Exclusive: Phoebe Rings Are in the Pocket on New Single “Get Up”

We’ve been rocking with Phoebe Rings for a minute now, as the New Zealand pop band’s debut EP left its mark on us last year. Now, the four-piece’s first proper full-length, Aseurai, is out on June 6 via Carpark. “Aseurai means around you in the atmosphere, hard to reach, fading away,” bandleader Crystal Choi says. “It’s a poetic expression. You wouldn’t say it in normal conversation, but I like that.”

Phoebe Rings’ new single “Get Up” is a special one too, as it marks the vocal debut of bassist Benjamin Locke. “This was written in a period where I was listening to a lot of disco, particularly Nile Rodgers productions (Chic, Sister Sledge),” Locke says. “Around a similar time I rewatched The Matrix. In the opening scene, Trinity is being chased by agents and says to herself ‘Get up Trinity, just get up.’ I thought the notion of willing yourself to get up could be interesting to play around with and that scene stuck with me for a bit. In older disco tracks there is often this imperative language (‘Everybody Dance!,’ ‘Leave your cares behind’)—‘Get up, just get up’ just kind of fell into place. We gave it a pretty comprehensive disco treatment with lots of strings, BVs, and a searing Arp solo.”

True to his word, “Get Up” winks with restraint. The song’s climax, a buzzing guitar solo three minutes in, is baked into this swirling menagerie of sun-spotted, jazz-tinged percussion but never fully erupts. There are no distracting bells and whistles. Here more than ever, Choi, Locke, drummer Alex Freer, and guitarist/synthesist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent are sharply in the pocket that makes them terrific.