Phoenix are back.

On 1 June, the French quartet released 'Alpha Zulu,' the band's first new music since 2020's 'Identical' off the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola's On The Rocks. In a tweet, Phoenix share how happy they are to finally put out new music. 

It's finally here!
We are SO HAPPY to put out new music!
I hope you feel how much we've put into this
Love,
Your Phoenixeshttps://t.co/H61YNvGlh4 pic.twitter.com/zKWUELgPqJ

— Phoenix (@wearephoenix) June 1, 2022

Speaking to Zane Lowe about the new single, frontman Thomas Mars shares how he was inspired by a phrase that he heard a pilot repeating during a turbulent flight. "To me, I’m so scared of flying that it sounds like Mayday when I heard this the first time. Like, “Alpha Zulu, Alpha Zulu, going down.” And so I guess it stuck with me, and it came out in a strange way in the studio," Mars shares. 

"The way we make music is so… It’s really collaborative, and it’s almost like therapy, kind of. And I don’t know what we just did, but also the sense of time felt really strange because we worked on this for a long time during the pandemic. I guess every album that came out recently is a pandemic record, more or less. They all have to be linked to this weird moment in life. I’m not sure when we started, when we stopped, how long we stopped for. But at some point when we were seeing the end of the tunnel, not only the pandemic, sort of, at least we could think, “Oh, there’s going to be a tour.” That was going to be a possibility of this record coming out then. Then it clicked, and all the joyful pieces that we were hoping for, came together and made this record. And you use that time of self-reflection, and you use it, it comes out in the music. So I guess all that time spent not doing anything is somehow coming out on this record. It does something to you."

Giving an update about the new record, Mars says they're "really close." "We're finishing now. It's exciting because 'Alpha Zulu' isn't the only song." 

Mars also reveals that they produced the new record themselves, and worked with GRAMMY Award-winning mixing engineer Manny Marroquin. "We needed someone... Philippe was our guy," Mars continues mentioning friend and frequent collaborator, Philippe Zdar, who tragically passed away in 2019. 

Phoenix kicked off their summer festival run with a live performance at Nimes, France on release day. The band is set to perform at Festival Art Rock 2022, We Love Green 2022, Primavera In The City 2022, Primavera Sound, Format Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and more.

Check out the first live performance of 'Alpha Zulu' here: