Hey all, as we reported in our last update, Ten Empty, the film we recorded an original score for, has now seen release in Australian cinemas. We are also very excited to announce that you can now purchase our soundtrack from itunes (aus). The Ten Empty EP features ten new instrumental aof tunes, as well as Break for Me (from our 2004 album Second Storey). So, head on out and see the film, and if you enjoy the music, grab the soundtrack too. We hope you enjoy them both. Cheers, aof.

We are very excited to announce that the feature film for which we have written and recorded an original score, Ten Empty, will debut in Australian cinemas on the 3rd of July 2008.

Ten Empty, which Filmink has said "…resounds with rare honesty and sings with hard fought emotional truth", delves behind the barbecues, beer and brick veneer of suburban Australia, delivering a moving and uplifting drama. Directed by Anthony Hayes and co-written by Anthony Hayes and Brendan Cowell, the film's excellent cast includes Daniel Frederiksen, Geoff Morrell, Lucy Bell, Tom Budge, Brendan Cowell, Blazey Best and Jack Thompson. The trailer for the film can be seen here, and you can read lots more about it at the official website.

The score was recorded last year by Steven Schram, who recorded our 2007 album Runaways. It is our first feature film score, and we enjoyed the process immensely. We recorded roughly 18 cues for the film, mixing some of the most delicate music we have ever made with some of the most tense.

So, please go along and see Ten Empty, we hope you enjoy it.

Best, aof.

Well we are about to saddle up for a tour for our new single mysteries. It'll be our last aussie tour for our new record runaways, and our last national tour for quite a long while.

We're gonna be making it just a litle bit special with a some old songs and a few suprises. Pretty much all the shows we'll be on stage at 10 pm though its probably worth checking the exact times with the venues.

Melbourne's rather awesome Little Red will be joining us for all of the East Coast shows and in Perth we will be joined by classic noir outfit Schvendes.

news 18.06.07: well, runaways has now been fully launched all around the place, and we are having a smallish break. thank you to all of the fine bands that joined us: subaudible hum, guy blackman, and the tom budge good time band. awesome companions on the road, no less. thanks also to all the many people who came along to the shows, as, frankly, it would have been upsetting if no-one turned up.

now, we aren't the types to languish in the post launch wilderness. and so, instead of sitting around while our guitar calluses crack and fade, we will soon be getting on another tour-plane. yes, we are very excited to announce that we will playing in paris at the excellent quartier d'été festival. this year the festival is hosting an australian music stage, at les arenes de montmartre, from late july to early august. other bands joining the bill are: architecture in helsinki, the presets, paul grabowsky and the david chesworth ensemble. our show is on tuesday 31st of july at 8pm. more details are available from the festival's official site.

other than our imminent trip to paris, we recently shot a new video clip for mysteries, which will be the third single type deal from runaways. once again we called on the skills of director gemma lee and her team, who also made the video clip for free you. and while the mysteries clip is still a ways off, the free you clip can still be seen over here at youtube, and on tv too, whenever the tv people decide to play it.

and that's about it for now, but keep at least one eye on this site for any news as soon as, if not before, we hear about it ourselves.

yours truly,

aof x

well, as we said here a few weeks back, our brand new, third album runaways has arrived in all its warm, desolate glory. so far, it seems people have connected very well with the new tunes, and that makes us very happy. so thanks once again go out to steven schram, tim whitten, tom lang, the remote control crew, and all at wonderground in japan for helping us get this one out into the musical world. anyway, look out for runaways in all good aussie and japanese record shops (and on itunes too).

as night follows day, now that runaways is out, we will be touring. starting from the end of april we will be doing quite a few live concerts to welcome the new album. starting at all tomorrow's parties in minehead, uk (this year curated by local superheroes of sound dirty three). we are immensely proud to be a part of this stellar line-up. it's going to be killer. after that, we're winging our way down to japan for two shows in tokyo, one in shibuya and one in shimokitazawa. and finally, we'll land back in aus to do our local launch tour here, throughout may. guests on all these aussie dates will be melbourne's fabulous subaudible hum. in syd and melb we'll also have the rollicking, unhinged tom budge good time band, and at the brissie and adelaide shows we will be joined by the insanely talented and charming mr guy blackman. so basically, even if you hate our music you should come along anyway, cause the supports are ace. head over to the concerts section at www.artoffighting.com for more info on tix.

lastly, it seems we have a brand new film clip for free you, our new single. the clip features a first for us: we are actually in it. this is something we never thought would happen, but as it turns out, being in our own clip was a relatively painless process, due mainly to the excellent directorial skills of gemma lee and her fine cinematic team. have a look at the clip at the video clip on youtube. there's a link somewhere around here.

and that's aof news for the time being. of course, there'll be more to come as it emerges from the mist. and to all those who've grabbed a copy of runaways and are listening away, many thanks to you.

anyway, see you at one of the shows, wherever you may be, and take luck,

aof hq

well we're just waiting for those hard working women and men of news corporation to prioritise getting our song free you up on this here site. hopefully it will be there by the time you read this.

what don't you need to know about it ?

it's off our new record runaways which is out real soon. we had to stop playing it in any form long before we started recording it because it caused such high drama in every rehearsal - imagine those really crap arguments you have with your siblings if you have them. but imagine them in a hot dingy room with guitars strapped on. then imagine having to watch that happen and not be able to get away. that summarises this song for much of its early life.

after leaving it alone for months we spent some quality time with it just before we recorded our record. once in the studio some fortuitous things happened. like miles actually working out what he was going to play on it. and peggy deciding to sing on it.

and well the final version is a long way away from what was happening in those rehearsals.

with the humming of a tapped guitar neck, an open chord on a high fret, so new album begins. yes, we've finally finished it. it's now in a state of inertia, as it gets pressed onto disc and wrapped up in digipaks, until the beginnng of march, when 'runaways' will be released in japan on march 3 (wonderground records) and in australia on march 10 (remote control records). it's taken us a lot of yapping and listening, a lot of hitting and strumming, negotiations, navigations, phone converstaions, emails, demos, dinners, lunches, beers, tears, fears. but the result is 11 new aof songs, and that's worth a (quiet) celebration. here's the tracklist (with a word-association-qausi-description in brackets after each):

1. sycamore & sand (getting depressed at the beach)
2. distance as virtue (it's cold out west)
3. free you (vanilla ice cream)
4. eastbound (seeya!)
5. misty as the morning (c'mon, honeybunch)
6. territories (here we go...)
7. ride after ride (ebony and ivory)
8. less than an instant (time to slow dance)
9. in the free blue (no so fast...)
10. mysteries (ouch!)
11. night on night (sleep time)

'runaways' incorporates the following inventions: drums, grand piano, cymbals, tambourine, hammond organ, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, electric bass, yamaha PSR 7, Juno-D, electric guitar and bass amplifiers, all sorts of small metal boxes with dials on them, vocal chords, trumpet, rhodes, shakers, hub cabs, sticky tape, plectrums... the list goes on. anyway, pontifications aside, long-term aof listeners will know it's often quite some time between records for us, so we hope you are as excited as we are that we have some new tunes to share.

and share them live too. we are insanely excited to announce that we will be playing at the dirty three curated all tommorow's parties festival in the UK in april. we will also be playing japan in early may and australia straight after. we'll have much more on this very soon so keep an eye out on these pages for updates.

ok, more soon. and look out for the newie, runaways, early march. it has a little green car on the cover (no, really).