Amanda Palmer And Rhiannon Giddens Release 'It's A Fire'

Amanda Palmer is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art.

She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality. Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, featuring such groundbreaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its release in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter. In 2013 she presented The Art of Asking at the annual TED conference, which has since been viewed over 20 million times worldwide. The following year saw Palmer expand her philosophy into the New York Times best-selling memoir and manual, The Art Of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help.

Since 2015 Palmer has used the patronage subscription crowdfunding platform Patreon to fund the creation of her artwork. This has enabled her to collaborate with artists all over the world with over 15,000 patrons supporting her creations each month. Join Amanda's Patreon to help fund her art: https://www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

Palmer released her new solo piano album and accompanying book of photographs and essays, There Will Be No Intermission, on March 8, 2019, followed by a global tour. Recorded in late 2018 with grammy-winning Theatre Is Evil producer/engineer John Congleton at the helm, the album is a masterwork that includes life, death, abortion, and miscarriage among its tentpole themes.Amanda Palmer and Rhiannon Giddens have joined forces for a moving musical collaboration this month. The cover of Portishead's much adored It's A Fire was recorded from several continents enduring lockdown in the midst of one of the most turbulent times the world has ever seen.

Half a world away from her home in New York, Palmer finds herself presently in Hawke's Bay New Zealand where her There Will Be No Intermission world tour concluded in March. The decision to stay put as the world quickly closed international borders proved to be an inconceivably fortuitous one.

"I was in need of some comfort a few months ago and I was playing the Portishead album over and over again in the kitchen of the AirBnB. Bent over a pile of dirty dishes in the sink one day, after receiving a long series of texts from my desperately sad and disillusioned and masked friends in New York...I stopped in my tracks..."

LISTEN: AMANDA PALMER + RHIANNON GIDDENS - 'It's A Fire'

Palmer explains, "There is something about this song that speaks to a deeper connection between things happening right now. Black Lives Mattering, COVID, fear and trust are all colliding with one another... I wanted this cover version to sound more like a dark closet talk between two friends...hanging onto each other for dear life whispering, "we're gonna make it out of here."

Palmer contacted longtime collaborator Jherek Bischof, himself locked down in Los Angeles, and asked him to arrange the song for "our times". He got on the job, and hired local string players in LA who would all play in isolation from one another.

Grammy winner and MacArthur 'Genius Grant' recipient Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Our Native Daughters) had also just finished her own Australian tour in March, when she was locked down in Ireland. A prolific and intensely productive artist (Giddens has acted in two seasons of TV series Nashville, is a six time Grammy nominee and has been described by Pitchfork as "so fearless and so ravenous") she was also craving collaboration."It was a delight to work on this with Amanda Palmer... Felt so good to make some art together, even separated by half a world", says Giddens. "We all need to take a collective breath together, and breathe on...it's all of us or none of us".

Finally, Palmer tracked down a French illustrator residing in Melbourne to help design the single artwork. Jessica Coppet's mesmerising realistic scribble portraits bring to life her philosophical commitment to female empowerment and they had long ago captured Palmer's attention via Instagram. "Facial Expression and Anatomy have become a focal point for my art...Amanda wanted to portray two women supporting each other along with vintage and retro aspects to represent the inspiration for the song", Coppet adds.

All profits from this collaboration are going to go to the Free Black University Fund, a hub for radical and transformative knowledge production.

Melz Owusu of the Free Black University team says: “We are overjoyed at the generosity of Amanda and Rhiannon in choosing our project to give proceeds from this beautiful song to. The donation will go so far in us building a sustainable programme of radical education that aims to transform the world.”

The unapologetic frontwoman of the Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer came to Aotearoa in March on the last leg of her There Will Be No Intermission tour. She played two sold-out shows at Auckland's Hollywood Cinema as part of The Auckland Arts Festival and a one-off South Island show in Christchurch.

"It was an epic, exhausting four-hour gig, combining intense spoken-word storytelling with Palmer's cathartic songs." - Radio NZ National.

For many, these were the last international shows in Aotearoa.

Her (sold out) Wellington show scheduled for Monday, 16th March was cancelled due to the oncoming Coronavirus epidemic and Amanda chose to instead live-stream direct to her fans from the St Peter's Church in Wellington. Visitors from around the world streamed in to watch, topping 3200 viewers at one point.

After this, Amanda found herself in lockdown in a Hawkes Bay Airbnb (thank god it came with a piano) with her son Ash. They watched Jacinda Ardern's live broadcasts daily, she celebrated her 44th birthday. When lockdown lifted they slowly emerged, integrating themselves into their new community.

Fast forward to August 2020 and Amanda was ready to finally get back on the road. She arranged a run of shows taking in Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Dunedin and Auckland and was just over two weeks out from her first show when Aotearoa went back into lockdown with restrictions around gatherings. In what has become the new normal, Amanda has dusted herself off and rescheduled the shows. Original tickets are still valid and all ticket holders have been contacted.

"As you can imagine, I have been greatly looking forward to my upcoming New Zealand shows. Given the Ongoing Level 2 news, we have decided that it's only practical to push all shows forward and all tickets will stay valid for that date (and we are happy to give you a refund if needed). Here's hoping we don't need to push it again! I cannot wait to play music for you, and share what I've been writing." - Amanda Palmer

AUCKLAND
Friday, October 2nd
St Mary's In-Holy Trinity, Auckland - Elemental Nights as part of Elemental AKL
Tickets on sale

WELLINGTON
Friday, October 23rd
Saturday, October, 24th - family matinee show!
Saturday, October 24th
St Peter's On Willis, Wellington
Tickets are back on sale, original tickets are still valid

DUNEDIN 
Friday, November 6th
Regent Theatre, Dunedin 
Tickets on sale, original tickets are still valid

HAWKE'S BAY 
Saturday, November 14th 
Toitoi, Hawk's Bay 
Tickets on sale, original tickets are still valid

Amanda Palmer is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art.

She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality. Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, featuring such groundbreaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its release in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter. In 2013 she presented The Art of Asking at the annual TED conference, which has since been viewed over 20 million times worldwide. The following year saw Palmer expand her philosophy into the New York Times best-selling memoir and manual, The Art Of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help.

Since 2015 Palmer has used the patronage subscription crowdfunding platform Patreon to fund the creation of her artwork. This has enabled her to collaborate with artists all over the world with over 15,000 patrons supporting her creations each month. Join Amanda's Patreon to help fund her art: https://www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

Palmer released her new solo piano album and accompanying book of photographs and essays, There Will Be No Intermission, on March 8, 2019, followed by a global tour. Recorded in late 2018 with grammy-winning Theatre Is Evil producer/engineer John Congleton at the helm, the album is a masterwork that includes life, death, abortion, and miscarriage among its tentpole themes.

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