2025 has been an eventful year with Phoebe Rings, touring through Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, including festival spots at Mystic Love & Dub and Asian Pop Festival, as well as support for Japanese Breakfast and The Beths.
Back at home in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, following their album release show, and before heading out on their debut USA tour, the band returned to the studio to record a pair of cover songs, this first one being a version of Beach House's "Astronaut", from their 2008 sophomore album, "Devotion".
With debut album "Aseurai" being released through US label Carpark Records, the band came across the first two Beach House albums while combing through the alumni and discography of the label. "For a few of us, those first two Beach House albums stand out as being very formative", says drummer Alex Freer, with guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent pointing out Heart Of Chambers and Astronaut as two stand out tracks. There's similarities in both artists' approach to the dream/chamber pop genre, and "Astronaut" aligned nicely with the space theming ('Phoebe Rings' are named after the 'Phoebe ring' of the planet Saturn). The band also found commonality in the harmony and melodic approach to their own music in the original, specifically pointing to the 'slash chords' and flowing melody.
Replacing drum machine and organ bass with bass guitar and drums, the band also add pedal steel and twinkling omnichord to align the arrangement closer to the Phoebe Rings sound world. Vocalist and keyboard player Crystal Choi's voice, although in a vastly different range to Beach House's Victoria Legrand's, soars with the same dream like quality in the song's climax, ably joined by Kavanagh-Vincent on backing vocals. Juno and guitar play the cross-rhythm counter-melody from the original, with buoyant bass fills from Locke.
Drums and keys were recorded as a foundation in Freer's home studio in Mount Eden, with Kavanagh-Vincent working close by in central Auckland, and bassist Ben Locke recording remotely from his home in London. The song was mixed by long time collaborator Tom Healy at Paquin Studios also in Mount Eden.
