New Zealand dance band with releases on Razor-N-Tape and Soundway Records
Born and raised in New Zealand but schooled in London, Flamingo Pier may well be the
southern hemisphere’s best kept secret. But with one album and some serious live playing
under their tightly-worn belts, that may about to end, as they plot a course back towards
Europe and beyond for summer 2023.
Flamingo Pier are Luke Walker (the DJ), Dom Jones and Brad Craig (the musical chops), a
rather perfect combo that you can hear in their music, with its electronic heft weighted
lightly with tropical sounds atop, influences pouring in from all directions: Masters At Work,
Khruangbin, Prince, Ron Trent.
Shot through with sunshine and festival-friendly joy, their roots are in the somewhat more
gritty environs of Hackney Wick, formerly a somewhat desolate spot in the East End of
London that has been revived by a new generation of creatives (with a soupçon of aid from
the London Olympics in 2012), among them Luke, Brad and Dom. “We were all living in this
warehouse in Hackney Wick and started DJing with each other at home and playing
music together,” says Luke. “Originally, Brad was over as part of another band who’d been
brought over by a record label. But we had Counter Café as this incredible little spot on the
canal there.”
They started throwing monthly Friday parties at the café. All the parties sold out. Suitably
encouraged, they decided to throw a festival on the beautiful island of Waiheke, a 30
minute scoot from Auckland, as you do. It was only one day, in an olive grove, but they
attracted 700 optimistic souls with a line-up that included Marcus Marr, Late Night Tuff Guy and,
naturally, Flamingo Pier, which also happened to be the name of the festival. It
was so much fun, they’re still doing it (these days it’s three days and a tad larger).
Musically, the combination of DJ plus two worldly musicians also worked well. Luke, who’d
originally moved to London on the back of a release on Darren Emerson’s Underwater
label, was developing some serious engineering skills, while his oppo’s had the other side
on lock. “I brought the dance music into it,” explains Luke, “while Dom and Brad were from
a more rock’n’roll background, but were into LCD Soundsystem and Soulwax, so they were
certainly interested in it.” This confluence of musical ideas is really evident on what you
hear on their recordings, anchored by a propulsive kick-drum but with a deft musicality
you don’t always encounter in a world of bedroom producers.
Their excellent self-titled debut album on Soundway fell foul of ill-starred timing, coming
out during a brutal Covid-driven clusterfuck. “I remember the main single, ‘Eternal’, which
is a big uplifting house track,” says Luke, “came out when London went into a major
lockdown. No one was really interested in euphoria that week...” However, silver linings
and all that. Since then, they’ve had a few synch licenses on Netflix shows like Good Girls,
Partner Track and The One and their numbers on Spotify are equally impressive, with both
‘Hold It’ and ‘Tripping Up’ gliding past the 2 million streams mark.
Out of adversity comes joy, though, and their live performing has scaled new heights
thanks to New Zealand’s lockdown-averse approach and a season of heavy live touring. At
one stage, they’d grown to a nine-piece behemoth, coming on like a Kiwi Earth, Wind &
Fire – it’s now scaled back to five. “We’ve definitely stepped up the live element,” observes
Luke, “and because Brad and Dom are both from a live background, this is their natural
environment. It means we can do something that’s more interesting than just playing the
usual DJ set.” The end result was a season of headline tours in their native country, with
battle-hardened performances that have brought the album alive in a new setting.
Not ones to sit around waiting for someone to discover them, they’ve also been throwing
parties in Auckland, with a Sunday series called Afternoon Delight with buddy Frank
Booker, who also collaborated with the boys on Pleasure, another successful weekly party
held in the country’s oldest strip club (now nightclub). Both sellouts.
You can almost hear New Zealand in their music, the sound of Kiwi tropicalia. “Our
environment influences our attitude. We’re more relaxed here. There’s a lot more just
being by the ocean, in native bush, in nature. I think that translates into more joyful, fun,
percussive music.” Rooted in the underground, but with a commercial nous that suggests
they are capable of progressing much further up the greasy pole that is the music industry,
they are ambitious to move forward, to improve, to get better, and with a new studio
setup, they’re determined to make it happen, primed for a new European assault in
summer 2023. “We’re trying to get to the point where we’re releasing consistently
incredible music.” Amen to that.
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Flamingo Pier EP (Soundway) 2019
Indigo EP (Soundway) Feb 2020
Flamingo Pier LP (Soundway) 2021
Beneath The Neon EP (Razor N Tape) Sep 2023