Photo Credit: Maclay Heriot
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shared “Grow Wings and Fly,” the third preview from Phantom Island. Arriving on June 13 as the second release on their own (p)doom records, the genre-obliterating Australian sextet’s 27th studio album bolsters their shape-shifting psych-garage-prog-rock with a full orchestra of strings, horns and woodwinds. With the earlier singles “Deadstick” and the title track, the band made it clear that their next project may be their most fearlessly eclectic yet, and the album’s affectionate closing cut and properly bizarre music video hammer that point home.
King Gizzard first conceived of an orchestral record–one among very few styles they hadn’t yet incorporated–back in 2023, when they crossed paths with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. A year later, as they flew through the sessions that became Flight b741, they worked out ten further promising tracks that didn’t fit; frontman Stu Mackenzie found them “harder to finish. Musically, they needed a little more time and space and thought… we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas.”
Enter keyboardist, conductor and arranger Chad Kelly, who sculpted historically informed and disruptive orchestrations to meld the band’s sound with the Philharmonic’s approach. Together, the collaborators crafted involving and multifarious songs, rich with eye-popping ornamentation and unparalleled virtuosity. “We come from such different worlds – he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way,” Mackenzie said of Kelly. “But he’s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.”
“Grow Wings and Fly” is yet another testament to this triumphant pairing, matching an uplifiting and wistfully propulsive tangle of guitars with symphonic swells that tug at heartstrings. Blissed out hollering and lyrics that dance around renewal continue the project’s emphasis on more grounded, wisened and “introverted” songwriting; this powerful feeling finds its way into the creature feature music video directed by Hayden Somerville, which is just as tender as it is freaky.
“There are so many strange and beautiful ways to grow wings and fly,” Somerville explained. “We had a very special time down the coast with the band and our crew, releasing our sea creature—who somehow makes me feel a little ill and completely full of joy at the same time.”
“When I was younger, I was just interested in freaking people out,” Mackenzie reflected on the broader project. “But as I get older, I’m much more interested in connecting with people.”
King Gizzard will take their sonic upheaval to the stage with the Phantom Island Tour, which will feature a different 28-piece orchestra at each of its nine performances from July 28 to Aug. 11. This run–King Gizzard’s only U.S. performances of 2025, save for a three-show residency at Bonnaroo–will conclude with Field of Vision, a three-night camping event booked for Buena Vista, Colo.’s Meadow Creek from Aug. 15-17.
Phantom Island is available to pre-order now. Watch the “Grow Wings and Fly” music video below, and visit kinggizzardandthelizardwizard.com for the band’s full 2025 tour itinerary.
A post shared by kinggizzard (@kinggizzard)
Phantom Island – King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard:
1. “Phantom Island”
2. “Deadstick”
3. “Lonely Cosmos”
4. “Eternal Return”
5. “Panpsych”
6. “Spacesick”
7. “Aerodynamic”
8. “Sea Of Doubt”
9. “Silent Spirit”
10. “Grow Wings And Fly”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard 2025 US Tour Dates:
Mon. July 28 – TD Pavilion at the Mann (w/ The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) – Philadelphia
Wed. July 30 – Westville Music Bowl (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s) – New Haven, Conn.
Fri. Aug. 1 – Forest Hills Stadium (w/ Orchestra of St. Luke’s) – Queens, N.Y.
Sat. Aug. 2 – Forest Hills Stadium – Queens, NY %
Mon. Aug. 4 – Merriweather Post Pavilion (w/ National Symphony Orchestra) – Columbia, Md.
Wed. Aug. 6 – Ravinia Festival (w/ Chicago Philharmonic) – Highland Park, Ill.
Fri. Aug. 8 – Ford Amphitheater (w/ Colorado Symphony) – Colorado Springs, Colo.
Mon. Aug. 11 – The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park (w/ San Diego Symphony Orchestra) – San Diego
Fri. Aug. 15 – Sun. Aug. 17 – FIELD OF VISION at Meadow Creek – Buena Vista, Colo.
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