Bret McKenzie announces new album ‘Freak Out City’
Bret McKenzie, best known for Flight of the Conchords, has announced details of his new solo album, Freak Out City.
The forthcoming album is the follow-up to his celebrated debut offering for Sub Pop, 2022’s Songs Without Jokes. Freak Out City is set to be released through the same acclaimed label on August 25th, 2025.
The recording process for the upcoming LP was split between Los Angeles and McKenzie’s native New Zealand, alongside his longtime collaborator Mickey Petralia. Mixing duties were taken care of by Michael Harris at East West Studios, and Ruairi O’Flaherty mastered the LP at Nomograph Mastering in Los Angeles.
McKenzie was joined by a host of accomplished session musicians, including the new Oasis drummer, Joey Waronker, as well as other Los Angeles-based artists Leland Sklar, Dean Parks, Drew Erickson, and Chris Caswell. Meanwhile, Ben Lemi, Leo Coghini, Jacqui Nyman, Moana Leota, Iris Little, and Justin Clark contributed to Freak Out City from New Zealand.
To coincide with the album announcement, McKenzie has shared his new single, ‘All I Need’. He says of the track, “This is a love song for my wife, Hannah. 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.”
The singer-songwriter continued: “It started on the piano with the chorus. From the very beginning, I could hear the horn stabs and the band sound in my head. I loved the chorus so much I started performing the song live before I’d finished the verses.”
He also explained how a songwriting tip he learned from watching Peter Jackson’s documentary on The Beatles, Get Back, proved pivotal in the track’s creation, revealing, “I remember around this time I watched the new 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. It became known as ‘All I Need (The Pomegranate Song).”
McKenzie is set to take Freak Out City on the road with Bret and The State Highway Wonders later this year, with dates to be announced in the near future.
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