Luke Buda
"The Stallion" (mp3)
from "Special Surprise"
(Arch Hill Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Puretracks
Buy at Amazon MP3
Buy at appliedSB / Groupietunes
Buy at mTraks

Luke Buda
"Crystal Ham" (mp3)
from "Vesuvius"
(Arch Hill Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store

Born in Wroclaw, Poland, 26th February 1979. Luke Buda came to New Zealand in 1987 - a year he remembers because it’s when the All Blacks last won the Rugby World Cup!

“In 2006 Buda released his first full-length solo album, Special Surprise. The album was extremely well received and described as follows: “Perfectly formed pop artefacts crystallise out of prog-rock overtures; bombastic instrumentals dissolve into heart-melting ballads” (Nick Bollinger – The NZ Listener)

Following Special Surprise, Buda has been busy with his band The Phoenix Foundation: they released third album Happy Ending, recorded the soundtrack to the movie Eagle Versus Shark, and toured the USA a couple of times. On the domestic front there has been a home and a family.

However, out of this whirlwind something exceptional has emerged. Buda has called it Vesuvius.

Harbouring an unfortunate and perhaps unfair suspicion of anything too new (they don’t make music like they used to!)… at the time of writing the album Buda was most inspired by the supreme ultra studio sounds of 70’s super FM pop. Namely; Electric Light Orchestra. So blame it on Jeff Lynne!

Vesuvius was recorded by award winning Lee Prebble at his renowned Wellington studio, The Surgery. Featuring Craig Terris and Tom Watson (of Cassette), Andrew Bain (Fur Patrol), David Long (The Mutton Birds), Tim Prebble, Stephen Gallagher, Kezia Nell Hinchey, Sophie Burbery, and fellow Phoenicians Conrad Wedde, Samuel Flynn Scott and Will Ricketts, Vesuvius has, at its heart, well-written songs that are somehow both sorrowful and jovial.

Three further points of interest:

RESN’s award winning (FWA Site of the Day no less!) website for Luke specialsurprise.co.nz is finally online! Check it out… maybe a little creepy but certainly cool.

The video for the first single, the cheery “My Imminent Demise” was made by Oscar nominated Taika Waititi (Eagle Versus Shark). The video was shot in three hours of madness and cost but a couple of beers and a sensual massage.

We would also like to point your attention to the album art - featuring Buda reaching out to the icy melodic expanse. Created by Amelia Handscomb and Myriam Catrim.