One of the most-watched groups ever to come out of New Zealand, Drax Project have gone from four-piece buskers to Pop RnB arena fillers. On May 27, New Zealand's slickest live band are celebrating the release of their first single since the country reopened to the world after two years of isolation.
‘Mad At You’ is a classic soft banger. Understated, yet infectious acoustic guitar hooks coupled with a heartfelt liquid honey vocal, over a rhythmic foundation that sneaks gently into the mix but with intents to hit you a whole lot harder than sonically expected. “The song is about forgiveness – balancing out the good and the bad and choosing to focus on the things that really matter – not being torn apart by those that don’t” – Drax Project
Teaming up with regular collaborator - Grammy-award winning mixer Tom Norris - the Drax Project produced and written single is a return to the casual feel-good vibes of hits like ‘Woke Up Late’ and ‘Toto’. While the band may have been fairly quiet on the new release front during the pandemic, they’ve also been quietly collecting Ws. Hot New York Neo-soul group Phony Ppl joined their fellow New Zealanders Six60 on a new version of Drax’s hit “Catching Feelings” - which sat for months in the US RnB radio top 40.
They now have more platinum records in Australia than any other band ever to come out of New Zealand. Singles off the self-titled debut (300/Universal) album have collected nearly half a billion streams worldwide and 24 Platinum certifications to date, with “Woke Up Late” recently hitting the 500k unit threshold for US gold. They’ve also amassed the largest TikTok following of any major NZ music artist. These impressive numbers look set to soar upon the release of their new EP – now scheduled for July.
“It’s been a pretty weird last couple of years for everyone! From a health standpoint, we’ve been extremely lucky to be in New Zealand – especially early in the pandemic, when we got to play stadiums while the rest of the world was in lockdown – but it has meant being a long way away from a lot of our audience. Focusing more on recording than releasing has made sense. With New Zealand now opening up to the world again, it feels like the right time to start letting out some of the music we’ve been working on” – Drax Project.