Today, New Zealand indie dream-pop and internet cult band Mild Orange announce new album Looking For Space out Thursday February 10, via AWAL. This comes with a double-a-side release of their explosive new single 'What's Your Fire?' and hazy b-side 'Hollywood Dreams'. The nomadic quartet will also be heading halfway across the globe this coming January 2022 for their upcoming The Looking For Space tour across UK and Europe, USA and Canada.
'What's Your Fire?' - already a mainstay and fan favourite in the Mild Orange live set, bubbles and pulses with crystalline clarity and is a single with anthemic height beyond any the band has previously achieved. 'Hollywood Dreams' is a perfect accompaniment to 'What's Your Fire?' and joins the already released 'This Kinda Day' and 'The Time Of Our Lives' - a taste of what's to come on their highly anticipated third studio album, which if any of the four tracks are to go by is a strong one at that.
Of the single, frontman Josh Mehrtens shares: "For me, 'What's Your Fire?' came from a time in my life where I was trying to figure out who I am, or who the person I want to be is. It asks oneself some intense questions, though hopefully helps oneself find light in the idea that there is always something that you can do to improve yourself or the world around you - no matter how big or small."
'What's Your Fire?' was the first track recorded on Looking For Space. Despite it sounding like a stadium rock song it was mostly recorded in Barry (Tom's) family home lounge in Bannockburn (the most inland town in New Zealand) and also at Mehrtens' family home studio in Arrowtown. The track was too big of a sounding song for Mehrtens to manage producing in his bedroom mixing set-up to finish it off, so to get it to sound bigger than a small room, they took it to the infamous Roundhead Studios to engineer and boost the huge sound.
After spending two albums carefully organising the framed photos and applying an even layer of paint, Mild Orange felt the urge to tear apart the four walls that defined their bedroom pop sound, capturing the wilderness that lay beyond. And rather than be deterred from that goal by a pandemic and lockdown that left the New Zealanders stuck on their island, Mild Orange used that time to envision a new world.
True to the group's questing, nomadic form, Looking for Space was recorded in stretches over the last year, compiling sessions in beach houses, bedrooms and for the first time a proper recording studio. "This was our first time working on Mild Orange tracks in a premier studio, and having all that epic gear at our fingertips, coupled with having Paddy's (Roundhead Studios, Auckland) tech-wizardry engineering abilities on hand definitely jumped us up in quality and texture," Mehrtens says.
Midway through recording the album, Mehrtens sadly came down with pneumonia and pleurisy, a single breath capable of leaving him in excruciating pain. The experience not only changed the perspective of the rest of the record, but of Mehrtens' life. "That put me into some pretty dark spaces," he says. "But I'm an optimist, so I was searching for the beauty in the dark".
Looking For Space will be available digitally and on vinyl - to pre-order / pre-save - head here. The band will also be heading to the UK and Europe, USA and Canada this January 2022 for their The Looking For Space Tour. For details and ticket information please head to: mildorange.com. And also playing at New Zealand Festivals - Rockin Horse Coroglen and Tora Bombora Festival in January.
Mild Orange are made up of childhood mates, frontman/producer Josh Mehrtens and lead guitarist Josh Reid, with bassist Tom Kelk and drummer Jack Ferguson. Their internet-cult following has reached fans from Cairo to Cape Town, Lima to LA, Seoul to Sydney, London to Ulanbutar giving them close to 50 million YouTube views alone. Together they create energetic, summery psychedelic rock complete with compelling lyrics, and are known for their relaxed and buoyant sound. Over the recent months since releasing 'This Kinda Day', the first track off the new album they've received press coverage from the likes of Billboard, Monster Children, MTV, RAGE, Tone Deaf, Beat Magazine, Sniffers and Under The Radar.