The Phoenix Foundation: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
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Formed:

Jan 1, 1997 in Wellington, New Zealand

Genre:

Rock Music

Decades Active:

2000's

Luke Buda, Conrad Wedde and Samuel Flynn Scott are three guys from New Zealand who grew up listening to Pantera, Slayer and Sepultura and decided to form a band. However, the band they formed, the Phoenix Foundation, suggested they left all their adolescent influences at the door once they picked up guitars embracing a sound that incorporates the pastoral calm of altcountry and freak folk as well as the cool passion and sonic wanderlust of indie rock, the Phoenix Foundation play smart, mature and expressive pop music that has made them one of the most successful independent acts to emerge from New Zealand in recent years. Singer and guitarist Scott, guitarist and keyboard man Wedde, and Buda on vocals, guitars and keyboards formed the Phoenix Foundation in 1997, but spent their first two years woodshedding and mapping out their creative direction. The Phoenix Foundation released their first EP, China Cove, in 2000, and a year later the band grew to a sixpiece with the addition of bassist Tim Hansen, drummer Richie Singleton and percussionist Will Ricketts. The new edition of the group began writing and recording songs in their home studio, and one of the tracks that emerged, "The Drinker", was named "Best Unreleased Song of 2001" by the New Zealand radio outlet Bnet. The band earned a similar accolade in 2002, when "Blue Summer" became the year's most played song on New Zealand independent radio. That same year, the band booked time with producer Lee Prebble to record their debut album, Horsepower; released in 2003, the disc was a major critical success in New Zealand, and the following year the album was released in Australia, where the band again earned enthusiastic reviews. In 2005, Hansen left the group and Warner Emery stepped in on bass; the Phoenix Foundation also recorded and released their second album, Pegasus, and supported it with extensive touring in New Zealand and Australia, including a wellreceived spot at the Aussie "Big Day Out" Festival and a soldout hometown gig at the Wellington Botanical Gardens. In 2006, the group's own Caravan Records label established an American branch to release Horsepower in the United States; the band also came to America for the first time to play a few East Coast shows.

- Mark Deming, All Music Guide