Celestial, twinkling _{by Madelaine Empson}

With a hot new single imminent, Luke Buda – founding member of The Phoenix Foundation – is finally taking his talented band on tour. Together with Olivia Campion (Yumi Zouma, Mystery Waitress, Grayson Gilmour), Jacqui Nyman (Bret McKenzie, Grayson Gilmour), and Anita Clark (Motte, Lawrence Arabia, Don McGlashan, and The Phoenix Foundation), Buda will play two intimate headline shows down south before shooting up to the North Island to meet up with Pheobe Rings for a killer double-header at Meow on the 19^th of April.

Celestial band Pheobe Rings orbits around songwriter Crystal Choi – the rings, if you will. Choi and Benjamin Locke (Sea Views), Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent (LuckyBoy), and Alex Freer (A.C. Freazy) made their debut at Outsider Sounds Festival in February 2020 and released their debut EP in August 2021. They’ve been touring pretty relentlessly ever since.

Buda says Pheobe Rings’ music feels like a soft, fluffy pillow around his ears.

“I was on the lookout for a cool act to play these shows with when I heard Phoebe Ring’s last single 아스라이 (Aseurai) and immediately fell in love with it.”

Pheobe Rings have been fans of Buda’s musical projects throughout the years – especially his recent solo material. They say he rocks hard and has a killer live band!

While Buda loves to rock out, he says that with a shared love of fun sounds – “little twinkly keyboard, distant strings, supreme 70s FM vocal harmonies” – this will be a gig of pretty music.