Iconic and beloved Australian band Powderfinger have graced our ears with the news of a new album of unreleased songs, as well as a new single that will be released later this month.
Powderfinger are giving us something very special to look forward to this year with the announcement of a new record after a long 10-year hiatus. With unreleased music and a new single to look forward to, this legendary Aussie band knows exactly how to spruce up 2020.
In an interview with Caz Tran on Double J, guitarist Darren Middleton and drummer Jon Coghill revealed that in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their Odyssey Number Five album they will be opening up their archives to share unreleased music.
“We were in putting together Odyssey Number Five 20th anniversary release and we went back and found like 50 songs that we had never released,” Coghill says. “And we’ve got the 10 best, we think.
The ten-track record that is yet to have a release date will include songs that the band put on the back burner dating back to 1998, the year they released their third album Internationalist. Powderfinger explained to Double J that at the time some songs in their archives didn’t align with their musical purpose.
“Essentially what you’re going to hear is the band spanning about 10 years, with songs that for one reason or another just didn’t make the cut at the time, or just didn’t suit the purposes of whatever we were doing,” Middleton said.
“There’s gonna be a new album this year at some stage. New songs. No one’s heard any of them. And it sounds pretty good to us. It’s been put together really well.”
There is currently no release date for the upcoming album however Middleton and Coghill revealed that Powderfinger fans can expect to hear the new record in a matter of weeks.
“It’s really good!” Middleton says.
“It’s probably our best album yet,” Coghill laughs.
The legendary band is also releasing a new single taken from the forthcoming album that is called ‘Day By Day’. The track will be released Friday, September 18 making it the first released since their final studio album Golden Rule in 2009.
Powderfinger enlisted the help of American record producer, engineer, and mixer Nick DiDia who produced four of the band’s biggest past albums.
“We had Nick DiDia come on board again,” Middleton says.
“It won’t be a scratchy collection of demos, as the band brought in the pros to make sure it all works together cohesively.”
Unfortunately for Powderfinger fans, the band have disclosed that they won’t be recording any new material or performing for any livestreams in the foreseeable future.
“There’s no plans to do any more live lockdown videos or record any new songs or write any new songs together,” Middleton says.
“But, things change. Your views, thoughts and feelings and maybe even some of your memories change. Life’s short, we’ll wait and see what happens. But there’s absolutely no plans to record new material.”
The band has been on a decade long hiatus since they announced they were parting ways in April 2010 and played their last gig in November 2010. The band split after seven albums together and two decades of playing as a band.
Powderfinger reunited in May for a one-night livestream special called ‘One Night Lonely’, raising funds for Beyond Blue and Support Act which support the struggling music industry throughput the current coronavirus pandemic.
We’ll all be eagerly awaiting the release of Powderfinger’s archival album and their new single ‘Day By Day’, out September 18!
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