of touring Bali, the UK, New York and Mexico, and the tour is in support Beneath The Neon EP, which came out on 1 September.
Luke Walker, Dominic Jones and Brad Craig make up the trio, who were born and raised in New Zealand, but schooled in London. Their sound is described as having electronic heft weighted lightly with tropical sounds atop influences pouring in from all directions. While their other EPs had been worked on as each member was in a different corner of the world, Beneath The Neon is the first time the band have worked together from Auckland. The result is a more joyful, fun, percussive sound.
“We’ve got a studio in Luke’s basement, in Mt Eden,” Jones says. “We’ve only actually all been back living in New Zealand together since Covid happened. So we built a studio in his basement over Covid times, and it’s actually meant that it’s way easier for us to produce new music faster than we used to, being in different countries before.
“Luke’s the production side of it – he’s the recording and the beats. Me and Brad are more guitars, vocals, melodies, and we’ve just got quite a good workflow together – we each add different elements, having different strengths, and work together well with those. This EP came together pretty quickly, to be honest, and our workflow is way faster now that we’ve got our own studio.”
The band came together as they all worked in music in NZ. Craig and Jones previously played in university bands in NZ, Craig’s band Two Cartoons out of Dunedin, ended up in London. While they have an indie-rock influence, the band have certainly embraced the unique music styles that make up Aotearoa.
“A lot of New Zealand music is Summery, rootsy, dub, all that sort of vibe absolutely has an influence on our music, which I think is quite summer-vibes, positive energy. It has that influence, which I think 100% comes from New Zealand summertime and growing up around bands like Fat Freddy’s Drop. It may not always come through in the sound, but it's there subconsciously – it’s such a big part of our music."
Prior to all being based in NZ, they would send stuff over the internet and “work in bits and bobs,” but were never all in the same room for the prior EPs. Since moving to NZ, Jones explains that decisions can be made much quicker, but some things are still done individually.
“Most of this EP was written together, some of the stuff was recorded in London. One of the remixes, a song ‘Remedy’ on the EP has the JKrive Steve Monite remix. Steve is sort of a boogie disco legend from Nigeria, and that stuff was recorded in London. So, some of it was done separately and overseas, but most of it’s done in our studio in Mt Eden these days, if we can.”
Flamingo Pier will play at Seek this Saturday, 14 October, with tickets on sale at the door. You can listen to their tunes and find more information on the band and tour at flamingopier.net
