New Zealand’s electropop icons Strawpeople return in 2023 with a brand new album, Knucklebones, which sees Paul Casserly and Fiona McDonald back together as the core of the project.
Knucklebones is a collection of all-new material produced by Paul and Fiona, and while the guts of the project is the work of the pair, there’s a cast of New Zealand music’s heavy-hitters including: Matthias Jordan of Pluto on keys, Nick Atkinson of Supergroove on sax, drumming legend Chris O’Connor on drums, Mark Hughes on bass and even a cameo appearance from legendary Auckland busker Luke Hurley on guitar.
Guitarist Chris van de Geer and bassist Joost Langeveld are also back; as players, producers and label owners at Bigpop, with the album being recorded in their Auckland studios. “It’s so cool to work with these guys again” says Casserly, “they live and breathe music. They’re kinda the godfathers.”
Strawpeople originally formed in the late 1980s when Paul Casserly and Mark Tierney met at student radio station 95bFM. Also there at the time was Fiona McDonald who went on to become part of the Strawpeople history.
Paul and Fiona had the idea to collaborate again during a combined 50th birthday celebration and the result is something she feels proud of: “I called Paul when we got the master back, and said, good job us.” For her, working with Casserly again was “a rare treat. Paul has always been my favourite writing partner. We usually agree on things and for some reason our outsized egos don’t seem to overlap.”
At the heart of Knucklebones is that familiar Strawpeople combo of sampled beats, bass, guitar, keys and more than anything, the voice of Fiona McDonald.
Knucklebones is now streaming on music platforms,
and there’s a limited vinyl run available from all good record stores.
Official website: www.strawpeople.co.nz
KNUCKLEBONES TRACK LISTING
1. Second Heart
2. Watch You Sleep
3. Baby It’s You
4. Love Diktat
5. The Sleepwalker
6. Paper Cuts
7. Knucklebones
8. Busker
9. Forgot to Forget
Produced by Paul Casserly and Fiona McDonald with Chris van de Geer, Joost Langeveld, Luke Berryman and Jacob Rush.
Second Heart, from the album Knucklebones, featuring Matthias Jordan on keys, Chris van de Geer on guitar, Chris O’Connor on drums.
ABOUT STRAWPEOPLE:
Strawpeople formed when Paul Casserly and Mark Tierney met at student radio station 95bFM in the late 1980s with the station’s production studio and its 8 Track Tascam recorder becoming the hub of the operation.
Together, Paul and Mark released three albums, starting in 1990, Hemisphere, Worldservice and Broadcast, the latter going on to platinum sales and containing the iconic songs Sweet Disorder and Trick With A Knife. But by the time Sweet Disorder won the APRA Silver Scroll award in 1995 the partnership had run its course with Mark moving overseas.
Greg Johnson and Fiona McDonald who were also part of 95bFM and had featured on Broadcast, becoming part of the next phase of the Strawpeople story, resulting in album Vicarious. Fiona stepped up as main collaborator and singer and Victoria Kelly’s string arrangements elevated the songs (she also wrote the track Porcelain). It was named Album of The Year at the NZ Music Awards in 1996 with the song Taller Than God charting. A remix album followed in 1997 called 100 Street Transistors.
In 2000 Paul returned to working with a range of singers and collaborators with a new album No New Messages. Bic Runga stepped in with a cover of The Cars song Drive. Victoria Kelly lent her considerable skills again and Leza Corban delivered the goods yet again with Scared of Flying, a reworking of a song by Greg Johnson.
2004 brought another album, Count Backwards From Ten. Another impressive group of vocalists joined the party including Pearl Runga, (No One Like You which was co-written by her sister Boh) Jordan Reyne, the late great Mahinarangi Tocker and Fiona McDonald, who returned with two songs.
In 2017 after a long hiatus, Paul and Fiona started working on new songs, resulting in the new album Knucklebones, releasing Friday 4 August, 2023.
strawpeople.co.nz/
STRAWPEOPLE DISCOGRAPHY:
Hemisphere (1991)
Worldservice (1992)
Broadcast (1994)
Vicarious (1996)
100 Street Transistors (1997)
No New Messages (2000)
Count Backwards From Ten (2004)
Knucklebones (2023)
