Phil Manzanera said the project was instigated in 2020 when he found an old rehearsal tape of Split Enz; he digitised it, thought it sounded "amazing" and emailed it to
Tim Finn, the first re-engagement between the pair in years. This also later ignited another project between the two, releasing an album in August 2020 called
Caught by the Heart. In early 2020, the band spontaneously released its first single on YouTube (accompanied by a video) called "Walking", which was a reinvention of Split Enz's "Walking Down a Road" from the Split Enz album
Mental Notes. Between then and early 2021, they released two more music videos inspired by
Mental Notes songs: "Strange Stars" (inspired by "Under the Wheel") and "Abandoned" (inspired by "129/Matinee Idyll"). All of these songs are included in the 2022 debut album
Shades and Echoes. "I sent Eddie a
garage band sketch and loved how he developed it. We live in different parts of
Auckland, different strands of the isthmus, and avoid traveling across town as much as possible. So we were summoning memories and working blind throughout."
Tim Finn says.
Eddie Rayner handled the production of all the songs in his own home studio. The release of
Shades and Echoes was postponed from 2021 to 2022 due to the delayed manufacturing and delivery of vinyl and the
COVID-19 pandemic. == Discography ==