26 April 2024 - 0 Comments

Aotearoa artist Tom Lark (Shannon Fowler) is back with a brand new single, Dumb Luck. The track is the first release from the Ōtautahi-born, Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist since 2023’s Brave Star.

Earning him a finalist nod for both this week's 2024 Taite Music Prize, and Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards in May, Brave Star was both a return and debut from Fowler – who had previously released two eponymous EPs before taking time out to work on his pop craft as Shannon Matthew Vanya.

Brave Star also won Tom Lark an APRA Silver Scroll Award Top 20 nomination, and reviews like these:

"Brave Star is an album adrift on a sea of memory bliss, cleverly produced and like a sonic mood-piece. It's an album which gives dream pop a very good name." – Graham Reid, Elsewhere / The Listener

"Brave Star is the work of a well-rounded songwriter, as comfortable in the pop realm as he is crafting country-inflected folk-rock tunes, casual and confessional in equal measure." – Tony Stamp, RNZ The Sampler

Dumb Luck is the first taste of new material from Tom Lark, and captures the artist’s whimsical yet pragmatic sensibility.

“When I began writing Dumb Luck I was thinking a lot about perseverance but also how funny ‘dumb luck’ is as a phrase,” says Fowler. “Despite hard work, sometimes things don’t pay off and other times things work out in total naiveté, for no other reason than some weird cosmic alignment. That said, I don’t really subscribe to the idea of ‘dumb luck’. Instead, perhaps being ‘lucky’ is the ability to make the best of circumstances as they present themselves; maybe luck is no more than finding a silver lining.”

The single is accompanied by a video directed by Sam Kristofski, that sees Fowler panning for gold and fending off snakes and spiders in the Waitākere Ranges.

"We had a so much fun making it," the hardy cowboy recounts. "A highlight for me was trying to capture the perfect rubber snake movements, so perfect we somehow managed to catch a real eel twice.

"I think the artist way is often not so dissimilar from gold panning; you spend all day sifting through conceptual rocks and dirt to find something of value – and depending on how things go, people say “that's so lucky” or “that’s hard luck.” And, really, it's just hard work."

** STRANGE NEWS PRESENTS **
Tom Lark UK fundraiser show

Thurs 9 May – Wine Cellar, Tāmaki Makaurau w/ Paul Cathro

Tickets available now from UnderTheRadar

Comments

Return to News Archive