‘WIRES’ 21st anniversary tour

22.07.22: We are super excited to announce that our debut album 'Wires' will be released for the first time on double gatefold vinyl and to celebrate we will be doing shows around the country playing 'Wires' in full from start to finish.

Tickets go on sale to our mailing list friends on Weds 27th July at 11am (you can sign up to our mailing list below), and to the general public on Fri 29th July at 11am.

‘Wires’ on vinyl can be ordered via https://hobbledehoyrecords.com/

With Ollie now living overseas and everyone involved in a stack of different projects, this will be a one off chance to see ‘Wires’ performed live. The dates are:

Art of Fighting - ‘Wires’ 21st Anniversary Tour:

Friday September 30 - The Zoo, Meanjin / Brisbane

Saturday October 1 - Brunswick Picture House, Bundjalung Country / Brunswick Heads

Thursday October 6 - Lizottes, Awabakal Country / Newcastle

Friday October 7 & Saturday October 8 - The Vanguard, Gadigal Country / Sydney

Sunday October 9 - Kambri at ANU, Ngunawal Country / Canberra

Friday October 14 - Theatre Royal, Djadjawurung Country / Castlemaine

Saturday October 15 - Naarm / Melbourne Recital Centre

Sunday October 16 - Boonwurrung Country / Archies Creek Tavern, South Gippsland

MAILING LIST

We’re touring with Youth group in may! EDIT, no we’re not :(

News 03.03.20: We’re going on tour in May! (Edit, no we’re not, see latest news post above, sadly the shows have been postponed until November 2020.) We are stoked to be hitting the road with old pals Youth Group from Sydney. We’ll be playing Adelaide, Melbourne, Castlemaine, Sydney and Wollongong. We have never done a double headline before so that’s extra exciting. We are long-time fans of YG’s warm, heartfelt, intelligent songs and look forward to catching them perform tunes old and new. All the ticket details are below. These will be our only shows for 2020.

AND. We also have a brand new video for ‘Conjuror’, the third song from Luna Low, and the first song we’ve ever written in (and punished ourselves with) a 5/4 time signature. The video was directed by Hayley Miro Browne & Mclean Stephenson. Hayley (who is Miles and Ollie AOF’s sister) had this to say about it: “Ollie first showed me a rough demo for ‘Conjuror’ during a visit to Denmark in 2017. I felt a pang of desire to be a part of the song, somehow. So when I was asked to make this video, I was ecstatic. In creating the concept, my main concern was not competing with the music, rather making an accompaniment. I had to carefully consider the family’s shared and independent love and grief for our late father Allan Browne about whom the song was written. My nephew Arty (Miles’ son) was a perfect fit, Dad adored him. The song soars. The lyrics describe a glider up above, the metaphors both lyrically and visually are plentiful and personal and the rest is history.”

Thanks Hayley!

Anyway, enjoy the video via Youtube, and hopefully see you at one of the shows in May!

AOF xx

Our new album ‘Luna low’ is out now!

07.06.19: It’s been a loooong time coming, so long in fact that even we can’t really believe we’re saying this, but we have a new album out today. It’s called Luna Low and we’re very excited it’s now a thing out in the world. What you see above is the full artwork for the physical copies of the record on vinyl and CD.

Our very own Marty Brown engineered and mixed it and we’re very thankful to Marty for his patience and tenacity - without him, none of this would have happened. We’re also extremely grateful to our (newish) manager Tom, who we’ve had the incredible good fortune to work with on and off all the way back to our first album Wires, which Tom released on his venerable Trifekta label. Huge thanks also to Remote Control for putting this album out, and for all their expertise and support. Lastly, huge thanks also to (a different) Tom at IMC who has been our booking agent for 20 years and always believed in this crazy idea we had that you can play live rock music at half the volume it was meant to be played.

But mainly, thanks to the people who listen to our music and have come to shows over the years. Making and playing music for people is a huge privilege and we’re lucky that being able to do that is such a big part of the tapestry of our lives.

Anyway, some details: You can stream/download the album from your favourite digital platform. If you’re semi old school, you can grab it on CD at your local record shop or our bandcamp page. And if you’re super old school (or perhaps super new school), it will be available as a double LP in August. You can preorder vinyl now on our bandcamp page.

Lastly, launch shows! Or is it parties? Let’s say both! Details and ticketing links for our Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane launch shows are below.

Thanks for listening (and congrats to us!)

AOF xx

New album June 7th! New track today: Listen Here.

09.05.19: We’re beyond excited to announce that we will have a new album, our first in 12 years, out on June 7th, 2019. It’s called Luna Low and features ten tracks recorded and mixed by our very own Marty Brown at Brunswick Masonic Hall and Standalone Studios over the last couple of years. It’s been a long time coming but we’re very proud of it and we can’t wait for you to hear it. In celebration, we’re releasing the title (and closing track) of the album, which you can go and listen to right now.

What to say about it? Well, it took us a long time to make it. Which is not that strange for us and our glacial pace. In fact, Marty and Ollie started jamming up the skeletons (ahem) of some of these tunes way back in 2012. When it came to recording it, we tracked it in a big hall in Brunswick to try and capture some natural reverb, which has given it a pretty spacious sound. Thematically and lyrically, the album reflects on some of our own could-have-beens and would-have-beens. It’s about dreams past becoming reduced dreams of the present, ageing and lifestyle colliding, growing up after growing up, and perhaps, it’s the first set of AOF songs that approach these themes with a sometimes playful eye. The album cover, which had the design brief of ‘Queensland Gothic’, is above.

We’d also like to say a huge thank you to all those who came to our Melbourne and Sydney shows last month. We really enjoyed being on stage again. Apologies to those who missed out on tickets in Melbourne, but rest assured that a new album probably means more shows soon, and hopefully in more cities!

Anyway, enjoy the new track Luna Low, and we hope you look forward to hearing Luna Low the album on June 7th. 

AOF xx

another new track! Listen Here.

19.03.19: We’re very happy to present some more brand new music for you! Our second piece of new music in over a decade is ‘Your Love’, which if we were pushed, would describe as ’when what your fear the most in the world is the inability to contain and rationalise your love for someone’. So, standard AOF sad romantic stuff. That said, we reckon stylistically it’s not really like anything we’ve ever done before. Check it out and see what you reckon.

Also, an update on the return shows, Howler in Melbourne is sold out, but there are still some tickets to our Sydney show at the Landsdowne, grab yours here.

Look forward to seeing you at the shows!

AOF xx

FIRST NEW MUSIC IN 12 YEARS! Listen Here.

07.02.19: It’s been a while - twelve years, in fact. A few of you had probably thought we’d broken up, but really it was more of a hiatus. Life kind of happened for a while in there and then we thought, why not crank the band back up and make some new music? We’ve actually been jamming pretty regularly since 2012, and with our usual unhurried pace, it’s taken some time to come up with some tunes we like. We’re sticking our toes back in the water tentatively with a new single, ‘Genie’, which is now available for streaming/downloading from your favourite digital haven.

We’ll also be doing our first shows since the last decade (!) in Melbourne and Sydney, see the details below.

Also, now that we’ve landed back in a somewhat transformed media landscape, please feel free to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.

Anyway, hope you dig the new tune and thanks for sticking with us and being patient while we’ve slowly meandered our way back into full existence.

Bestest,

AOF xx