Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie has announced a new solo album, ‘Freak Out City’ and shared the romantic lead single ‘All I Need’.
The Kiwi comedian and singer is set to drop his third solo studio album on August 15th via Sub Pop – pre-order the album here.
McKenzie has shared the first single from the project, ‘All I Need’. The smooth, groove-heavy tune is a “love song” for his wife, Hannah, who McKenzie married in 2009.
He elaborated in a press statement: “We’ve been together a long time. We always love each other, but let’s be honest, there are days we love each other more than other days. This song was from one of those days when we were especially in love.”
He also said he gained inspiration from The Beatles when writing the track. Around the time he was writing, the song, McKenzie was also watching the Beatles documentary Get Back: “George Harrison has a song idea, but doesn’t have the lyrics, and John Lennon’s advice is to just sing the word ‘pomegranate and the lyrics will come eventually.’ Hilarious. I loved this advice.
“So, for the entire tour, I sang ‘pomegranate’ where I had a gap in the verse,” he concluded. “It became known as ‘All I Need (The Pomegranate Song).’”
Take a listen to ‘All I Need’ down below:
McKenzie last released a solo album in 2022. Entitled ‘Songs Without Jokes‘, the record contained the ’80s-esque ‘Dave’s Place‘, named after the late audio engineer who McKenzie worked with shortly before beginning on the record.
The album follows his work as music supervisor of The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014), with McKenzie sharing in a press statement: “Post-Conchords, I’d been working on songs for the Muppets films, and during a session I had the thought that it would be fun someday to work on some songs that weren’t for someone else, that don’t have to tell a story or be funny or continue the narrative plot, checking all the boxes for the character in the movie.”
He also spoke to NME around that time to talk about his pivot away from comedic music, telling us: “As much as I love comedy music, I don’t really listen to it in everyday life.
“I have a fondness for the funny song within an album that might be more serious. Lots of people have them. Courtney Barnett has some really funny lines and Leonard Cohen has a lot of funny lines. I was interested in something in that zone.”
