The new album is out!
The new album by Greg Fleming thrives on the stuck-in-place, surreal reality most of us have experienced since March 2020.
It's an album that should take him from being an under-the-radar, critic's fave, to a wider audience.
"The people in these songs are all at a sort of crisis point - returning to, or stuck in a city against their will. Life and time has done what it does to all of us, thrown them some curve-balls - that was a situation rich with potential."
Whether it's an errant daughter flying back to Auckland to see her dying mother (Lucille's Gotta Go Back Home), a man who glimpses an ex across a train platform (Same City), the reflections of an all-night Mobil gas station attendant (Gas, Coffee, Cigarettes and Gum) or a couple rediscovering their own city and their own connection in a locked-down Auckland (Tourists for a Day) - Fleming's acute eye cuts to the emotional essentials of a situation.
Fleming cites artists like Steve Earle, James McMurtry and Lou Reed as influences.
Fleming says that the heartbreaking title track, the electronic-led Same City, was one of the later tracks done - written when things - "from a lot of perspectives, both public and private, were, as the song says - "falling apart"."
"I sent a rough acoustic demo to producer Wayne Bell and he sent back this beautiful, pitch-perfect music bed."
The album was recorded, between various lockdowns, at Mt Eden's LAB studios.
"When I look back at the records we've made over the last eight years they seem to make sense as a whole. In fact I was surprised how well they linked together - I've followed these disparate characters through all these records and this seems like a summation of sorts."
Other highlights include the power-pop ache of Arrow and the one-take solo tracks, Heartbreak Business and 24 Hours to Midnight.
"These were done after we'd finished a day's tracking - things had been going well. I just went in with an acoustic guitar, sat down and played 'em."
The result is one of the most moving albums of the year, from one of New Zealand's finest songwriters.
Same City is on all streaming services - but if you purchase it on Bandcamp you are a superstar!
https://linktr.ee/Ftprecordsnz
Lucille's Gotta Go Back Home
Gas, coffee, cigarettes and gum
New Track - new album out in May
The Movie Version
Third track from new record now on youtube and all streaming services
Second track from new record now on youtube and all streaming services
First track from new record now on youtube on all streaming services
The new album Working Poor Country is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify and everywhere else; iTunes here. Follow us on Spotify here
"Fleming is... a vital performer in New Zealand and could easily stand beside any major recording artist currently performing anywhere in the world" No Depression magazine - 2017 - full review of Working Poor Country here
To Hell With These Streets - released 2016 - on Spotify
Listen to the Radio NZ review of the album at The Sampler
"To Hell With These Streets is the most confident and most sonically engaging, as well as the most disgruntled album he’s made. But what’s extra impressive is the continuity with the rest of the music he’s made this decade. Greg Fleming is on a roll, and long may he roll." The Sampler Dec 2016.
"Very rarely is the personal so poetic, the poetic so personal. . . and the personal so political. These are postcards from a place you don't want to be. But they are from where you and I live. And Fleming/Working Poor bring them home. . . uncomfortably. Essential." Graham Reid Elsewhere
Voted one of 2016's best by Elsewhere - here
"In a country of fake folkies, Fleming is a consummate songwriter (‘Edge of the City’ was one of my favourite albums of 2012), a no-nonsense poet of Auckland’s urban sprawl... Like the great country songwriters (Townes, H. Williams I, George Jones) Fleming uses the everyday as fertile material — it doesn’t need a whole lot else." Grade A ReallyReal Review, Nov 2016
"...noir songs about late nights, tragic figures and chance encounters... Occasionally they're acoustic – take Liquor Store, a downcast tale on a tragic store hold up – but more often they roll along with tough backing from Fleming's truly fantastic backing band, The Working Poor. Evocative songs that are wonderfully played and beautifully produced."
"Fantastic new album" - John Godfrey, The Troubador Show
"...a rough-edged collection of rock tales of broken people... Fleming's streets are stained, cracked and all too familiar" 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, James Belfield, NZ Listener, Nov 16
Sick of this Shit - second track from the new album To Hell With These Streets
Life is Short - first single from the new album - see News for more info
Great review of Stranger from NZ Musician - check it out here
Rip It Up recently ran a Q and A with Greg - check it out here.
Coporate Hill from Stranger In My Own Hometown (2015) - free download.
Greg and band (Andrew Thorne, Mark Hughes, Greg and John Segovia, drummer Wayne Bell out of shot) on stage at the Forget the Past record release April 2014. Pic Ted Baghurst.
4 star reviews for Forget the Past
Great review from Radio NZ's Nick Bollinger. Review starts at 13.30.
"hard-boiled and believable [Fleming] has a crime writer's eye for detail..."
"a collection that shows life in all its shades... there are a few lost years between Greg Fleming's first records... and this early renaissance - which may be the reason why this earthy and sophisticated singer-songwriter isn't better known or appreciated, but then the records he's making now are so much better than then and this new one is particularly fine."
4 stars NZ Herald
4 stars Sunday Star Times "Fleming has always been a fine singer and a finer songwriter who is at his finest on Forget the Past" Mike Alexander, April 20, 2014
"the finest, most enjoyable and coherent Greg Fleming set yet." No Depression
Download Forget the Past now from bandcamp
Like Greg's Facebook page to keep up with news, pics and gig info.