Sounding like a docile renegade from another era, Auckland, New Zealand’s Arthur Ahbez has found ample room to roam amid his off-kilter merger of folk, indie rock, lo-fi and psychedelia. His self-produced 2013 debut, Gold, won over plenty of fans in his home country, while its two singles, “Walk On” and “The Fundamentals,” were licensed to American TV.
Two years after the release of 2017’s Volume II, Ahbez was looking to flesh out (and beef up) his sound. He assembled a backup band, the Flaming Ahbez, and sought outside help from Parachute Music’s Joe Faris, working with an engineer for the first time. The harder-rocking result, Arthur Ahbez & The Flaming Ahbez, is due November 6.
“A Simple Medication,” the album’s second single, was inspired by a brief stay in Prague just before the pandemic hit.
“I was glad to be free of the burden of toiling away at a computer for income, and I was exploiting my unpaid sabbatical by roaming the streets day and night, soaking up the old-world charm of the city,” says Ahbez, who describes those walks as “alchemical.” “I’d return home to strum away at the guitar in a relaxed frame of mind and meditate on what my instrument wanted to tell me. ‘A Simple Medication’ is an ode to living life in the wake of inspirations, tidal changes and the pleasure of unburdened creativity.”
We’re proud to premiere Arthur Ahbez’s “A Simple Medication” video.
—Hobart Rowland
