31 July 2023 - 0 Comments

Tom Lark AKA Shannon Fowler has added an Ōtautahi show on his album release tour, which starts this Friday August 4 in Tauranga.

The four-date tour celebrates the release of Brave Star, which was released on June 9, 2023, and will also hit Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Whanganui-a-Tara (full info below).

Support acts have also been selected for each show, namely Ed Gains (Tauranga), K M T P (Tāmaki Makaurau), Belladonna (Te Whanganui-a-Tara), and Mousey (Ōtautahi).

The record features the album focus track Brave Star and first single Radio Blaster as well as second single Live Wires, which is a Top 20 nominee for the 2023 APRA Silver Scroll Award.

Brave Star is the first new musical material from Tom Lark after a seven-year hiatus, and the debut full-length album from the Ōtautahi-born, Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist.

The album debuted at #6 on the Top NZ Album Charts and #2 on the IMNZ Album Chart, with Live Wires and Brave Star featuring as 'Hit Picks' on the SRN Chart.

The album has been similarly well-received by critics:

"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

Brave Star follows two eponymous Tom Lark EPs, which were released in 2011 and 2015 respectively. Those early tunes found a home locally on the Student Radio Network, and abroad on Australian radio station Triple J – where 'Something To Tell You' reached #1 Most Played.

Following this success Fowler chose to set aside the Tom Lark moniker for a period, dipping his toes in the warm waters of pop music and releasing a series of bangers under the Shannon Matthew Vanya pseudonym – as well as producing for a number of other artists, including Merk, Randa and A.C. Freazy.

With Tom Lark's Brave Star Fowler returns to his first love, which turns out to be making sunburnt psychedelic folk fit for sensitive cowboys to meander and muse to.

Brave Star is out through Winegum Records and available now via Bandcamp.

** WINEGUM RECORDS & STRANGE NEWS PRESENT **
The Tom Lark Brave Star album release tour

Fri 4 August – Jam Factory, Tauranga (solo) w/ Ed Gains
Sat 5 August – Whammy Bar, Tāmaki Makaurau w/ KMTP (solo)
Fri 25 August – Moon, Te Whanganui-a-Tara w/ Belladonna
Sat 26 August – Space Academy, Ōtautahi w/ Mousey

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