Spotlight: Reb Fountain 'Iris' Nationwide Tour of Aotearoa

Recipient of the 2021 Taite Music Prize, finalist for this year's award, shortlisted multiple years running for the APRA Silver Scroll, and winner of Tuis for 2018 Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Artist and APRA Best Country Music Song, it's no exaggeration to say Reb Fountain is one of our most celebrated contemporary songwriting talents. At the forefront of the Save Our Venues NZ fundraising initiative during 2020's turbulent lockdown era, Fountain's own touring schedule has faced significant hurdles due to pandemic issues, now finally happening across Aotearoa this month and next.

Launched late last year via Flying Nun, Fountain is touring her darkly romantic new album Iris nationwide with full band and special guest, Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award winner Jazmine Mary (for all dates except Tāmaki Makaurau), including a headline Auckland Town Hall performance as part of Elemental Nights 2022. Bracketed by cinematic videos all created in collaboration with Fountain's daughter, director Lola Fountain-Best, we've gathered here in one spot every official clip released for singles from Iris so far — plus spellbinding live footage of Fountain and band performing at Auckland Town Hall last year...

“Iris is in many ways an unsung hero, known as the goddess of the rainbow, sea and sky, she acts as bridge between the gods to humanity with little of her own story known. So many stories go unheard, so many aspects of our humanity are unsung; visibility is a contested and inequitable space where what is essential and of beauty is often ‘invisible’. I wanted and needed to give voice to this essential human spirit; to conjure and hold and commune with the very real, valid and invaluable voices within and around me.” — Reb Fountain

Reb Fountain
with special guest Jazmine Mary (all shows except Auckland's Elemental Nights)

Friday 22th July - Nivara Lounge, Hamilton
Saturday 23rd July - Totara Street, Tauranga△
Friday 29th July - Town Hall, Auckland (as part of Elemental Nights)*
Wednesday 17th August - Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin*
Thursday 18th August - Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch*
Saturday 20th August - The Opera House, Wellington*
Friday 26th August - The Dome, Gisborne
Saturday 27th August - ToiToi Opera House, Hastings△

Tickets for Hamilton and Gisborne available HERE via UTR
*Tickets for Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington shows HERE via Live Nation
△Tauranga and Hastings tickets on sale from rebfountain.co.nz

The video for Fountain's self-professed love song 'Heart' places the artist in a luxurious "makeshift room in the middle of anywhere"....

Fountain asks us to sit with our deep-seated flaws and monstrous truths in 'Beastie'..

Watch the lush and playful beachside clip for the title track to Iris...

Experience intimate monochrome visuals for 'Fisherman', inspired by Andy Warhol’s screen tests...

Fountain's 'Foxbrite' journeys from stark piano and acoustic guitar plucks to heart-squeezing, cinematic strings...

Fountain's 'Lacuna' (meaning "a blank space or a missing part) is a synth-inflected, dark-toned chugging groover reflecting upon "what’s it like to grow into oneself, to wrestle with the intangible nature of our human condition, to see who we are"...

Watch Reb Fountain performing 'Psyche' with band at Auckland Town Hall as part of 2021's The Flying Nun 40th Anniversary Show — directed by Peter Brook Bell...

Reb Fountain's album 'Iris' is out now via Flying Nun Records.