Acclaimed, GRAMMY® award-winning French band Phoenix have enlisted indie-pop phenom Clairo and her ethereal vocals for a new version of After Midnight, a standout track from their critically acclaimed seventh album Alpha Zulu, released last November. The band’s world tour of the album will continue this summer when they make their return to Festivals across Europe and to North America for a co-headlining tour with fellow GRAMMY® award-winner Beck.
Phoenix + Clairo (Kalpesh Patel)
On working with Clairo on After Midnight, Phoenix explain, “We’ve loved Claire since day one! What a treat it is to have her sing with us! We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do”.
The collaboration marks only the second formal feature in the band’s history with their first having been on last year’s Tonight, which featured Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig. The features are not unconnected in that Phoenix were introduced to Clairo through Koenig’s Vampire Weekend former bandmate Rostam Batmanglijas’ work on her debut album Immunity.
Check out the new rendition of After Midnight featuring Clairo below:
On working with Phoenix, Clairo shares: “I’ve been a massive fan of Phoenix for as long as I can remember, and I’m very grateful that they asked me to sing on this remix.”
After Midnight’ (feat. Clairo) follows lauded singles Alpha Zulu, Tonight (feat. Ezra Koenig) and Winter Solstice which led into Alpha Zulu, the band’s first full length release in five years and the first album to be recorded in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs inside of Paris’ famous Palace of the Louvre (yes, that Louvre!). They also filmed the first live performance from the museum.
Alpha Zulu is an immediate reminder of what has made Thomas Mars-led group one of the most beloved artists of the last two decades, reinforcing the band’s enduring – and continued – influence on pop culture. Produced by the band themselves, the record is everything Phoenix does best: effortlessly catchy melodies married with always-innovative production, resulting in what is one of the most loved albums of last year
In addition, Rockshot Magazine made it down to London’s Brixton Academy late last year to catch both Phoenix and Clairo perform rousing headline sets at the world-famous venue. Check out what went down when Clairo Showed Brixton How To Sling and when Phoenix Were Resplendent At Brixton.
Phoenix return to the U.K. this summer, where the group have been confirmed to appear at Somerset’s Glastonbury Festival once more while Clairo followed George Ezra at the festival last summer on the now-renamed John Peel Stage.
Photography by Kalpesh Patel
