FIRST ALBUM IN 10 YEARS UNRELEASED OUT NOW!

G’day Everyone,

With 12 kids and three states between us, informal Powderfinger reunions don’t happen very often these days. But for a short stint in March 2019, we found ourselves together again at LaCueva, the picturesque studio co-owned by BF and our longtime collaborator Nick DiDia.

In a band room overlooking the Byron Bay hinterland, we gathered to compile outtakes for the 20-year anniversary reissue of Odyssey Number Five. That’s how the happy accident of Unreleased came to be. An album of recently unearthed material, it spans a 12-year period from Internationalist (1998) right up until our last studio record Golden Rule in 2009.

Some of the songs were always earmarked for a release at some stage, and they were purposely not used as b-sides as we thought they were too good. This is how we ended up looking through our old material, where we discovered other unreleased gems.

We got to this place where we pulled the tracks apart and we were like, ‘… this is better than just throwaway stuff.’ We were pumped about it, and a little surprised to be honest.

Nick DiDia’s role in plucking these songs from the fire cannot be underestimated. The American-born producer – who collaborated with us on Internationalist, Odyssey Number Five, Vulture Street and Golden Rule – adopted Unreleased as his pet project, tinkering with it in the studio until it met the band’s high bar. The band’s WhatsApp was as active as its ever been in this period, but aside from a small change, the collection remained pretty much as Nick had sequenced it.

There was actually a spirit of cooperation among the five of us that hadn’t really been there since Odyssey Number Five. It was pretty smooth sailing and no one had to fight red, tooth and claw for their idea on how it should be presented.

We should make mention of the stunning album artwork that comprises photographic images by Spanish Photographer Chema Madoz. There’s a mysterious quality to his photos that ask you to look a little more closely. The cover art for Unreleased has that same quality and obviously the five joined, burning pencils could be a representation of us and that our work continues.

This album is really for you, our fans. Thank you. We truly hope you enjoy it.

Love,